By 2020, graduation ceremonies might look more like the MTV Music Awards.

Picture Busta Rhymes, with graying woolly dreadlocks, a wicked grin, raspy wail and all, introducing the valedictorian of the rapper's cutting-edge gimme-some-mo' teaching technique. Or perhaps Billy Ray Cyrus will achy-breaky make his way onto the platform with his twangy troupe of award-winning creative writers.

If that doesn't work, maybe students will be awarded the Limp Bizkit scholarship for taking their knowledge ... and applying it in an alternative way.

Students are learning in the last lane. Teachers have to keep up with them, is the mantra plugged by Erik Cork, a traveling Texas educator and writing consultant. Students are learning more by moving and grooving, Cork said during his workshop Thursday sponsored by Grand Rapids Community College.

And to prove it, Cork, GRCC English teacher Mike Franz, GRCC dean of student services Elias Lumpkins and GRCC Provost Don Boyer danced to the beat of a different drum.

This is the first workshop I've been to where I've popped a button on my pants," said Franz, holding the button in the palm of his hand after participating in one of Cork's kinesthetic learning exercises.

Franz said he was sold on the idea that children learn best in a multicultural and kinesthetic, or physical, way.

About 30 educators and students of GRCC, the Youth Career Development Center, as well as administrators from the charter school Abney Academy of Performing Arts watched while Cork flipped, fell, danced, shouted, and rapped his lecture.

He explained the components of writing an essay to the beat of "She's a Brick House" by the Commodores, pumped hip-hop artist Lauryn Hill's "You're Just Too Good to Be True" while teaching sentence structure, and reviewed parts of speech to the tune of "I Feel Good" by James Brown.

"Tell your kids that their words are willing to die the death on paper so you can breathe easy," Cork said with the flair of a character from the poetry-laden film, "Love Jones." "Their words will capture the essence they leave behind."

Lumpkins laughed as he was asked to demonstrate conjugation to the Temptations' "My Girl."

Lumpkins said he brought Cork back after hearing him speak during an educational conference because the average public schools student in Grand Rapids is changing. An urban student isn't going to get excited about learning unless the premise is on his or her turf." "As our students change, our needs change," Lumpkins said. "We have to be responsive to this need (Cork) is using things that are in their everyday lives."

Martha Palmer, a curriculum consultant for Abney Academy, said she plans to use some of the techniques with her students.

"If it's always, 'please turn to page 42' they miss something," Palmer said. This relates to them."

Palmer said she doesn't think students of different cultures and races learn differently.

But Ottawa Hills High School English teacher Roselyn Maher said culture and race does play a part in how students learn.

"When I asked the white kids to write about their most memorable experience they had great entries. The African-American students were upset. They couldn't think of anything. When I asked them to think up something they would love to tell their grandchildren, they were able to write something then."

Leslie Barnett, a creative writing teacher at Youth Career Development Center, said Cork's workshop gave her confidence to try different things with her students, who for various reasons, were not able to attend general education classes.

"The best way to learn is through humor and fun," Barnett said.