A teacher has come up with a novel way to bridge the generation gap by sharing a dictionary of teenage slang used by his students. James...
A teacher has come up with a novel way to bridge the generation gap by sharing a dictionary of teenage slang used by his students.
James Callahan from Lowell High School in Massachusetts created a spreadsheet of all the colloquial terms his students have used since September along with his attempt to explain them.
On Monday, one of Callahan's students, Twitter user @Mewtailv2, posted a photo of a four-page document the sociology teacher created, titled the 'Callahan's Generation Z Dictionary.'
Within days, the tweet went viral, receiving over 565,000 likes and 163,069 retweets as of Thursday night.
James Callahan, (pictured center), from Lowell High School in Massachusetts created a spreadsheet of all the colloquial terms his students have used since September along with his attempt to explain them
James Callahan from Lowell High School in Massachusetts created a spreadsheet of all the colloquial terms his students have used since September along with his attempt to explain them. One of his students tweeted the spreadsheet and it has gone viral
Callahan, who teaches sociology, told USA TODAY: 'I often overhear students in the hallways or my classrooms using words (or) slang terms in their personal conversations.
'In order to understand them better, (and) make a connection with them on a personal level, I started asking them what certain words meant.'
In an alphabetized green-colored column, the teacher typed out phrases like 'sis,' 'spill the tea' and 'snack.'
In the yellow column, he attempts to define each phrase using a formal interpretation of what the students say on a daily basis.
He claimed 'sis' means 'exclamation of disbelief', 'spill the tea' means 'gossip' and 'snack' means 'a person who looks good.'
Other terms like 'bop' is translated as 'a modern enjoyable song', 'high key' means 'very obnoxious' and 'hop off' means 'mind your own business.'
Callahan added: 'The typical teacher-student dynamic involves a rigid power structure, but in my experience, I've found that students are more engaged and perform better if I am able to reach them where they are.'
Some of the people who responded to the tweet applauded the teacher's interest in teenage culture and other users out forward their own suggestions.
In an alphabetized green-colored column, the teacher typed out phrases like 'sis,' 'spill the tea' and 'snack,'. The meanings are in the yellow column which students helped him with
'Kobe' was a popular suggestion, a word that can be used as for the description of 'accuracy', according to the Urban Dictionary.
The student told USA TODAY that she referred to Callahan as a professor in the tweet because 'the word teacher didn't seem dignified enough to describe him.'
She also said that students get college credit for taking the introduction to sociology course.
When he initially shared his dictionary, Callahan also asked for donations to a fund to upgrade his school's laptops.
That campaign has since reached its goal, so Callahan has amended his request to include some other initiatives at Lowell High School and donations can be made here.
The student said Callahan discussed the document in class on Monday so that his students could help him update the definitions of 'bops' and 'jams.'
'Mr. Callahan asked if any enjoyable song was a 'bop' and someone clarified, saying that the song has to be modern,' @MewtailV2 told USA TODAY.
'Mr. Callahan asked if an old song can be a bop to which a student answered, matter-of-factly: "No. That's a jam.'"
The professor said that the unofficial guide to teenage language breaks up the lesson, gets the students involved and provides them with some ownership of the dictionary.
'Language is so fluid, and every generation creates their own vocabulary bank of slang. The students created it, I am sort of just the archivist!.'
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