have you ever struggled to remember a
math concept perhaps you’ve done all the
homework you’ve studied you’ve read the
book but a key idea just seems to slip
from your memory well let me ask another
question for for the adults in the
audience I’d like you to think back to
your high school days
can you still recall the quadratic
formula from algebra class the unit
circle from trigonometry the chain rule
from calculus
well well for the students taking these
classes right now are these ideas
ingrained in your memory or are they
just fading from short-term memory and
for all of us have we ever been in a
learning situation where we found
ourselves asking the question why do I
need to learn this well today as we
ponder those questions I’d like to
discuss two main points the power of
multi-dimensional learning and the power
of music as a learning and memorization
tool in fact a little later I’m going to
ask us all to participate in a musical
learning experience and I hope my talk
can inspire you to be a bit wary and
maybe curious if you ever find yourself
asking that question why do I need to
learn this my name is Michael vit
Batista and I’d like to share a little
bit about my background to help you get
to know me a little bit better when I
was a high school student I remember
looking at the graduation requirements
at the time and and I saw that I only
needed two years of math to graduate
from high school so I ran home and told
my parents I’m gonna be done with math
after next year and well that plan
didn’t really work out because I’m now
in my 11th year as a high school math
but my path to becoming a math teacher
was not linear in fact in college I I
took math classes out of requirement and
eventually turned into interest but I
actually majored in English and after
college I decided to go to graduate
school and pursue music one of my
lifelong passions it was several several
years after graduate school that I
decided to earn a teaching credential in
math now I’ve shared this brief bio with
in many conversations throughout my life
and I often get somewhat puzzled and
curious reactions English music math how
did the dots line up and I’m gonna be
quite honest with you there were times
when I was going through school that I
was a bit perplexed on my own
educational choices especially when I
saw some of my friends and relatives who
were only studying one thing and they
seemed to have it all figured out but I
just wasn’t like that all I knew was
that I love to learn
I love to problem-solve and I’d love to
be creative and those treats eventually
led me to a career as an educator well
fast forward into my teaching career and
there was a time when I was teaching
precalculus and in precalculus students
have a task of learning what’s called
the unit circle as you can see from the
slide the unit circle is a fundamental
concept of trigonometry and if you’re
learning this for the first time it can
seem a bit overwhelming
perhaps daunting so I I jumped in and I
taught the logic of the unit circle I
taught I taught how it worked we played
games we did flashcards we did we did
colors and we looked at patterns and
these techniques they sort of worked the
students would pass the quizzes and do
okay but I noticed something curious
they would forget the material very fast
and I felt like we were in a cycle
learn forget learn forget and this
troubled me as a teacher I wanted my
students to remember the unit circle
forever so one day I went home and said
I need to rethink my teaching strategies
so I picked up my guitar and said what
if I could create a song about the unit
circle as I started sketching some ideas
and I brought it back to my class and
the song wasn’t finished I just I just
tested it with them and something
curious happened I noticed their ears
perked up and they they were really
paying attention and these were a group
of kids who weren’t necessarily very
interested in math and I got a lot of
positive feedback from the students that
day and that inspired me I thought what
if I made this unit circle song into a
video that I could have the kids learn
ahead of time and then we could sing it
together so I’d like to share a short
[Music]
today no and Irenaeus
so the next year I talk precalculus
before diving in to the mathematical
logic behind this I just assign the
video to my students and I said I think
I signed it on a Monday and said be
something magical happened when Friday
came around I brought my guitar to the
class and I could hear students singing
the lyrics as they were coming into the
classroom and in class we formed a
circle we had a fake campfire in the in
the center of the room and we sang
several rounds of this song and the
majority of the students had the song
memorized which meant they had the unit
circle memorized which is exactly what I
wanted them to do and even the quiet
kids I could see them starting to open
up and start to catch on and that’s what
I knew I really wanted to use more music
in my math classes as a teaching tool
now using music as a teaching tool it’s
not a novel idea I mean we do this in
preschool in elementary school and it
works like magic for example if I were
to ask you right now to memorize a set
of 26 symbols and recite them back to me
that task would seem painful and perhaps
strenuous but our children do this with
the alphabet song before they even learn
how to speak and before they have a full
understanding of what the alphabet
really means so could there be more
opportunities for music in the higher
grades in our classes
well I remember in my teaching
credential program learning about
something called Howard Gardner’s theory
of multiple intelligences Howard Gardner
is an American psychologist and Harvard
professor
and he suggests that we can strengthen
our learning of a topic by targeting
different modes of learning and as you
can see from the slide music is one of
those modes of learning so I’m gonna ask
the question again for us to ponder
could there be more opportunities for us
to have musical learning experiences in
classes in the higher grades so I now
like to take a little detour and
introduce you to somebody very special
to me this is my daughter her name is
Kiera and she’s six years old and like
many kids her age she loves to sing and
I’d like to share a story about qeh so
when Kira was a toddler she when she was
four years old I started to compose a
song with a friend about the quadratic
formula in algebra the quadratic formula
like the unit circle it stems from
fundamental concepts in the algebra
courses that we teach so I would strum
the song around the house on my guitar
and be singing the lyrics and Kira would
be minding her own business just playing
with her toys and then one day I’m
driving in the car and Kear’s in the
backseat and she sings singing quietly
to herself the farmer in the Dell the
farmer in the Dell and out of the blue
note for note
word for word she sings x equals
negative B plus or minus the square root
i I think I nearly crashed the car at
that point I was so stunned I looked at
her and said what did you just sing and
can you can you do that again and she
could and I knew okay I knew I had to
capture this for our memories so I
recruited a cure to become my production
assistant and we put together we put
together this this video about the
quadratic formula
so as I mentioned Kyra’s six years old
now she’s in first grade she doesn’t
understand what the mathematical meaning
behind the quadratical quadratic formula
is but she can learn a song and the song
helped her remember that equation and
interestingly this hasn’t been a
one-time occurrence for Kyra since
writing the quadratic formula song I’ve
been on a quest to rate calculus jingles
and curious surprises me every time she
learns them all and please don’t get me
wrong I’m not saying that learning a
song is a substitute for all the hard
work and analysis and deep thought that
we do in our math classes that is
absolutely that’s necessary but what I
am saying is if music can help a child
learn these high-level equations that
our high school students could surely
find this helpful so as I mentioned at
the beginning of my talk I’d like us to
try to learn some math but I’m not going
to give you a math lecture I’m not going
to ask you to open a textbook and
there’s not going to be a quiz but what
you’re gonna try is I’m all gonna ask
you to sing I think I see a few people
in the back getting nervous whoa look at
the time gotta go but we’re gonna use
our voices to access the musical part of
our minds and like here I’m gonna have
us all try to learn the quadratic
formula and disclaimer I don’t consider
myself to be a singer but like I said
we’re gonna use our voice to access the
musical part of our minds so as I ask my
now if you if it’s been a while since
you’ve taken algebra and you don’t
remember this that’s okay we’re just
gonna prime our minds with an idea if
you already know the quadratic formula
great we’re gonna learn it from a
different perspective it’s like a
commercial jingle we’re gonna get the
ideas into our minds okay so I’m gonna
sing the whole phrase what we’re all
gonna learn and then we’re gonna break
it down until in two parts and do a
call-and-response
so so x equals negative b plus or minus
the square root of b squared minus 4ac
so for the first rays x equals negative
excellent let’s do it again x equals
negative b plus or minus the square root
perfect we’ll do the second half of B
perfect let’s see that again a b squared
minus 4ac all over 2a
it’s are too good all right let’s read
the whole thing 1 2 x equals negative b
plus or minus the square root of b
squared minus 4ac all over 2a again x
equals negative b plus or minus the
square root of b squared minus 4ac all
[Music]
[Applause]
that was amazing you guys I hope you
guys sing that to your neighbors we’re
singing around the campfire well I’d
like to leave you with a couple
big-picture takeaways I encourage you to
explore the power of music as a learning
and memorization tool regardless of your
age or a musical background music has
such a an amazing way of strengthening
our learning helping us be present at
building community you can write songs
you can take lyrics to known songs and
tweak them to fit the content or if
you’re a teacher just play music in your
classroom of different styles to change
up the energy in the room sometimes the
concepts we learn just need to be spiced
if you’re ever in a learning situation
and you find yourself asking the age-old
question why do I need to learn this
please be wary and curious I know as a
student I used to ask that question all
the time and I didn’t see how English
music and math would eventually help me
in countless ways especially as a
teacher I never knew that I’d be able to
combine the poetry of English with
equations of math and melodies of music
I didn’t see that connection until
several years after I finished school so
please don’t limit your learning you
don’t have to be one thing in fact you
never know when all the knowledge
experience and education from your life
well someday strike a chord for you and
blend together in harmony thank you
math concept perhaps you’ve done all the
homework you’ve studied you’ve read the
book but a key idea just seems to slip
from your memory well let me ask another
question for for the adults in the
audience I’d like you to think back to
your high school days
can you still recall the quadratic
formula from algebra class the unit
circle from trigonometry the chain rule
from calculus
well well for the students taking these
classes right now are these ideas
ingrained in your memory or are they
just fading from short-term memory and
for all of us have we ever been in a
learning situation where we found
ourselves asking the question why do I
need to learn this well today as we
ponder those questions I’d like to
discuss two main points the power of
multi-dimensional learning and the power
of music as a learning and memorization
tool in fact a little later I’m going to
ask us all to participate in a musical
learning experience and I hope my talk
can inspire you to be a bit wary and
maybe curious if you ever find yourself
asking that question why do I need to
learn this my name is Michael vit
Batista and I’d like to share a little
bit about my background to help you get
to know me a little bit better when I
was a high school student I remember
looking at the graduation requirements
at the time and and I saw that I only
needed two years of math to graduate
from high school so I ran home and told
my parents I’m gonna be done with math
after next year and well that plan
didn’t really work out because I’m now
in my 11th year as a high school math
but my path to becoming a math teacher
was not linear in fact in college I I
took math classes out of requirement and
eventually turned into interest but I
actually majored in English and after
college I decided to go to graduate
school and pursue music one of my
lifelong passions it was several several
years after graduate school that I
decided to earn a teaching credential in
math now I’ve shared this brief bio with
in many conversations throughout my life
and I often get somewhat puzzled and
curious reactions English music math how
did the dots line up and I’m gonna be
quite honest with you there were times
when I was going through school that I
was a bit perplexed on my own
educational choices especially when I
saw some of my friends and relatives who
were only studying one thing and they
seemed to have it all figured out but I
just wasn’t like that all I knew was
that I love to learn
I love to problem-solve and I’d love to
be creative and those treats eventually
led me to a career as an educator well
fast forward into my teaching career and
there was a time when I was teaching
precalculus and in precalculus students
have a task of learning what’s called
the unit circle as you can see from the
slide the unit circle is a fundamental
concept of trigonometry and if you’re
learning this for the first time it can
seem a bit overwhelming
perhaps daunting so I I jumped in and I
taught the logic of the unit circle I
taught I taught how it worked we played
games we did flashcards we did we did
colors and we looked at patterns and
these techniques they sort of worked the
students would pass the quizzes and do
okay but I noticed something curious
they would forget the material very fast
and I felt like we were in a cycle
learn forget learn forget and this
troubled me as a teacher I wanted my
students to remember the unit circle
forever so one day I went home and said
I need to rethink my teaching strategies
so I picked up my guitar and said what
if I could create a song about the unit
circle as I started sketching some ideas
and I brought it back to my class and
the song wasn’t finished I just I just
tested it with them and something
curious happened I noticed their ears
perked up and they they were really
paying attention and these were a group
of kids who weren’t necessarily very
interested in math and I got a lot of
positive feedback from the students that
day and that inspired me I thought what
if I made this unit circle song into a
video that I could have the kids learn
ahead of time and then we could sing it
together so I’d like to share a short
[Music]
today no and Irenaeus
so the next year I talk precalculus
before diving in to the mathematical
logic behind this I just assign the
video to my students and I said I think
I signed it on a Monday and said be
something magical happened when Friday
came around I brought my guitar to the
class and I could hear students singing
the lyrics as they were coming into the
classroom and in class we formed a
circle we had a fake campfire in the in
the center of the room and we sang
several rounds of this song and the
majority of the students had the song
memorized which meant they had the unit
circle memorized which is exactly what I
wanted them to do and even the quiet
kids I could see them starting to open
up and start to catch on and that’s what
I knew I really wanted to use more music
in my math classes as a teaching tool
now using music as a teaching tool it’s
not a novel idea I mean we do this in
preschool in elementary school and it
works like magic for example if I were
to ask you right now to memorize a set
of 26 symbols and recite them back to me
that task would seem painful and perhaps
strenuous but our children do this with
the alphabet song before they even learn
how to speak and before they have a full
understanding of what the alphabet
really means so could there be more
opportunities for music in the higher
grades in our classes
well I remember in my teaching
credential program learning about
something called Howard Gardner’s theory
of multiple intelligences Howard Gardner
is an American psychologist and Harvard
professor
and he suggests that we can strengthen
our learning of a topic by targeting
different modes of learning and as you
can see from the slide music is one of
those modes of learning so I’m gonna ask
the question again for us to ponder
could there be more opportunities for us
to have musical learning experiences in
classes in the higher grades so I now
like to take a little detour and
introduce you to somebody very special
to me this is my daughter her name is
Kiera and she’s six years old and like
many kids her age she loves to sing and
I’d like to share a story about qeh so
when Kira was a toddler she when she was
four years old I started to compose a
song with a friend about the quadratic
formula in algebra the quadratic formula
like the unit circle it stems from
fundamental concepts in the algebra
courses that we teach so I would strum
the song around the house on my guitar
and be singing the lyrics and Kira would
be minding her own business just playing
with her toys and then one day I’m
driving in the car and Kear’s in the
backseat and she sings singing quietly
to herself the farmer in the Dell the
farmer in the Dell and out of the blue
note for note
word for word she sings x equals
negative B plus or minus the square root
i I think I nearly crashed the car at
that point I was so stunned I looked at
her and said what did you just sing and
can you can you do that again and she
could and I knew okay I knew I had to
capture this for our memories so I
recruited a cure to become my production
assistant and we put together we put
together this this video about the
quadratic formula
so as I mentioned Kyra’s six years old
now she’s in first grade she doesn’t
understand what the mathematical meaning
behind the quadratical quadratic formula
is but she can learn a song and the song
helped her remember that equation and
interestingly this hasn’t been a
one-time occurrence for Kyra since
writing the quadratic formula song I’ve
been on a quest to rate calculus jingles
and curious surprises me every time she
learns them all and please don’t get me
wrong I’m not saying that learning a
song is a substitute for all the hard
work and analysis and deep thought that
we do in our math classes that is
absolutely that’s necessary but what I
am saying is if music can help a child
learn these high-level equations that
our high school students could surely
find this helpful so as I mentioned at
the beginning of my talk I’d like us to
try to learn some math but I’m not going
to give you a math lecture I’m not going
to ask you to open a textbook and
there’s not going to be a quiz but what
you’re gonna try is I’m all gonna ask
you to sing I think I see a few people
in the back getting nervous whoa look at
the time gotta go but we’re gonna use
our voices to access the musical part of
our minds and like here I’m gonna have
us all try to learn the quadratic
formula and disclaimer I don’t consider
myself to be a singer but like I said
we’re gonna use our voice to access the
musical part of our minds so as I ask my
now if you if it’s been a while since
you’ve taken algebra and you don’t
remember this that’s okay we’re just
gonna prime our minds with an idea if
you already know the quadratic formula
great we’re gonna learn it from a
different perspective it’s like a
commercial jingle we’re gonna get the
ideas into our minds okay so I’m gonna
sing the whole phrase what we’re all
gonna learn and then we’re gonna break
it down until in two parts and do a
call-and-response
so so x equals negative b plus or minus
the square root of b squared minus 4ac
so for the first rays x equals negative
excellent let’s do it again x equals
negative b plus or minus the square root
perfect we’ll do the second half of B
perfect let’s see that again a b squared
minus 4ac all over 2a
it’s are too good all right let’s read
the whole thing 1 2 x equals negative b
plus or minus the square root of b
squared minus 4ac all over 2a again x
equals negative b plus or minus the
square root of b squared minus 4ac all
[Music]
[Applause]
that was amazing you guys I hope you
guys sing that to your neighbors we’re
singing around the campfire well I’d
like to leave you with a couple
big-picture takeaways I encourage you to
explore the power of music as a learning
and memorization tool regardless of your
age or a musical background music has
such a an amazing way of strengthening
our learning helping us be present at
building community you can write songs
you can take lyrics to known songs and
tweak them to fit the content or if
you’re a teacher just play music in your
classroom of different styles to change
up the energy in the room sometimes the
concepts we learn just need to be spiced
if you’re ever in a learning situation
and you find yourself asking the age-old
question why do I need to learn this
please be wary and curious I know as a
student I used to ask that question all
the time and I didn’t see how English
music and math would eventually help me
in countless ways especially as a
teacher I never knew that I’d be able to
combine the poetry of English with
equations of math and melodies of music
I didn’t see that connection until
several years after I finished school so
please don’t limit your learning you
don’t have to be one thing in fact you
never know when all the knowledge
experience and education from your life
well someday strike a chord for you and
blend together in harmony thank you
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