Well, first of all, this Chicago Public School teacher was suspended for 5 days for saying the word “nigger” in class in what seems like a responsible teaching-moment style way….aka, why I am sure this blog will get me fired, good intentions notwithstanding:

CPS teacher Lincoln Brown on ABC News

Second, I just found out about the incredible First Wave program at the University of Wisconsin. Right now they are sponsoring a lecture series for their students called Getting Real II: Hip Hop Pedagogy, Performance and Culture in the Classroom and Beyond. It’s featuring A-listers like Mark Anthony Neal, Marc Lamont Hill, Davy D, and I am so jealous. If you are in Madison, get to there quick.

Finally, venture capitalist Ben Horowitz is using rap lyrics to teach business management via his blog. This one is especially interesting to me in its exegetic aspect–while hiphop educators tend to use hiphop lyrics to teach what I see as tangential lessons like close reading skills, rhyme or metaphor, etc., Horowitz is actually looking at the management pedagogy that is embedded in the rap text. “The hard part is how you feel,” Horowitz says in today’s NYTimes profile. “Rap helps me connect emotionally.”