Mr. Mac’s math class is not your typical math class.
‘Sup, Mr. Mac! All GIFS via SoulPancake/YouTube.
Why? It might be the Godzilla figurines, lamp fixtures, superhero posters, or cut-outs of NBA players that cover his classroom walls. Those are fun.
Or maybe it’s the fact that his students learn about math by making rap music videos.
That’s a line from just one of the songs Mr. Mac’s sixth-graders wrote and performed in class. It was a project they were doing to combine art with math. The kids loved it, and so did Mr. Mac.
Robert “Mr. Mac” MacCarthy teaches at Willard Middle School in Berkeley, California, and he approaches math in a way that doesn’t make it feel like … math. Instead, he makes it feel like part of your everyday life.
“Math is everything you do,” he says in a fun Soulpancake feature. “From the time you wake up until the time you go to bed.”
And when you think about it, he’s right. Figuring how to get from point A to point B, calculating costs, cooking meals, and problem-solving throughout your day? That’s all math. It really is everywhere.
So you might as well make it fun.
“I try to listen to my students and see what they are into, assimilate to their culture,” he says. I’d say he’s been pretty successful.
Math has historically been seen as something you either fully get, or you don’t.
Traditionally, most folks believed that there was a divide embedded in our brains, which separated art from math and science — but Mr. Mac’s class is evidence that it doesn’t have to be that way.
“They like the game called education when you can put some fun into it and put your heart behind your lessons,” says Mr. Mac.
What a cool example of a different way to teach, while letting kids be themselves.
There’s nothing forced about learning when you’re having this much fun. Check out Mr. Mac and his sixth-graders in action:
