Before fourth grade, Morehouse didn't like math and struggled with it, but paring the difficult subject with music was game-changing for her. She's now in the 10th grade and loves old-school rap. Adjust your screens to her point of view.ĮSTRADA: Paris Morehouse (ph) is one of Mayfield's former students. Seventh-grade science, Texas history, too. Here's one he made for a Texas history teacher. Last year, he was even reaching students nationwide by creating jingles for teachers so they could engage students in Zoom class. The attendance went up.ĮSTRADA: Mayfield's district recognizes he's been so good at engaging students, he's now coaching teachers at another Title I school in Fort Worth. Kids started caring more about coming to school. So look out.ĮSTRADA: Learning math through music has been a successful strategy, and Mayfield says he saw results within a school semester. UNIDENTIFIED PEOPLE: (Singing) We're going to pass the STARR test in the spring, show the world just what we mean. They rap and make music videos about multiplication, decimal point places and motivational songs like passing the big end-of-year exam called the STARR test. One out of 100, we call that a penny.ĮSTRADA: That's Mayfield and some of his previous students. Then we move to the hundredths, one part out of many. Like a dime to a dollar, there's 1 out of 10. MAYFIELD: (Rapping) Now let's break this thing down. That's when he got the idea to bring in rap music to the classroom. He wanted to reach students in a way that was familiar and inviting. He grew up going to these types of schools in Fort Worth, too. MAYFIELD: Single-parent homes, incarcerated parents, low financial stability - a lot of that was going on.ĮSTRADA: Mayfield teaches at Title I schools, where more than 40% of students are economically disadvantaged. He took what they were saying to heart and knew it was important to try something new, especially because most of his students were also struggling outside of the classroom. I'm not good at subtracting.ĮSTRADA: Those are phrases he heard repeatedly from students.
In 2010, he had a major problem to solve in his classroom. MIA ESTRADA, BYLINE: Mayfield is a 42-year-old elementary school teacher from Fort Worth, Texas. And as NPR's Mia Estrada reports, now Mayfield is helping other teachers engage with their students. But Thomas Mayfield found a way through music. We have a story now about a teacher who used to struggle to find ways for his students to like math.
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