Big Sean, Ice Cube, Ty Dolla $ign, Migos, Lin-Manuel Miranda and of course, Ellen DeGeneres came together and collaborated on a very special project for a teacher and his students.

 

Michael Bonner, a second grade teacher from North Carolina came on The Ellen DeGeneres Show to share his story about teaching his students rap songs to help motivate them when it came to reading and learning in the classroom.  He chose this method when he realized that his students’ test scores were low due to a lack of resources in their low-income community.  With this method, Michael noticed that test scores were higher, students became motivated in the classroom and their literacy improved.

 

Michael says, “Poverty has this way of disrupting the brain.  Trying to teach a kid that doesn’t have a home and is hungry is a different ball game.”

 

When Ellen heard this story, she donated $25, 000 to South Greenville Elementary School and also began a GoFundMe page which raised more than $83, 000 in donations.

 

The best part: Ellen flew Michael and his entire class out to L.A. to record a song with a few celebrities.

 

With the help of Ellen’s GoFundMe Page, Michael and his students were able to film their music video with selected celebrities.  The video includes Big Sean, Migos, Ice Cube, Ty Dolla $ign, Lin-Manuel Miranda and Ellen herself and it’s called Read It.

 

Check out the video below: 

 

 

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https://youtu.be/KOeHKrQSwqo

 

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Filed under: Ellen DeGeneres