The viral video sensation presents his message of inspiration and responsibility at Thursday's PINC conference

He knows Ice Cube and Ellen DeGeneres, and recently spoke at Harvard University.

And it’s not because he’s a YouTube sensation, but because he turned a classroom’s failing grades into A’s.

After Michael Bonner started teaching at South Greenville Elementary School in North Carolina five years ago, he considered giving up.

At the F-rated school, 100 percent of the students are eligible for free or reduced-priced lunches and many lack basic necessities.

They started kindergarten without knowing how to hold a pencil or spell their name and wore the same clothes for days. One boy cried from hunger, Bonner said.

But when 80 percent of his students had failing reading scores, Bonner considered it his fault, not theirs. Instead of adding to the high teacher turnover rate, he wrote a song and struck a deal.

The rap tune, “Read it,” explained the who, what, where, when and why of a story and became a catchy reference for his second-graders to use to conquer reading comprehension.

If they passed on their next test, he promised the students he would capture them singing it on video.

Not only did it turn their grades around, “it taught them they can do anything if they try,” Bonner said.

The video quickly went viral and landed him on the Ellen DeGeneres show. She and a crew of hip-hop royalty shot their own version of “Read it” featuring Bonner and his star-struck students.

Ever since, Bonner has been a national speaker on early education, classroom equity and teacher motivation. He also recently wrote “Get Up or Give Up: How I Almost Gave Up on Teaching,” and is slated to take the stage at the PINC conference in Sarasota on Thursday.

Despite the hectic schedule, he still teaches at South Greenville Elementary and is studying school administration to one day “try to have the biggest impact I possibly can,” he said.

Michael Bonner on early education and equity in the classroom

Other than music, what are some other strategies you use that are unique?

You have to be the distraction your students want to follow.

I have a disco ball and huge posters of them on the wall in my classroom. I post pictures of my students and the school on my Instagram account. They understand it’s about self value, the vision and the mindset that we’re gonna have an amazing time at school.

What do you think are some of the main issues keeping children from thriving academically?

How can we expect them to deal with the classroom when they’re dealing with abuse and poverty at home? Many come from a mindset where school isn’t a priority. The don’t have the support and the resources they need. But for the population we serve, education is the only thing that can break the cycle.

I need my children to grasp hold of the power of education. I have friends who are not alive or in jail because they didn’t value it. I grew up poor and when my mom went back to school in her 30’s, it changed the course of our lives. The ripple effects of that are benefiting my kids today.

According to the latest Kids Count Race for Results report, children of color have some of the lowest academic scores. Why do you think that is and what do you think can be done to change that?

I believe in cultural competence and finding a way to incorporate it is more important than ever. What’s going on outside the school system affects what’s going on inside school.

How can we expect kids to perform in school if they’re frightened or feel targeted?

We have to kill bigotry and racism. We can teach them how to learn to read, but that child needs to open up first. Children don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care. And they won’t open up to you if they feel misunderstood.

If you could wave a magic wand and change current teaching methods, what would you do?

I was going to say have more funding, but if you don’t have the right people, money doesn't matter. I would want schools to have a dynamic teacher in every classroom that has financial support and the right personnel behind them. If they have that, their classroom can become a world of magic.

This story comes from a partnership between the Suncoast Campaign for Grade-Level Reading and the Herald-Tribune, funded by The Patterson Foundation, to cover school readiness, attendance, summer learning, healthy readers and parent engagement. Read more stories at heraldtribune.com/gradelevelreading.