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| Mrs. Gleave's sixth period class sings geometry Christmas carols to the journalism class. | 234.04 KB |
During the month of December, geometry students at Springville Junior High memorized formulas and got into the Christmas spirit by singing carols. These weren’t just the ordinary Christmas carols you hear on the radio. Before Christmas break, Mrs. Gleave, Algebra 1 and Geometry teacher, had geometry students create math Christmas songs.
Mrs. Gleave has had her classes carol for the past four years now. Before that, she researched on the benefits of music in memorization. Mrs. Gleave decided inventing Christmas carols for math formulas and theorems would help students remember them better. And so the tradition was born.
Students used these different formulas to make a geometry carol. They used Christmas tunes of their choice and rewrite the words using their math brain power. “By studying the formulas well enough to write a song about them, students learn to identify helpful characteristics about the formulas they use in math.” said Mrs. Gleave. The hard work paid off when geometry students caroled around to other classes.
Students liked making up the songs and singing them to the classes. Many of the students still have their songs living in their heads from singing them over and over around the school. According to Taya Rasmussen, eighth-grader, said “My favorite part about caroling was the no homework part.” It was a nice Christmas present for the students.
Caroling didn’t just benefit Mrs. Gleave’s students, but as well as the classes they visited. Many students have a negative feeling about math. According to Mrs. Gleave, this caroling unit can help students see that math can be fun and provide a laugh or two.
The teachers at SJHS love it too. Mrs. Gleave’s classes had more teachers willing to be interrupted than they could get through in a periods time.
The Students were able to laugh at themselves and their brilliant math carols. Some of the student’s favorite songs they invented were Carol of the Bells using slope-intercept, and Deck the halls for the formula n-2(180) and Triangle Rock to Jingle Bell Rock. “I think we have some up and coming lyricists at SJHS,” said Mrs. Gleave.