Teacher shares uplifting message for students in back-to-school rap

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Wednesday, August 24, 2016
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HOUSTON -- It's been a rough back-to-school week for Cy-Fair ISD with a major power outage and a former teacher accused in a student sex case. But Cy-Fair High School English teacher April Young has some uplifting words about the back-to-school season in a new rap video.

She posted the video to YouTube as part of the trending #sogonechallenge in which people rap over the instrumental version of Monica's R&B hit "So Gone."

She raps in the minute-long video, "You might think it's just another boring English class, but I'm here my friends to let you know those days are in the past don't get me wrong there's going to be a lot of work but you and me we're in this thing together."

Cy-Fair ISD says showed the video to each class period and tweeted it out to get everyone excited about the back-to-school season.

"I started each class by going over standard procedures and expectations for class. Normal stuff," Young said. "That's when I projected the video. They weren't expecting it at all. Some of them were saying, 'Oh, Ms. Young, you have bars!' Ultimately they loved it. They started tweeting it out and have been very complimentary."

Young said the video's message served a dual purpose.

She said, "My message was that obviously I'm a teacher, I'm not a professional rapper, but if I'm willing to step out of my comfort zone and do something I'm not trained to do, this is a lesson you can apply to your everyday lives."

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