LA teacher makes algebra cool with a hip-hop beat
Friday, June 18, 2010
In this photo taken on Wednesday, May. 26, 2010, Algebra teacher LaMar Queen wears his rap glasses as he sings along to his Algebra students at the Los Angeles Academy in Los Angeles. The Los Angeles Unified School District teacher has won two awards for his innovative teaching method, by creating rap songs out of math concepts.
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(06-18) 06:25 PDT LOS ANGELES, (AP) --
The class of eighth graders at a Los Angeles middle school tap their rulers and nod their heads to the rhythm of the rap video projected on a screen. It's not Snoop Dogg or Jay-Z.
It's their math teacher, LaMar Queen, using rhyme to help them memorize seemingly complicated algebra and in the process improve their grades.
"It gets stuck in your head," says Cindy Martinez, a 14-year-old whose math grade went from a C-average to a B.
Queen, 26, is now known at Los Angeles Academy as the rap teacher, but his fame has spread far beyond the 2,200-student school in this gritty neighborhood. He's won a national award and shows teachers and parents how to use rap to reach children.
"Math is a bad word in a lot of households," he says. "But if we put it in a form that kids enjoy, they'll learn."
Queen is doing what many veteran educators have done — using students' music to connect with them. Where teachers once played the rock n' roll tunes of "Schoolhouse
The class of eighth graders at a Los Angeles middle school tap their rulers and nod their heads to the rhythm of the rap video projected on a screen. It's not Snoop Dogg or Jay-Z.
It's their math teacher, LaMar Queen, using rhyme to help them memorize seemingly complicated algebra and in the process improve their grades.
"It gets stuck in your head," says Cindy Martinez, a 14-year-old whose math grade went from a C-average to a B.
Queen, 26, is now known at Los Angeles Academy as the rap teacher, but his fame has spread far beyond the 2,200-student school in this gritty neighborhood. He's won a national award and shows teachers and parents how to use rap to reach children.
"Math is a bad word in a lot of households," he says. "But if we put it in a form that kids enjoy, they'll learn."
Queen is doing what many veteran educators have done — using students' music to connect with them. Where teachers once played the rock n' roll tunes of "Schoolhouse
Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2010/06/18/national/a023923D93.DTL&type=education#ixzz0rDF3RtBB
Just when you think universal preschool (UPK) is finally dead, it comes back again. This time its return comes in the form of a massive cover package in The American Prospect featuring scads of pro-early childhood education articles by the likes of Sara Mead and Cornelia Grumman. Don't they know that there's a recession on, and no one has time or money to think about the little kids?
