Of all the educational benefits you get from interactive whiteboards, one of my favorites is the ability to connect to the Internet, download a video, and show it to your class on demand. It sure beats watching the teacher fumble around with the VHS player, call up the A/V guy, and spend half the class period twiddling his/her thumbs until the issue gets fixed, like we used to do on occasion back when I was in middle school. Anyway, I’ve been searching for free and entertaining educational videos you can integrate into your lessons. Today’s clip is for the history teachers, and it comes from the 1980s. It’s a rap that covers three of the major events in civil rights history: Brown v. Board of Education, the Rosa Parks incident, and the diner sit-in staged by 4 black college students in Greensboro, NC.
So what’s great about this video? In addition to giving you a history lesson on the civil rights movement, it gives you some insight into what people thought was cool back in the 1980s. I especially like the unique fashion sense of the actors, the beatboxing, and the fresh dance moves. It’s like a history lesson within a history lesson, if that makes any sense.
In any case, try showing this on your projection screen or interactive whiteboard during class at some point. At the very least, you’ll get a good laugh, if you don’t end up learning some history first.
Posted by Taeho Lim
