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<\/figure>\n\n\n\n\u201cIt was just a fun thing where my students would take their vocabulary words, and if they wrote them in a rap and performed it for the class on Fridays, they would get extra credit on their vocabulary test,\u201d Wood said.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The English teacher recalled School Administrator Rob Quel observing this performance during one of those Fridays. He informed Wood that leadership sought to offer new electives the following year and suggested a class solely woven around hip-hop. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cMy principal helped that idea take root, and I wrote up the course shortly after that, and we offered it for the first time in the 2017-18 school year.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
That year, Quel died at the age of 51, leaving a family, community, and school in mourning. In a way, Wood now dedicates the course to him \u2014 a session that now breathes new life into the students who attend, embracing the class with excitement. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Building the class failed to prove easy, nor did Wood expect such a journey as days were tunneled into learning all the necessary content. Not having much existing materials\u00a0to follow challenged Wood, but also sparked his creative mind.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI don\u2019t know that there are any that exist that are quite like the one that I teach,\u201d Wood said. \u201cFor me, the biggest challenge was just developing the curriculum and being able to present that in an effective and genuine way in a class where I\u2019m a white man and I\u2019m teaching students who are mostly black.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n Despite the differences, Wood sees himself in his students \u2014 young people who are scratching and clawing to find themselves, kids trying to discover their identity like a young Wood once struggled to achieve. <\/p>\n\n\n\n That boy who grew up in Bedford became an English major at James Madison University, a drumline instructor at E.C. Glass High School, and then, later, an English teacher the community knows and loves. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Wood now helps his students mold themselves. Thanks to support from businesses and the community, especially from the Lynchburg City Schools Education Foundation, Wood\u2019s class flourished and assistance allowed the school to purchase a recording studio about five years after its creation. The class became so popular that the school even incorporated an advanced hip-hop course in which students focus solely on writing and recording music and podcasts. All these students possess an outlet for their emotions and the ability to build confidence in skills such as public speaking. Some have gone on to make music professionally. <\/p>\n\n\n\n In fact, Wood\u2019s class formed the group BTG and published an album in June of 2024 called \u201cBreak The Glass: Volume 1,\u201d the group\u2019s namesake, and conducted live performances. People can give the album a listen on various music platforms, including Spotify, Apple Music, YouTube, Pandora, and Amazon Music. <\/p>\n\n\n\n What began as “Freestyle Friday” evolved into a boundary-breaking course at E.C. Glass High School, engaging students with the English language and connecting them to their identities. In the end, Casey Wood discovered the right tune and orchestrated a melody that can be heard in Lynchburg and beyond. GN <\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" A white man in his 30s facing a room mostly filled with black youngsters in their teens. An English teacher established in his career preaching to students who barely know their next step.\u00a0 True harmony of success seemed distant amidst the discord of cultural differences. Yet teacher Casey Wood aimed to hit the right note […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":17,"featured_media":22745,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"off","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-22742","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-stories"],"yoast_head":"\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/goodnewsmags.com\/lynchburg-va\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/12\/2024\/12\/1-1-1024x683.png\")
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