Yo, yo, check it out. A hastily made rap video by bunch of students at Red Bank Middle School has advanced to the final five in a nationwide contest that will land the winning school $15,000 worth of classroom technology.
Getting right to it, the kids need votes to help get the swag. While the entries will be judged subjectively by a panel, the vote tallies count for 30 percent of the scoring.
The production was led by first-year communications teacher Chris Ippolito, who learned of the contest less than a week before the entry deadline last month.
The rules call for a music-video parody with lyrics about the use of technology in the classroom. Working with students and teachers from the art, social studies and other areas, Ippolito and the class selected an Eminem tune, for which he wrote new lyrics. “We had a lot of interdepartmental help on this,” he says.
Because of time constraints, Ippolito says, he also did the voice-over, though it appears a sixth-grader (street name: Joe H) is rapping.
This is a case of real-world experience benefitting the kids. Ippolito, whose wikfe, Nikki Ippolito, is also a teacher at the school, has a background of film and video production.
The video, titled “Use Ya Tech,” was one of 66 submitted in the middle-school category (there were 220 overall). The entries were winnowed down to the best five, in the view of the judges.
Now, it’s time for the great unwashed masses to weigh in. As of last night, “Use Ya Tech” was in fourth place, “so we have some catching up to do,” Ippolito says, adding that he’s trying to rally support wherever he might be able to stir it up.
At stake: fifteen grand worth of Interwriter Learning classroom tehnology, such as wireless tablets, smartboards, high-end audio gear. (If all this sounds nothing like the dusty slate, chalk and erasers of your youth, just nod your head as though you understand, or pretend you’re rocking along to the beats.)
Fun video. Congrats to the kids and teachers. Good luck on your contest. (I'll vote for you!)
You kids are hip and cool.
keep it up.
Now thats what RB is all about, these kids make a bigger difference in this town then all of us that just complain about the politics and the council.
Good job, and I hope you guys win.
even if you dont win, you be given an award by the council for trying to help out your school!
I love this type of stuff.
Chris is just the nicest guy you would ever want to meet. He has a way of getting kids involved. He was my sons school teacher and man did he make a difference!!!!!!!!!!
I'll be voting too!
That video is amazing! I'm psyched to see what the students will be able to produce with the Middle School's video production studio under Mr. Ippolito's direction.
Sure encourage the kids to be little Hoodlums. Thats all Rap is Hoodlum and Gang music
anti-rapman
Your complaints sound just like what my parents used to say about rock 'n' roll. New music has been scaring old people at least since the 18th century, when the waltz caused such outrage in the capitals of Europe.
Music reflects the culture, it doesn't cause it. I imagine that rap is popular with gangs, but it's also popular with nice suburban kids. Some rap does celebrate gangs, but some of it derides gangs. If there were no rap, there would still be gangs.
I can't stand most rap. I find a lot of the lyrics offensive. But then, I am a middle-aged man. It is my place to dislike the music of youth. But I don't blame music for the existence of gangs, any more than I blame it for the drug craze in the 60s. "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds" celebrates LSD, but I don't think there is anyone out there who took LSD just because it was in a Beatles song.
I'm Dan, I did.