Los Angeles math teacher LaMar Queen has been using Hip Hop to help his students memorize steps in solving algebra problems, and improve their grades, according to the Associated Press.
“It gets stuck in your head,” says Cindy Martinez, a 14-year-old student whose math grade has improved from a C- to a B, thanks to Queen’s method.
Queen, 26, has won a national award for his approach, and now shows teachers and parents how to utilize his method.
“Math is a bad word in a lot of households,” says Queen. “But if we put it in a form that kids enjoy, they’ll learn.”
“Rap is what the kids respond to,” he adds. “They don’t have a problem memorizing the songs at all.”
The origins of Queen’s raps came after students told him his class was boring. The students added that he looked like rapper Kanye West, and challenged him to rap.
Queen, who had been rapping since seventh grade – he’d put rhymes together while walking home from school in a Carson, a city neighboring LA – responded by writing a rap song called “Slope Intercept.”
The method was initially met with skepticism, until Los Angeles Academy Principal Maria Borges witnessed it firsthand. “It engages the kids,” she said. “Kids seem to know all the rap songs, but they can’t seem to remember different math rules.”
“Some kids who aren’t even in Mr. Queen’s class go around singing his songs,” says Kejon Closure, 13, whose grades skyrocketed from a C-average to an A.
Queen, who allows his students to appear in the music videos he makes as a reward for good behavior, encourages other life lessons as well, such as “be respectful. Listen to your parents.”
“Let’s talk about slope intercept/I don’t mind if you interject/Just don’t disrespect/I say, you have a question for me?/What’s y equals mx + b?” rhymes Queen, who has launched a website, MusicNotesOnline, to market his rap CD and DVD.
Queen plans to expand his rap teaching method to other subjects.
LOL…Man, that’s beautiful, Mr. Queen…! God bless you for not giving up on our kids and for using an art form that they (we) can relate to to teach and expand their young minds. Keep doing what you do. Much Love & Respect!
I co-sign IMHO.
This is one of the greatest uses of Rap I’ve ever heard. It would be awesome if one of the kids turned into the next Ras Kass/Jay Electronica/Andre 3000 type monster just learning off a teacher in school and music.
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See hip-hop is a very useful thing. It teaches as well as entertains.
why is there twilight banners on this site? what kind of hip hop head is gonna go see a fucking twilight movie? epic waste of money right thurrr
It should be spelt “…right there” actually but I see what your trying to say.
LMAO, they should put that on Disney Channel’s website, not HHDX!
That’s just fucking awesome. That’s a good teacher using his skills for something great.
Props!
I gotta be honest: This is such a cool story. It’s stories like these that make me love this country.
Me too.
Yo, this reminds me of the airplane pilot who raps the instructions of plane safety to make sure people are paying attention. Awesome stuff.
Mr Queen got skills!
i smell over-glamorized hollywood movie about a teacher who helps the urban kids!
a tad corny
but i forget how easily influenced young kids are that they need “hip hop math”
to learn because they now find math is “cool”
but hey at least they’re learning
a tad corny
but i forget how easily influenced young kids are that they need “hip hop math”
to learn because they now find math is “cool”
but hey at least they’re learning
i aint mad at the teacher he did what he could to get the kids engaged and learning
but how fucked up are our kids in this society that they need to hipify math in order for you to want to learn
its still same basic math but now it rhymes, but hey hopefully the english,science, and history jump on it!!!
Staring michelle phfifer? Let’s put it to the beat of a coolio track, too.
i wish i had him when i was in high school haha
We r now having weekly random wakeup calls starting at 12 2 night and going thru the whole summer.
Awesome. I used to do this when teaching high school in harlem.
Aye thats a good look. I’m not mad at all
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That’s freakin’ sick right there. That’s really a nice method to make a class interesting, considering the improvements of some of the students’ grades. Now if only a majority of the mainstream rappers taught kids something too…
Mr. Queen>>> waka flaka
LMAO!
But so true.
He’ll probably sell more cd’s than wacka
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Hell Yes! GET YOUR LEARN ON!
really great and inspiring idea. I for one believe that the way we educate students should change to more practical learning.
props to Mr.Queen. Its really cool to hear something like this actually happening in reality and helping the kids grades.
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on a side note, my algebra 2 teacher introduced me to ALOT of underground hip hop i never heard before
That’s nice.
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g73KhTO2DNo
i agree with everyone on the aspect of its a good idea and all, and it further proves failures in the education system, but on a somewhat side note i disagree with the criticisms of the lyrics that are provided. His vocabulary is above average, which makes me confused why one commenter compared him to waka flaka, and its original.
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I think it’s great this teacher is taking his lessons to another level, instead of just reading out of a book verbatim…clearly this is a teacher who cares about his students, realized they were having issues and found a way to help them…this man deserves recognition, wish I would have had someone like him teaching me when I was growing up…
FUCK ALGEBRA NIGGA ALL DEM LIL NIGLETZ NEED TO KNOCK IS HOW TO STACK THEY PAPER AND BUSS DEY GUNZ.
wtf is wrong in your head…thats why ppl have stereotypes about us now
Now that is a guy thinking outside the box good for him…
This is a good look and a new step for education
Loads of time and effort put in 🙂
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While the approach is well meaning, education shouldn’t be adjusted just so some kids with bad grades will suddenly have a spark of interest. What’s next, Twittering their homework?
He’s not adjusting education, technically the kids are still learning the same thing. It’s just changing the way he teaches.
It’s a pretty pathetic statement on our society when teenagers can’t learn something as simple as high school algebra without it being put to a beat. Are teenagers priorities so fucked up that they cant even pay attention to their own education unless it’s related to their musical tastes. Is this technique actually hepling them learn or just a device to help them memorize something long enough to pass a test.
It Ain’t pathetic the shit they teach us these days is boring an half of it is useless a good 80 percent of what you learn you ain’t even gone use so why not make the boring shit fun?
Dude you ever think of the environment some of these kids come from? Good for this guy to make something the kids can get into. Education is not the same as it was 20 years ago ya stupid fuck. Whatever gets the kids engaged. If you can do better go teach them yourself and see how “easy” it is.
where to start. C,J, Algebra has been around for 1000’s of years and hasen’t changed AT ALL in that time. the algebra being taught in high school now is the same that was taught by jesuits 1000 years ago. It was just as “boring” back then but they didn’t have BET, MTV, TV, Internet and countless other consumer products marketed towards teens to distract them from learning. It’s an admision of failure in education to resort to this type of tactic. As far as “80 percent” of the stuff you learn being useless, your wrong. The reason this type of method is being used is because the kids deem algebra to be useless and need hip hop music to related to it. Try and become an engineer, doctor, lawyer, etc. without knowing simple algebra. And Steveoh, math is universal. Regardless of culture or background everybody has the same capability to understand math. But you are right about one thing education isn’t the same as it was 20 years ago, it’s better now, even in low income areas. you think the schools in ghettos are bad now you should have seen them in the 70’s when the government REALLY didn’t care. As far as doing a better job myself, I am a teacher in a tough area. And I see this as a cop out. By the way why did you put easy in quotation marks? Who’s the “stupid fuck”?
Jumpper,
Excuse yourself, but algebra HAS changed, new methods HAVE been found, there is always something new to be discovered. And even if education has improved in ghettos and other areas, perhaps you don’t understand that it’s still not up to the standards of education in other areas. Though we all have the ability to comprehend math, a lot of kids in ghettos don’t have the DRIVE to do it. Parents aren’t always 9 to 5 workers, sometimes they aren’t even there, kids come from all sorts of backgrounds and a lot of the time there’s no one telling them that they’re worth anything, no one to encourage them to forge ahead, and they may not have the drive themselves. Children who need academic help because of disabilities many times don’t have access to the type of resources children in other areas may be able to have. This is a method to get children engaged and interested in what they’re doing in a way they can relate; would you rather that this teacher keep to his “boring” ways instead of adjusting the method he uses, which keeps his students interested and is helping them?
I don’t care where you teach, but it seems to me from what you’ve said that you obviously don’t appreciate new methods, even if they help the kids you [to be clear, I mean a general “you,” as in all teachers] are supposed to be teaching – you’re there to HELP THEM LEARN, and this man is obviously doing it. Could you say the same for yourself? Are you getting a response like this, with kids’ grades skyrocketing when they take your class, knowing the math even if they aren’t your students because they know your songs?
Sure, TV, iPods, phones, magazines and the media are distracting kids, but they’re also distracting adults too. The people in the media are paid to grab the attention of certain age groups, they’re taught to respond to what certain demographics want, and adjust accordingly. That’s more than what a lot of educators in America are doing, and this man has found a way that takes a hold of his student’s interest and actually helps them remember important lessons. It shows he’s listening to what his students are telling him, and actually cares about their education, is willing to adjust his methods to HELP THEM LEARN, like he’s supposed to. How is this a “cop-out?” Is he avoiding teaching the children? No, he’s actually helping them excel. Is he compromising education? No. Is he avoiding teaching? No, he’s adjusting his methods, not the material.
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