It was my first year of teaching, and I was sad. I could not get my middle school students to sit down and pay   1  . I felt frustrated (沮丧). I couldn't get them to remember what I had just   2 the day before; yet, they could3 remember every word of the new rap  (说唱) song on the radio. They would come in each day singing rap songs.

   And then, it hit me, instead of 4 their radios, I needed to offer them a diffferent teaching way. I went home, and  5a rap song about the math we were learning at the time, called “ The Itty- Bitty Dot”. I 6 it all night. Early the next moning, when it was my class, I performed it for them.

The results were very   7  .The students  laughed hysterically( 歇斯底里地 ). Not only were they not paying attention, but also they were  8  at me. I felt like a big loser. Later that day, I went to lunch with slow heavy steps.   9  as I walked by the lunch tables, I heard the students singing my song! My   10was all gone.

The next day, they excitedly ran into my classroom , saying things like, “Mr. Kajitani, are you going to rap again? Yesterday was the  11day in the math class!  Are you going to be on MTV?” From that moment on, everything   12. I had connected with my students on their  13  , using the language they understood. I got them    14  to come to school, to learn ,and to regard me as their teacher. Their behavior improved greatly, and their test  15 began to improve.