Another Tatsulok article... :D
If young Nicole Campbell turns her math lessons into songs, then there’s a guy from a Latino neighborhood in California raps while teaching math. Couldn’t imagine how the algebra terms recited like e-to-the-o with a beat box rhythm? Listen to Alex Kajitani’s music and be amazed.
America is currently having problems with their elementary and middle school students’ performances in math. Students in Alex’s area rank among the worse. Being a degree-holder in sociology and masters in educational curriculum and development, he observed the kids and thought of a way on how to make them remember what he’s teaching. Alex had always wanted to make math cool, but no matter how he tried to make the lessons fun and easier, the students could not absorb even a single algebra rule or definition. He, too, did not know the reason. Then he noticed something—kids don’t want to think of what their teacher says, but the songs of their favorite rap stars retain in their minds almost 24 hours!
Ding! A bright idea came into Alex—he’s a fan of rap music, what if he uses it as his mode of teaching? He wasted no time and ran into the nearest music stores in their place to look for instructional materials that have “rap taste,” but he was unfortunate. So he began writing his own rap song—without thinking that it could turn the world upside down.
FACT BYTES
America is currently having problems with their elementary and middle school students’ performances in math. Students in Alex’s area rank among the worse. Being a degree-holder in sociology and masters in educational curriculum and development, he observed the kids and thought of a way on how to make them remember what he’s teaching. Alex had always wanted to make math cool, but no matter how he tried to make the lessons fun and easier, the students could not absorb even a single algebra rule or definition. He, too, did not know the reason. Then he noticed something—kids don’t want to think of what their teacher says, but the songs of their favorite rap stars retain in their minds almost 24 hours!
Ding! A bright idea came into Alex—he’s a fan of rap music, what if he uses it as his mode of teaching? He wasted no time and ran into the nearest music stores in their place to look for instructional materials that have “rap taste,” but he was unfortunate. So he began writing his own rap song—without thinking that it could turn the world upside down.
FACT BYTES
- Alex has put up a website, Math Raps (www.mathraps.com) with his wife, Megan Pincus Kajitani, M.A., and web designer Jeff Pincus.
- Megan is also one of Alex’s back-up singers in his album.
- The two volume-album ‘The Rappin’ Mathematician’ has now sold over a thousand copies across the United States.
Now, Alex’s songs have become sensational—students, teachers, and parents loved the music so much that they finally gave the singer a title—The Rappin’ Mathematician. And sooner, his first album with the same title was released.
Wouldn’t it be great to see the every kid rapping decimals, fractions, number line, and integers, at the same time becoming math geniuses?
Sources
www.mathraps.com/index.htm
http://teachers.net/wong/DEC07/
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