Music and Math: Increasing Student Engagement

Incorporating music and math is fun way to engage students, as well as make the class periods exciting. Music Notes is a company that has produced many math videos and songs dedicated to teaching students math concepts through the genre of rap music. What students these days will not be interested in a fun song with a great beat? Music Notes has created a wide range of math ability songs matching the concepts learned by elementary school level children all the way through high school level Geometry students.

This past week, I attended a conference in San Antonio. While at CAMT (Conference for the Advancement of Mathematics Teachers), I purchased a DVD showing music videos focusing on Geometry concepts at the high school level. The album/video is actually named "Deometry," which I found to be fun and catchy! The artist in the videos is a gentleman named Mr. D, s

o it makes sense that it is not just geometry by Deometry! I am excited to incorporate these songs into my classroom as I introduce these specific new concepts. With titles like: Pythag's Formula, Talkin' Triangles, Holla SAS or SSS, and On My Plane, who couldn't resist listening to and enjoying these songs!

I have incorporated music and math into my previous classrooms, and they were a great way to engage the students. However, I always thought there was a little something missing. Something that can go along with the video to help solidify the ideas that were presented strictly in the video. Music Notes has filled that void for me. Not only have the created these awesome songs and videos, but they have developed a workbook that accompanies each album/DVD! The workbook has several 1-3 question activities that can be used in conjunction with the videos. Not only are the students able to hear the information in a fun format, but they are able to immediately practice the material that is tied directly to what they just listened to!

Now, there is one more piece of fun information that I have not shared with you. When I listen to rap music, I have a hard time learning the words to the song because...well...they are just too fast for me. Maybe that is showing my age, but Music Notes has a way to help me learn the lyrics, as well as the students. Online at their website: www.musicnotesonline.com they have actually included all of the lyrics to their songs for you to print out. This can be done for the students, and any struggling teachers, to learn the words of the song. I don't know how many times I am caught singing a song with the wrong lyrics! So, I'm thinking classroom karaoke is in store for my class next year!