Thomas Mayfield is a 42-year-old math teacher from Fort Worth, Texas. When he saw that his 5th graders were struggling with math, he decided to do something about it.
Mayfield is an educator at Title I schools where 40% of the pupils are economically disadvantaged. He attended these kind of schools in Fort Worth, as well.
In order to get students to comprehend better, he incorporates rap music into his lessons.
“It builds confidence. It helps to build a less traumatic experience. They feel like they’re invited and welcomed in the classroom.”
In one video, Mayfield gets his students engaged by using Luniz’s song, “I Got 5 On It” while learning about decimal point places.
“Now, let’s break this thing down. Let’s start with the 10ths/ Like a dime to a dollar, there’s 1 out of 10/Then we move to the hundredths, one part out of many/One out of 100, we call that penny,…” the songs says.
Mayfield says that due to his creativeness, state scores have risen, attendance increased, and parents are excited. Because he has been so effective, he was promoted this year to assist other teachers at J.T. Stevens Elementary School.
Prior to being in Mayfield’s class, Pareece Morehouse wasn’t interested in math and was struggling. Now, her feelings have changed.
“I can recall myself at home doing homework and just singing the song in my head…it was really a great way to help me make it through math,” Morehouse stated.
Morehouse can been seen on music recordings by Mayfield like “Queens” and “Raise The Bar.” She says those songs motivated her to improve in school.
