More Math for More People
CPM Educational Program is a non-profit publisher of math textbooks for grades 6-12. As part of its mission, CPM provides a multitude of professional learning opportunities for math educators. The More Math for More People podcast is part of that outreach and mission. Published biweekly, the hosts, Joel Miller and Misty Nikula, discuss the CPM curriculum, trends in math education and share strategies to shift instructional practices to create a more inclusive and student-centered classroom. They also highlight upcoming CPM professional learning opportunities and have conversations with math educators about how they do what they do. We hope that you find the podcast informative, engaging and fun. Intro music credit: JuliusH from pixabay.com.
More Math for More People
Episode 3.8 Where Joel and Misty explore pickleball and making math fun with raps
Get ready to become a part of the fastest growing sport in the US - Pickleball! Ever wondered about the significance of staying out of the kitchen? Or what it means to be pickled? Joel and Misty have got you covered.
Then they switch gears to explore the rhythm of math with the help of Jordan Orozco, a math teacher and math rap maestro. Discover how Jordan is making math fun and engaging with his creative and educational raps. So, treat your curiosity, and let us guide you through this exciting journey of learning, fun, and celebration.
For more of Jordan's raps check out these videos:
https://youtu.be/xziZP57nwNE
https://youtu.be/Tb5sGFzvxpI
Algebra Anthology https://open.spotify.com/album/3thbIckRtD0AF8NdOJJIOF
Send Joel and Misty a message!
The More Math for More People Podcast is produced by CPM Educational Program.
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Email: cpmpodcast@cpm.org
Hello everyone, it is 888-2023. And here's a fascinating fact for you Today is the 35th anniversary of the first game played under the lights at Wrigley Field. Yep, sure enough, 888. This happens to be episode 8 of season 3 of the More Math for More People podcast. Cheers.
Speaker 2:Hello, there, I'm. Joel.
Speaker 1:And I'm Misty.
Speaker 2:And you're listening to the More Math for More People podcast, an outreach of CPM educational program.
Speaker 1:We have a lot of conversations about math and math education on this podcast. We're passionate about continually improving the way math is taught and we hope that you learn something in every episode that helps you become better at what you do.
Speaker 2:And we hope that you have some fun and laugh as well. That always makes things a little more interesting.
Speaker 1:Yep, we're pretty passionate about having fun Joel.
Speaker 2:So please have a listen and we think it'll be well worth it. Boom.
Speaker 1:Okay, here we are, and I am wondering what day is it today? Joel.
Speaker 2:Today is National Pickleball Day.
Speaker 1:National Pickleball Day.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:I don't think I've played pickleball like some time, way back in the 80s maybe.
Speaker 2:I feel like it's been a while for me too.
Speaker 1:So I don't really remember it much other than having a funny ball and paddle and kind of being on a tennis court, but not a tennis court.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, yeah. It says here that pickleball was born in 1965. So in the 80s. You're in the early stages.
Speaker 1:Only been around for 20 years then.
Speaker 2:That's right. They didn't even publish a rule book till 84.
Speaker 1:Oh, that might have been close to that time.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1:I might have played it in middle school, which would have been just before 84. So maybe we played it without rules.
Speaker 2:I mean, if we were middle schoolers, we probably would have played it without rules, exactly.
Speaker 1:Exactly All right. So how does pickleball go?
Speaker 2:Like how do you play it? I don't know, Tell me something about it, or not? How does it go? Well, the holiday itself is pretty new. It's only since 2021 that it's been a national day. I think you described it well, like it's a smaller court. Actually, I've seen a lot of pickleball courts in my area being built. I've noticed.
Speaker 1:Does it have a different? It doesn't. You don't use like a tennis ball, you use like a pickle. Yeah, it's not a pickleball, it's like a different kind of ball I was going to say it's maybe more like a handball, like harder kind of thing.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and you can't cross the. There's a line up by the net. You can't cross that line. We should be asking our PL team members, our professional learning team members yes that actually are playing pickleball.
Speaker 1:We should be asking them.
Speaker 2:And they could give us some insight into this wonderful sport.
Speaker 1:Maybe we'll invite them to just record a little. Hey, this is what I know about pickleball.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 3:I think that's a good idea.
Speaker 2:Yeah, cause we clearly, we clearly do not know what we're talking about.
Speaker 1:We don't know anything, I do, I mean we often don't know what we're talking about, but this is. This is this is almost on the like, verge, verge on negligence.
Speaker 2:I saw in the news where and and I I think you can play pickleball at any age but, from a, from a certain age, like I'm going to just say, I'm going to say, as a three month old, you can't play pickleball, that's right.
Speaker 1:Well, you got to be able to hold the racket. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2:But the the age group above 65, pickleball accounted for a third of the emergency room visits. That's because it's so challenging. If you get hurt, you get hurt and it's okay.
Speaker 1:I'm not sure that that is like a an endorsement of the game but, maybe it is, I don't know.
Speaker 2:I just am saying you just can't go out and play pickleball. Maybe on on Saturday you got to stretch you got to train, you got to learn the rules.
Speaker 1:You should probably learn the rules or decide with the other person that you're playing with that you're not going to play with rules and then have fun. It does sound like something you need to be. You know, know your physical limitations around. Yes.
Speaker 2:I think that's a good idea that we should reach out and ask for a little description from our team members.
Speaker 1:I think that we should definitely do play.
Speaker 2:And any listener who has some knowledge of the pickleball, please write in and yeah we'd like to hear from you.
Speaker 1:Awesome, great, we'll do that.
Speaker 2:Okay.
Speaker 3:Hi, I'm Lisa Comfort, the Regional Professional Learning Coordinator for the Great Plains, and also an avid pickleball player. I was delighted when Joel asked me to share a description of the fastest growing sport in America. Pickleball combines many elements of tennis, badminton and ping-pong and can be played both indoors or outdoors. Instead of a racket, pickleball is played with a paddle and a wiffle ball. The net height is just slightly lower than the tennis court and the size of a badminton court. The rules are simple and the game is easy for beginners to learn.
Speaker 3:You want to remember to stay out of the kitchen and avoid being pickled. The kitchen is a volley-free zone in front of the net. That means players can't run into the net to smash a ball at their opponent. If you hit the ball in the air while in the kitchen, you'll lose a point. If you lose the game without scoring a point, it's called being pickled. The rules sound complicated, but they're actually pretty easy to pick up. Pickleball can be enjoyed by all ages and skill levels, but can also develop into a fast-paced competitive game. So come join the fun and try pickleball today. You will relish it.
Speaker 1:So we're here today with Jordan Orozco. He is a math teacher at Deer Valley High School in Antioch, california. Jordan has joined us today because Jordan does math raps. I think that's pretty exciting, because I don't think I could rap very well about anything. So thanks for being here today, jordan.
Speaker 4:I'm glad you had a talk with you. Yeah, thank you for having me. I'm super excited.
Speaker 1:Yeah, my first question is what motivated you? What made you start thinking I want to do some raps about math? Clearly you're a math teacher, so that makes sense. But why did you go to creating these raps and how did that get started for you?
Speaker 4:Yeah, I always with my friend. We do long road trips all the time. We're always just growing up. We'd put a beat on and try to freestyle, thinking we were rappers and so that part has always existed. And then in class with my students, a lot of them are trying to rap and they make beats on the table and stuff and they're trying to do something and I'm always like I can rap better than you guys. You guys, I hear what you're saying, blah, blah and as joking out is how it started. And then I was like I bet you I can even make a rap about math. And they were a Roscoe. That's so lame it's not even going to be good. Blah blah, you can't do whatever.
Speaker 4:And so it was just spring break and I had a time off and I was, I'm going to try to do it, and I found a beat off YouTube and tried just starting to write. I didn't even know what I wanted it like the first one to be. I just was like let me try to make it about math and it's just basically me just saying a bunch of concept names and trying to make them rhyme and stuff. And it's actually a bit easy because everyone's like how do you rhyme stuff with math terms? But a lot of it does rhyme. Actually, when you're going through it, like combination and permutation, I was like, oh, that already rhymes, except like that kind of was. That's kind of just how it like naturally came about and I got it done. And then I was so nervous about posting it and sharing it because I have a YouTube channel that Math Magician and it started over COVID as a way for me to deliver content to my students and so I'm always posting math tutorials and stuff like that, Like that is.
Speaker 4:I know I'm on it. I posted, there's no nervousness. But, with the math wrap, I was like, oh man, I don't know if I can do it, and I was showing people like my friends and family they were like sounds good, just do it.
Speaker 4:And then I started some students that I had for a couple of years. I was like, okay, maybe I'll show this game. I'll show this game. They would be like Roscoe that's actually not bad, like that's decent, I was like okay, I think I got to post this, so then I just posted it and it blew up. It's pretty cool.
Speaker 2:Pretty cool, yeah. After the first one did it get you thinking about, I guess, a specific content rather than just vocabulary words?
Speaker 4:Yeah, exactly, yeah. So it happened. Because it happened at the end of the year when I released it, and so it was for the final, like just name drop and everything we had done the whole year. For I taught algebra one in geometry, so I had one verse for all geometry terms, the other one for all algebra one, and just that. That's yeah, exactly. And then when I that summer vacation it blew up and then I'm getting into last year and I'm like, okay, I really want to try to teach on the song, because it's so funny, because like it's fun to talk to math people, because when I go on the news they're like they hear him, they're like, oh my gosh, your kids must have learned so much from the first one. I'm like I'm not really teaching it.
Speaker 3:It's just saying the word, like I say oh a circle is 360, but that's not really, you know what.
Speaker 2:I mean.
Speaker 4:So it's funny because they're always just so amazed. But yeah, so I tried to write it and so I wrote. My next one was called MX plus B and it was all about how to graph a line. I talk about from the first step all the way to it and it's. That's been cool. And then eventually I made a whole mix tape about algebra, one concepts and in a couple of songs, yeah, it talks about how to do each one. So it's fun, that is cool.
Speaker 1:So you present these to your kids and you put them out there on YouTube, and do you? I'm wondering about what the what your students response has been, and other than just the first one you talked about. And then are they? Are they picking them up to use them for learning? Do you hear your kids singing them to themselves, or anything like that?
Speaker 4:Yeah, it's a good question. They it's funny and I've realized in a group setting they will not admit that that, oh, it's actually decent, oh, that is cool, whatever.
Speaker 4:Except when I've had a couple of news crews come and do like specials on me at the school. When the cameras are on, oh they are loving me, blah, blah, blah. But when it's back in normal glass and something happens, they're like oh no, it's not good, but one on one. Then they will be like oh, actually, roscoe, like I did like it, like that one's actually kind of cool. So it's funny that they still have that fear of pressure. Yeah, I don't. I've never had a kid like come up and actually say, but help me, or whatever. I don't think they're confident enough to say that, but I do hope at least that the like the hook gets stuck in their brain or the chorus and it just reminds them oh, about, that's how I do zero product property, or oh, that's how I graph a line. So I'm hoping it's there, it's listen, it's being listened to. I see that there's streams for the songs yeah.
Speaker 4:So I do hope, but no, no feedback yet.
Speaker 1:What I'm also wondering too if if any, at some point some of your kids are motivated to write their own as a way of constructing their own learning and their understanding of remembering things would be very cool also.
Speaker 4:Yeah, at the end of last year we were doing state testing and they gave us like way too much time, like four hours to administer the test and they were done like like two hours. We had a lot of time to kill. And one of the kids was saying that, arosco, you should do. You should do it where a kid can jump on the song and rap with you. And I was like, absolutely, I'm so down for that. But you got to like rap about math, like it's got to be actual too Right.
Speaker 4:You can't be dissing math. That's not going to go, so I'm hoping next year to try that. At my school we used to have a math rap contest, because I actually went to the high school that I teach at.
Speaker 1:Oh cool.
Speaker 4:Yeah, so when I was there they had this big contest. I never entered it because I was too nervous back then, too scared, like never do that. So I'm hoping I'm actually wanting to bring it back and offer that to students and maybe like a prize for the best one or something out of it. Yeah, it'd be cool.
Speaker 1:That is pretty, yeah. So what is some of that? Can you go into some of what is some of the creative process, like how do you actually pick a topic, how do you write a rap, how do you like, how do you go through that?
Speaker 4:Yeah, so for this upcoming school year, I'm attempting to make a new math rap every month, and I don't know if I can stick with it, because right now it's easy because I'm on summer break and I have a lot of time to kill. But my hope is, yeah, to have one come out each month, and so I'm trying to time it with what concept is being taught for algebra one and geometry. So I already have one done for August that's gonna be released and it's called function and it's all about functions and function machines, because we use CPM, and so I even I even in that song talk about the soda machine, the vending machine problem I don't know if you guys are familiar with it.
Speaker 4:Yeah, but I talk about, I rap about that in the song, took inspiration from that because it's such a big problem and the kids really tend to connect with that problem. So I was like, oh, let me see if I can corporate that into the rap. But yeah, generally I just get a bee. I have a producer friend here in town who works with other artists and and it's really, really talented and he now he's sending me a bee a month and we're trying to knock them out so that they can get released in time for this school.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, I can't wait to hear about the functions factory of America rap.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I mean that. For me, the idea of just trying to write, write something that's very factual sort of content Into a rhyme and a beat and a rhythm like that that sounds sounds like that could be really challenging. It's.
Speaker 4:I usually I write on my phone usually and I just throw the key terms, what I want for it. So, with with my MX plus B song, I was like okay, I want to talk about the slope, I want to talk to my intercept, oh, but why intercept has that? Or it could be called the B term or the starting point, or blah, blah, blah. So I try to just spew everything out and then I just sit there and I play the beat over and over, I loop it, I loop it a little bit and then I just start trying to put put it all together. Especially it's a little easier when it's, I feel like, when it's the teaching part, because Then it kind of just flows naturally, like when you're teaching had a graph of line you start with okay, there's the starting point. Okay, what's the slope? Oh, it's the right, go up or down or left to right. So that part I don't know that part tends to get easier for me. It's the rhyming that really gets me sometimes.
Speaker 4:Yeah, no doubt it could be really tricky. Right now I'm my. My song for September is about angle relationships and there are so many, I'm trying to cram them all into. This song is like a two and a half minute song I got and I'm like, oh my gosh, so many to talk about and trying to rhyme words with, like transversal, complementary angles and Complimentary and supplementary. They rhyme, so that's helpful.
Speaker 2:That is helpful. It's cool. I remember teaching like the quadratic formula and there's the pop goes the weasel song and things like that. I think it's so cool how you're Creating a community in a culture because you're doing it. And so have you noticed, your community and culture build a little bit from you actually doing the songs.
Speaker 4:Oh yeah, definitely. It's really cool to see my kids get excited for the songs they whenever I make it. I have one student who I had an algebra one. He didn't do that Well, he didn't pass. The first year was during distance learning those. It was really tough time but when I had I didn't have him then his sophomore year but he was taking a class with another teacher but would come and get help for me because we bonded over distance learning. But when I, when I had the math rap released he loves to film and do like editing and all that stuff and he jumped he was like please, let me. You need to make a music video, ross, we. To make it go viral you have to have visuals. And he got in and then his friends wanted to be in the video and it was just really cool. I'm like guys, it's about math, like we're not Real rap video, but they were like so excited, so it's cool to like now, because that was almost.
Speaker 4:I was a year ago, it's like two, two classes ago now. But seeing those kids kind of that snapshot, I'm like, oh man, that's so neat, yeah. And then last year we did our MX plus B music video and I told the kids I said it's, you guys take the creative approach to it, I don't know what to do. You guys tell me what to do, what to where we're to stand. And they ended up talking to their friends in the theater department and had all the lights on in the theater for us and, like, made this fake Classroom set on there and they just went all out and it looks so good.
Speaker 4:It's my best music video ever, but it's all the kids and I always try to give them all the praise because the visuals, that's all them. I can't do that.
Speaker 1:Yeah, what a great project for them. Yeah, that's really awesome.
Speaker 4:Yeah, and it's really cool. I even have started now trying to bring the kids with me to like the news shows when I go, just so they get exposure to and they can see a cool aspect of it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I Saw one of your videos. I saw you were. You were generating some excitement. It was a live show for America Got Talent. Oh yeah, that's true. Did you ever get on America's Got Talent?
Speaker 4:Man, oh man. So they? Yeah, no, I haven't yet. So they emailed me about in March, right before I went to a teaching convention in San Diego, and they said we love everything you got. We want you to be on the show, we need a live Video of you rapping to show that you have stage presence. And I'm like I'm going to San Diego for a teaching conference. I have, there's no way. So the teaching conference had a little end of the conference party and they had this dance.
Speaker 3:DJ.
Speaker 4:And I finangled my way on stage. With a flash drive and I was like, please, let me do this, and yeah, so it was cool. That was really cool because it's a bunch of teachers and so they they weren't math teachers, though. They were activities directors and leadership teachers, so they still kind of got into it. But that's why I'm excited for the. The cpm conference come. Oh, those are my people, my math, yeah, they'll understand what I'm talking.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's right. Yeah, it's a lot of fun. Yeah, so yeah, hopefully we'll be able to have you do one of your raps as part of the ignite. Yeah that's not up to me, but we're hoping that that's you'll be able to get finna be a way into that as well, perhaps. Yeah, and so we're gonna, but, and one of the things we did want to do is have you try to perform one here, are you?
Speaker 4:ready to do that Of course All right.
Speaker 1:So Joel's got the music and I'm gonna mute and then we're gonna just give it a go.
Speaker 2:So here you go. Okay, all right, I'm just gonna play it that.
Speaker 4:I do sounds good.
Speaker 2:Okay, if something goes wrong, stop me.
Speaker 4:Okay, okay, yeah, I get here, we're good, cool, yeah, so this song is called roots and it's off my mixtape. It's called algebra anthology and it's all about algebra one stuff. So let's see if I can do it again. All right, here we go, y'all ready? Hey, hey, roots, roots, roots. Hey, see, it's time we gotta find all the roots, roots, roots. Hey, get your butt. We gotta look for the roots, roots, roots. No guarantee, we gotta see. And it roots, roots, roots. Yeah, take a sec, we gotta check for the All. Right, it's time for quadrat is well.
Speaker 4:Graphing them can be a bit traumatic, but the roots are beneficial. Two points the end and the initial. I can tell you how to find them. Let's start with the box of diamond. Using that, you can know what's factors. I'm moving on to my favorite chapters D, p, p. You don't know what that is. Let me tell you. It's zero product property. You just gotta follow along with me. So, six factor equal to zero. Solve them out, then you'll be the hero. Now you know where it starts. Names Look at you learning how to To comprehend the roots, roots, roots. Hey, see, it's time we gotta find all the roots, roots, roots. Hey, get your butt. We gotta look for the roots, roots, roots. Hey, no guarantee, we gotta see. And it roots, roots, roots. Take a sec. We gotta check for the. Well, what if you can't factor? I don't want that to be a detractor. Did you ever learn how to complete the square? If you didn't, there's no need to feel scared. Gotta figure out what's the missing piece. Then you'll choose to add or decrease.
Speaker 4:The equation looks a bit transformed. There's the vertex of scrapping four, solve four x. But if that fails too, then what's next? Quadratic formula Sounds crazy, but it's the only choice left. We use it as a last resort. It looks complicated because it isn't sure. X equals negative b plus or minus the square root of b squared minus 40c, all over two. Hey, hey, hey see, it's time. We gotta find all the roots, roots, roots. Hey, get your butt. We gotta look for the roots, roots, roots. Hey, no guarantee, we gotta see. And it roots, roots, roots. Take a sec, we gotta check for the. That's it, that's roots.
Speaker 1:That's nice. Thank you, that's great.
Speaker 4:Yeah, that is my favorite song off the mix, dave, it's my my producer friend. Because I'm from the bay area, I was like I want a bay area beat. I wanted to. You know, sound like it came from and he gave me a new list. A lot of fun, cool, a lot of fun.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that is awesome that is awesome. Oh man, thank you so much for coming on the podcast today and telling us about, I mean, a really, really creative way that you are getting engaged with your students and connecting with them, and I just think that's awesome. So good on you.
Speaker 4:Yeah, I appreciate it. It was a lot of fun yeah.
Speaker 1:So that's all we have time for on this episode of the More Math for More People podcast.
Speaker 2:For more information and to stay connected, find CPM on Twitter and Facebook. You can find our handles in the podcast description.
Speaker 1:The music for the podcast was created by Julius H and can be found on picsofacom. Thanks, julius. Join us in two weeks for the next episode of More Math for More People. What day will that be, joel?
Speaker 2:It'll be August 22nd, world Plant Milk Day. So on this podcast you've probably heard and talked about my work in the dairy field, my work with creating dairy products and preparing them and things like that and this holiday is not about that. This is not about planting milk. This is about milk from plants and so as we look at this day, it'll be interesting to hear all the places that we can look at plants to get milk from and see what benefits to our bodies are maybe, or to our lives, I don't know much about it, but you're fun to find out.
Speaker 2:I guess I can head to the market and research there and I can go for a walk around and look for plants, and they'll just be interesting to the public. So yeah, I'll see you in August.