Q: . As a rapper, your instrument is your voice. If you don't warm up your instrument beforehand, you could hurt your voice or end up rapping less impressively than you want. Some ways you can warm up your voice include:  Massaging your jaw to release tension. Tension in your jaw can have a negative effect on your tone. Take the heel of your hand and, starting below your cheekbone and moving toward your chin, rub with moderate pressure in small circles. Trilling with your lips. Vibrate your lips together with a "h" sound, like a horse nickering, to get your lip muscles ready to spit some sick lyrical rap. Repeat this exercise with a "b" sound, as though imitating a boat sound. Buzzing like a kazoo. Vibrate your lips together and ascend to the upper reaches of your vocal range in a controlled fashion. When you've reached your upper limit, kazoo down to your lower range in the same fashion. Repeat this several times. Many rappers look at using pre-made material when freestyling as bad form. However, by writing down material in your free time, you'll train your mind to come up with rhymes on the fly more easily. Come up with lists of words that you find significant and interesting rhyme combinations. You might even want to carry a notebook and pen around with you to jot down ideas as they occur to you.  Experiment with different kinds of rhymes. Traditionally, rhyme structure looks at the sounds shared between two words, but you could make use of near rhymes or rhyme one word with a two word compound. For example, the word "orange" forms a near rhyme with the compound "door hinge."  Use internal rhymes, like Edgar Allen Poe's classic poem, The Raven. To take an example of this from the beginning of The Raven, "Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered weak and weary..." Seek out rich rhymes. These are often overlooked due to the fact that although they sound similar, they are written differently. Some examples include the pairs: raise-raze, blew-blue, guest-guessed, and so on. . Diction is how clearly you speak or pronounce words, and when rapping quickly, good diction is very important if you want people to understand the words you are saying. There are many ways you can practice diction. Many vocalists, actors, and TV personalities will warm up their mouths by saying tongue twisters.  Another technique you can make use of to improve diction forces your mouth to speak clearly around an obstruction, like marbles, ice cubes, or a cork. In this exercise, you should hold a cork between your lips or a smaller object, like marbles or ice cubes, inside your mouth while speaking. Try to speak clearly around the object to train precision in speaking. You might find that your rapping (and speaking) abilities improve if you practice your diction at the start of every day. While getting your day started, say a few of your favorite tongue twisters to yourself. Try to add variety to your diction routine. You might alternate fast and slow speeds every other line, you might over pronounce and exaggerate each word, or you could try saying it in a whisper. . Poor breathing technique could leave you gasping into the mic after spitting some righteous rhyme. This can distract listeners from your message or your clever use of words. You'll have better tone and support for your voice if you breathe from your diaphragm, which is a band of muscle below your lungs. When your diaphragm is engaged, it pulls down allowing your lungs to draw in air. When it pushes up, the air is forces from your lungs. You should feel the area between the bottom of your rib cage and your bellybutton extend outward slightly when breathing from your diaphragm correctly. Reading out loud can help you speak more smoothly and will improve stuttering, stammering, and getting tongue tied. Reading out loud can also help you speak faster, which will translate to faster rapping ability. Because of the fact that rap is a spoken form of music that still maintains rhythm, you should consider reading poetry out loud, as poetry often has strong rhythmic decisions, which also might help you gain a better sense for the flow of language. To improve your abilities and identify areas you could improve, you should read/recite poetry, speeches, or segments from books in front of others. This way you can get feedback on your delivery, rhythm, and also get encouragement about the things you did well. This is an important part of your improving your rap skills. When rapping, you might get caught up in the moment or in the flow of what you are saying, which might make it hard to identify trouble spots or strong points. You might find you struggle with a certain word, or a certain sound. If you know you have this problem, you can drill saying it so you don't make a mistake when you're rapping onstage. If you have an especially good recording, or if you have a specific issue you're not sure about, let a trusted friend or relative listen to your recording to get feedback. Some people naturally have a better ear than others for speech. Use others as a resource to improve. . You'll be more passionate if you're rapping about something important to you. This, in turn, will lead you to being more productive in your rapping. You don't have to only rap about your message, whatever that may be. But you can tap into those strong feelings to rap about topics you don't care much about with a fire that listeners will recognize.  Examine your values to help understand what your message is. What are the things most important to you? What do you hate and want to change? These questions will help guide you in finding out your message. Look through past raps you've written or reflect on freestyling you've done in the past. Do you notice any themes that occur over and over again? These might also indicate a message or theme that is important to you. The styles of your favorite artists can act as a lens through which you focus and discover your own style. Repeating your favorite lyrics can help improve your diction. Writing your own rap that follows the same pattern of your favorite rappers, too, can help you produce material and hone your rap sense.
A: Warm up your voice before rapping Write potential material ahead of time. Practice your diction Practice controlled breathing Read out loud. Record your voice on your computer or phone and listen to it. Find your message Listen to and imitate rappers you want to be like.

Q: Children (as well as adults) learn in many different ways: there are visual learners (people who learn best seeing things written down or with pictures and diagrams), auditory learners (people who learn best by hearing people talk), and kinesthetic learners (people who learn best through movement and by doing a task). There are also people who have strengths in spatial concepts, music, and interpersonal skills.  Find out where your students’ strengths lie by having them take a learning style inventory in the beginning of the year. Try to use as many possible models of teaching to cover all bases. Use visuals, lectures, activities, music, group projects, etc. to accommodate the various learning styles of your students. Students need to feel safe physically and emotionally in order to learn. They need to know that you will not tolerate fighting, bullying, or any other disrespect of students. All student deserve equal chances to learn, and learning cannot be disrupted by negative energy. Model respect for your students, and teach them to show respect to one another. Give students opportunities to work with one another on projects. Sometimes students will not want to work with other particular students. Encourage them to treat everyone with respect and let them know that it is good practice to work with students they may not get along with, because in the real world they will have to work with all different people. Try to bridge gaps and work out issues that students have with one another by helping them find common ground with each other.
A:
Make lessons for different learning styles. Create a safe space. Plan group activities and assignments.