John Robinson

John Robinson has been teaching since he picked up his first instrument—the microphone. Inspired by hip-hop legends like KRS-1, Slick Rick, Brand Nubian, and KMD there’s no wonder he’s metamorphosed into equal parts scientist, political advisor, and storyteller. Before he knew what a teaching artist was, he was expanding vocabularies, delivering information through social commentary, and demonstrating how to move the crowd.

John is a newly published author with his new book entitled Youth Culture Power he co-authored with Dr. Jason Rawls. YCP builds on the pillars of Marc Lamont Hill’s Hip-Hop Based Education (HHBE); Dr. Christopher Emdin’s Reality Pedagogy; and seminal thought-leader of culturally relevant teaching Dr. Gloria Ladson - Billings’ Culturally Responsive Pedagogy. Their use of proven methods like integrating student-centered points of instruction and strengthening educators’ cultural competence is galvanized by their reframing and expanding of students’ cultural toolkits.

John is also a founding member and partner in CodeScty, a company that uses original Hip Hop music, youth culture, and engaging activities to teach computational thinking and foundational computer science concepts. CodeScty is an interactive learning experience (LX) designed to introduce young people to computational thinking and coding concepts through a cultural lens they are familiar with. We recognize young people as experts in new technology, with access to new tools, platforms, and applications at their fingertips that changes each day. As a result, the CodeScty learning experience is kinetic and dynamic, where students are moving, out of their seats, and creating art, with art and youth culture as an entry point for CS education.