I love music. I love ICT. And the two go together nicely. But not as nicely as one teacher puts it! Mrs Burk, a primary teacher from the US, came up with a great and entertaining way to reach kids and help them remember mathematical rules- by rapping. Although she has posted more than one on teachertube, I’m only posting 2 of my favourites; The perimeter Rap and the video of her Classroom Rap.

I love what Mrs. Burk has done with her class! She has incorperated music, ICT and english in with math (music, ITC, english and math? who knew?) I found it such a great way to motivate and teach students about the small rules that kids can forget when doing math such as perimeter, area, simplifying, fractions and the list goes on! The raps aren’t long and easy to remember. And I have to admit, after watching it a few times, I was able to sing along! haha. I read the comments and a student that he had shown his teacher the videos and now they are making their own on volume. I think its an amazing way to get kids to learn not only math but anything! Mrs. Burk has started classes and even other teachers performing their own raps. Check out the links for Mrs. Burk and if you like her I also found another ‘rapper’ Mr. Duey.

Becuase I was so inspired by Mrs. Burk and Mr. Duey I decided to conduct an experiment with my younger cousin Max. He is a year 2 student learning about perimeter (a perfect oportunity for me to sing the catchy lyrics). I showed him Mrs. Burks video and gave him his own set of lyrics for him to memorise and asked him parents to test him on the rules on perimeter and area. They were shocked to find him rapping when they asked how to find the area of things. =) I think my experiment worked pretty well! haha

Enjoy the videos! It takes great guts for them to post their raps online and maybe the few daring of us will follow! Enjoy!

ps. don’t forget to make note of her outfit- classic! and a great way to get kid’s attention!!