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Often we hear kids singing away with the latest songs playing on the radio. We also often heard mothers asking their kids whether they knew their schoolwork that well too.
Kurt Minnaar, a Cape Town maths teacher at Eben Dönges High School, has made the process of learning school work a lot easier for his students.
Minnaar, a teacher by day and a hip hop dancer by night, has incorporated the music genre into a few of his maths lessons and the students' reception of it was incredible.
In a video interview done with Netwerk24, Minnaar says that in a sense, he is against the traditional methods of teaching because talking and writing on a chalk board all the time does not work.
Parent 24 caught up with Minnaar. He told us why he's not for the traditional teaching method. "It's the only way kids are being taught across the country, it's kind of forced upon us and after all these years, there are still no alternatives for it. Pupils should have the option to learn they way they learn and not the way teachers choose to teach.
"There are four types of pupils - kinaesthetic, visual, audible and the traditional reading and writing pupils. Kinaesthetic pupils learn better with movement, visual with sight, audible with what they hear and the traditional reading and writing pupils are the more independent ones, who are able to learn in the more traditional sense.
"When you fuse creativity into lessons, you cater to more pupils and more will understand because now we're speaking their language. Whereas if I just 'chalk and talk' and stand there in front of a class, it caters to one type of pupil predominantly, who are also in the minority," Minnaar told Parent24.
The results of integrating hip hop into his lessons so far has been phenomenal, but he hasn't been able to do it for all of his lessons yet.
"I've started integrating hip hop into some of the foundation work lesson, such as multiple which kids are meant to learn in primary school, but all teachers know there is a massive backlog when kids come over to high school. We're forced to do it because if you don't lay a proper foundation, so we're stuck between a rock and a hard place.
"We could go back and teach them the foundation work, which would still be a problem because then we'll run out of time to teach grade 8 work. Or we could just teach grade 8 work, but then we know they're not going to do well because they don't know their foundations. Maths, for example, is a subject where you build upon what you previously learnt, you can't just walk into grade 9 knowing everything," says Minnaar.
Incorporate creativity
Minnaar doesn't aim to only incorporate hip hop into his lessons, because there are times when it really cannot be done, but it doesn't mean the lesson goes back to the traditional "old school" method either.
"A lot of focus is being placed on the hip hop music being incorporated into the lesson, but I am really pushing for creativity to be integrated with lessons. Where music cannot be used, I would use graffiti or beautiful visuals. Integrating creativity into lessons could be done with all subjects, we just need to take the time to create creative lessons, says Minnaar.
In another interview done with the SABC, he said he struggled with maths as a child as well, so he understands how hard it can be for his students. He also understands how demotivating it can be to sit in a class and not grasp the concepts teachers are talking about.
Minnaar isn't the only teacher making lessons a little more creative. Other teachers around the world have integrated more creative ways to teach their students. This American school teacher uses technology and videos to bring some laughter to his classes.
This American school teacher uses technology and videos to bring some laughter to his classes. The teacher gives another lesson using technology and video footage, but this time he incorporates himself into the video.
Another American teacher has also integrated hip hop into his language lesson. In the video this teacher actually asks his class if the traditional way of teaching is fun and they all sang "nooo" in unison.
