Teacher uses music to teach math

If it is spring in California, second- through eleventh-graders will participate in the California STAR Testing Program, and take the California Standards Tests (CST), according to the state's Department of Education. Several years ago, River Valley High School math teacher James Fleisher picked up a guitar and wrote a song, titled "We're Going to Ace this Test," to encourage students to work hard on the CST, the Appeal-Democrat reported. This tune turned out to be just the first in a serious of songs about math.

Today, Fleisher has a catalog of more than 30 original math songs, which he occasionally plays for students to put a rock and roll twist on the usual classroom lessons. While some educators may be happy to stay seated at their desks, Fleisher is known to strut around the classroom playing his guitar.

So far, Fleisher's students do not seem to mind hearing their teacher sing songs from his catalog, such as "The Distributive Property," "Of Prisms and Cylinders" and "Trapezoid."

"He keeps us entertained," Kyle Emery, a sophomore geometry student, told the news source.