Georgia Economics Teacher of the Year uses raps to instruct her students

Walking into Vanessa Ellis’ sixth-grade social studies classroom at Fort Middle School can be like walking into a rap video — a G-rated version — because the teacher and students often are performing one.

Writing her own raps and singing them with her students are among the creative ways Ellis connects with the kids and helps them connect with the curriculum. And they are among the reasons she is the 2017 Georgia Economics Teacher of the Year, selected by the Georgia Council on Economic Education.

“We were blown away with her innovative teaching strategies and command of the economics subject matter,” Michael Blake Raymer, the council’s associate director and chief program officer told the Ledger-Enquirer in an email. “She really makes her classroom come alive.”

For example, during the Ledger-Enquirer’s visit to her classroom last month, in advance of the Georgia Milestones Assessment System testing period, Ellis led her sixth-graders through a rousing review of economics vocabulary. The rap she wrote for her students includes a slang word for “fine”:

“... Produce is to make

Distribute is to sell

Consume is to buy so we stay looking ‘fye’ ...”

During her second year of teaching, in 2012, Ellis learned the educational application of rapping while attending a professional development session at the Ron Clark Academy in Atlanta.

“There was this middle-aged white guy up on the tables in front of his students singing and rapping about math,” she marveled, “and all of the kids could recall the formulas and how to work out the problems. I was like, ‘Oh, my gosh! I could use this in social studies!”

So she asked her students for their favorite songs and tried to match them with some of the social studies content in the Georgia Performance Standards, which the state requires public schools to teach.

“I fit the lyrics and the vocabulary the best way I can,” Ellis said, “and it’s been so powerful.”

And joyful and meaningful.

Fort sixth-grader Devin Dozier called Ellis “fun and funny.” “She’s a great teacher,” Devin said. “She doesn’t let us just sit there and try to do the work. … Instead of thinking about herself, she thinks about her students.”

Ellis uses booming beats from popular rap songs, records her lyrics and posts the videos on YouTube, providing her students a mighty cool way to study. The YouTube channel — “revilo sille” — is the backwards spelling of the name of her husband, Oliver, who teaches eighth-grade math and science at Fort. He was a finalist for the Muscogee County School District 2015 Teacher of the Year award, and she was a semifinalist this year. Now, she has a state title and joked that she has made her husband more hip, motivating him to incorporate raps amid the classic rock songs he favors in his class.

Through a different competition, one organized by the Governor’s Office of Student Achievement, Ellis was nominated by MCSD social studies content specialist Piper Hudmon in September. Ellis submitted a video showing her teaching an economics lesson with one of her raps. She also sent it to Raymer, who encouraged her to apply for the economics teacher award in December. After the Christmas break, a letter notified her she was a finalist, then two judges from the council visited her classroom in February.

For that lesson, Ellis and her sixth-graders simulated the following scenario: Rex Tillerson, the incoming U.S. Secretary of State at the time, supposedly needed their help in learning about the economies of foreign countries. So the judges saw the student groups deliver “top-secret” briefings about the country they studied.

“They looked so official doing those presentations,” Ellis gushed. “I was literally almost in tears watching these kids.”

Sixth-grader Victoria Fletcher was among the student presenters. In addition to the interactive techniques Ellis uses, Victoria likes the compassion Ellis shows her students.

“If you don’t understand something,” Victoria said, “she’ll go over it without getting mad. I think she just really enjoys teaching because she loves her job.”

Ellis said she was “shocked” to be chosen as the state winner, especially considering she has been teaching for “only six years.” Combined with learning the following week that she was an MCSD semifinalist, “it’s just kind of confirmation,” she said. “I don’t seek accolades; I just work hard for my students.”

She will receive the award during a May 16 ceremony in the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta.

“We have students with a range of economic backgrounds,” Ellis said. “If I can get my students to really understand economics from a global sense and also personal finance, although they’re young, that foundation can help them in their current situation. I want them to be successful, academically and economically self-sufficient, and if I’m teaching them these principles and doing it in a way that can connect with them — that they feel, ‘My teacher cares about me, my well-being and my future’ — I can potentially be helping generations of families.”

Ellis was the salutatorian in the class of 2006 class at Jordan Vocational High School. She earned a bachelor’s degree in history and secondary education from Columbus State University in 2011, the same year she joined the Fort staff.

Fort principal Sonja Coaxum said in an emailed interview with the Ledger-Enquirer that Ellis “has an innovative and contagious teaching style. She is exciting and full of energy, and the students become very excited about social studies and her class.”

Coaxum praised Ellis for her “willingness to strive to continue to research and learn in an effort to help her students and to grow as a teacher.”

This story was originally published April 13, 2017 at 8:54 AM with the headline "Georgia Economics Teacher of the Year uses raps to instruct her students."