FableFive with Matthew Beyranevand, K-12 Mathematics & Science Department Coordinator at Chelmsford Public Schools, MA

Dr. Matthew Beyranevand is the K-12 Mathematics and Science Department Coordinator for the Chelmsford Public Schools in Massachusetts

Matthew is an ambassador for the Global Math Project, supporter for the With Math I Can campaign, and a member of the Massachusetts STEM Advisory Council. He also serves as an adjunct professor of mathematics and education at the University of Massachusetts at Lowell and Fitchburg State University.

Through his website, mathwithmatthew.com, he provides visitors with his podcast, blog, math music videos, and more resources to help increase students’ interest and engagement in the learning of mathematics while building conceptual understanding. 

FableVision Studio's Shelby Marshall was a guest on Matthew's podcast, Math With Matthew. Where he shared how the power of technology can enhance and support math education by developing mathematical thinking through concrete modeling, problem-solving, simulations, fluency through scaffolded practice, and applying understanding in real-world situations. Give a listen! 

Matthew has been featured on WBZ news WBUR radio and the news magazine Chronicle. Finally, Matthew's first book Teach Math Like This, Not Like That: Four Critical Areas to Improve Student Learning will be published in July through Rowan & Littlefield.

Matthew recently chatted with FableVision Learning about his creative work in the classroom. 

You work with students to create music videos about Math, how did this whole idea begin?

I started my own public access television show in Chelmsford five years ago to help inform the parents and community about all the wonderful things related to mathematics in the district. It was mostly interviews with teachers and students but after some time, we began to get creative and started making comedy skits and then music videos about math topics based on popular songs.

What is the process for creating the videos?

It is a collaborative effort of students, teachers, administrators, and the local public access television station, Chelmsford Telemedia. Each video takes about three months to put together. It begins with brainstorming sessions with students and teachers for the song and topic for the video. Next, we write the lyrics and record the song in a studio that one of my high school math teachers works at. Then the fun begins with making the music video. Many students participate in the shoot both on and off camera as it is a great learning experience. The final part is the video editing which takes place as part of a course at the High School with students.

Can you share some highlights from working on these videos?

Here is a sizzle reel of all the different music videos (at left) that we have done together. My favorite video to date is “Girls are all about that math” as it shares a very important message about the importance of girls entering the STEM field. Also, my nine-year-old daughter, who is an aspiring mathematician, helped write the lyrics for the song. The most popular song that we have done is “What is the value of Pi?” with almost 100,000 YouTube views.

What is your professional mission within math education?

I am working to help increase students conceptual understanding of mathematics, while learning in a joyful and engaging manner. Within the STEM field, the science, technology and engineering, students authentically enjoy learning. Mathematics is the ugly step sister that students are forced to take but rarely enjoy. We need to work to help increase students interest in math.

Did you have anything like this when you were in school that inspired you to do work like this?

Unfortunately, I did not and I did not have a wonderful experience learning math in school. I was very good at it but frequently bored and uninterested. Using the music videos as well as many other ideas, we can change this.

FableFive: David Smith, creator of Mapping the World by Heart

“When our children leave our classrooms, we need to make sure they have a sense of their own community, and also an appreciation of everyone else's,” explains David Smith, creator of Mapping the World By Heart. 

His award-winning geography curriculum gives students a means to picture the world beyond shapes on a page. Mapping the World by Heart provides a way to bring the world closer, because we can’t all travel the globe, but we can take steps to learn more about it. 

David was a classroom teacher with over 25 years' experience teaching English, geography, and social studies in grades 4-12 and used that experience of teaching 7th graders to draw maps of the entire world from memory, to create his highly successful curriculum, Mapping the World by Heart. 

When it was first released, Mapping the World by Heart was awarded the “Breaking the Mold,” by the U.S. Department of Education and to match the ever-changing world, David has revised the curriculum nine times since. 

David is a full-time consultant, providing lectures and workshops on geography and global issues, and on IT issues, to teachers, parents, student groups, and others in the United States, Europe, Africa, South America, Australia, and Asia.

For this FableFive post, we connected with David to learn more about Mapping the World By Heart and the stories from the journey. 

View fullsize

View fullsize

View fullsize

View fullsize

How did you connect the dots with FableVision Learning?

When Mapping the World By Heart was first published in 1992 by Tom Snyder Productions, Peter Reynolds did the illustrations and we became friends; when Tom Snyder was bought by Scholastic and MTWBH needed a new publisher, I called Peter (H. Reynolds) and he jumped at the chance to publish it.  He’s done some new illustrations, and helped with all the prepress issues.

 Can you share the story behind the creation and development of Mapping the World by Heart?

My grade 7 students in Cambridge, MA were sadly unaware of world geography, or even local geography. I didn’t want to send them onto their next teachers without helping them master at least some human geography and locations.

You speak regularly at schools in the US and Canada, can you share a few highlights from these visits?  

I’m always happy when kids know my books, and have questions about them – and some of the questions are very common, such as “where did you get the idea for…” or “do you have to revise often”, but some questions can be surprising; “do the details about children living in hunger make you sad”, “how many countries have you visited”, and sometimes “how old are you."

Where do you see Mapping the World by Heart’s place in the classroom?

I don’t see it as necessarily the central activity for a classroom for the year, but as a very useful tool. If a class is studying US or Canadian history, or Asian languages or cultures, or European history, then mapping that region by heart can be useful for so much of what students will learn – the thing that is easy to forget is that history actual always happens somewhere. And knowing the human and political geography of a place can help a student understand what happened there.

Do you have any Mapping the World by Heart stories to share? 

I’ve visited schools in 56 countries.  At 10 of these schools, I’ve helped students prepare an outdoor playground map – of their country, their continent, or the world. At the International School of Windhoek, Namibia, the students created a map of Namibia in the entryway of the school; at the International School of Geneva, the youngest students, with their teachers and parents, created a world map in the main door to the playground – every time a student passes through that door, they have a chance to check out the world.  The point is that the curriculum isn’t just about memorization, but it’s aimed at getting students to think about the world, about the world’s people and places.

Curious about how other schools are using Mapping the World by Heart? Check out these other posts!

FableFive: William Levin, Creative Consultant with FableVision Learning

From the studio to the classroom, William Levin loves animation. As a creative consultant with FableVision Learning, William brings his wealth of experience to the students in New York City’s District 75 as he guides them through making their stories move in Animation-ish. For this month’s FableFive we connected with William to share a bit about his work with D75 and beyond. 

View fullsize

1)  You have quite a resume; can you share a bit about your work in media? Maybe a fun story? 

Over the years, I’ve found myself creating animated shorts for some interesting clients, with diverse audiences ranging from Sesame Street to The New York Times. I love developing characters and telling stories, which is a challenge to accomplish within the few minutes my cartoons usually lasts.

David Pogue of The New York Times referees a face-off between TiVo and the generic cable company box. Subscribe to the Times Video newsletter for free and get a handpicked selection of the best videos from The New York Times every week: http://bit.ly/timesvideonewsletter Subscribe on YouTube: http://bit.ly/U8Ys7n Watch more videos at: http://nytimes.com/video --------------------------------------------------------------- Want more from The New York Times?

A few years ago, as a big fan of the Battlestar Galactica reboot series on the SyFy Channel, I contacted prolific series composer Bear McCreary to ask if I could interview him for a new cartoon pilot I was pitching called "He Shoots, He Scores."  

Surprisingly, not only did McCreary respond to my inquiry and agree to participate, but he generously composed an original score for the cartoon! Soon after, McCreary won a Primetime Emmy. Coincidence?

2)  What is the role of animation in the classroom?

Animation can be used as a versatile tool in the classroom. Besides artistic expression, animation also helps students understand movement (physics), calculate timing (mathematics), tell a story (language and vocabulary), work as a team and develop computer skills. In some cases, animation can be therapeutic, especially for students who have difficulty with traditional educational methods.

3)  Rumor has it you’ve been working with students in D75 and the Microsoft Store, can you share a bit about this partnership and what you’ve been doing?

Since 2013, I have had the privilege of visiting D75 schools to teach special education teachers and students how to animate with computers. This year, FableVision Learning was fortunate to partner with Microsoft to bring the program to their flagship 5th Avenue Microsoft Store in the heart of midtown Manhattan. Twice a month, up to 24 students are bussed in from schools in NYC for a morning of learning FableVision’s Animation-ish software. The store provides the students with fantastic Surface Pro 4 tablets and digital styluses, and I present on a ceiling-to-floor display in the private third floor workshop venue. All the while, we are surrounded by cool sci-fi decor that creates an atmosphere of being onboard a spaceship. Virtual reality demo stations and glowing computer panels provide an inspiring backdrop for creative learning!

4)  What has been one “aha” moment this year working with students and Animation-ish? 

Many teachers have warned me about particular students—or entire classrooms—apologizing in advance for the disruption they are sure to cause during our animation class. In the four years I’ve been working with D75, not once has there ever been an issue of misbehaving students. In fact, many times those students about whom I received the strongest warnings turn out to be the most talented and ambitious artists. I’ve learned that if you put a new creative tool in the hands of a child, you will always be pleasantly surprised with the results.

5)  Can you give some tips/advice for aspiring animators? 

My most fulfilling work has always resulted from reaching out directly to someone and asking if they’d like an animation. If I send an email to 50 people, I might hear back from 5. And of those 5, one will take me up on the offer to produce an animation. Repeat this process as many times as it takes to make a living.

FableFive: Leah Garofalo- combining arts and science with a musical flair

Leah Garofalo always approached high school projects with an ambitious sense of creativity. For a ninth grade biology assignment at Monticello High School, she wrote, performed and produced an original song about taxonomy. Years later, The FableVision Learning Team asked her some questions to discover more about the creative process that turned this complicated science topic into music.

1) Can you share a bit about yourself and your school? 

At the time I was a tiny 13 year old coming from a middle school where I knew every student and every teacher, heading into the newest, shiniest high school in the county. I was a band geek and that would prove to be my in with new friends and multiple assignments throughout my high school career. 

My song writing career didn’t follow me to college, although being a band geek did. I went on to major in mechanical engineering and currently work for a financial firm in Fairfax, Va.  

2) What was the inspiration for the Taxonomy song?

Sister Ruby, soundmixer Joe, and Leah Garofalo when the Taxonomy song was being recorded.

I wish I could remember the exact circumstances, but I believe it was just a regular class project involving the topics at the time. Instead of doing a typical boring report or trifold science fair presentation, I decided to go all out and write a song. My dad was and still is a professor at UVA in the math-ed department. At that time I remember his main focus was (and again, really still is) creative teaching methods to get students more engaged. Coming up with intricate powerpoint presentations, games, and videos was always my go-to for class projects. 

It was a no-brainer once we were given free rein on the assignment about a biology topic of our choice that it would be some sort of audio or visual presentation. 

3) How did you craft the lyrics? I noticed you have a backup singer, can you share a bit about the collaboration?  

Leah Garofalo and her sister/backup singer Ruby

I knew I would have to give some background information on the scientist as well as a rundown of the classification scheme, complete with an example. If I can recall correctly, "Yellow Submarine" was chosen pretty early on in the lyric writing process, not only because I was raised on classic rock, but because I said to myself, “Ok, this guy (Linnaeus) was born in the town of Uppsala” and immediately thought wow that’s just like “in the town where I was born.” And soon the rest of the song started flowing.  

My backup singer is my little sister who was 7 at the time. Best collaborator ever.

4) What is next? 

What came next, still in 9th grade, was a music video with my friend Cydney for our world history class. It was a 6 minute song comprised of "Ice Ice Baby" by Vanilla Ice followed by "Girls" by the Beastie Boys. Not only did we play and record the music, but we again rewrote the lyrics to both songs to give a brief history of the world. The video was us singing along to our recording and dancing in my dad’s office with my sister making a cameo in it as well. 

In 12th grade, as a final project in calculus, some friends and I wrote a song called "Werewolves of Blundin" about our teacher to the tune of "Werewolves of London." He was nice enough to accept the work even though the amount of math included was really only for rhyming purposes. 

A parody of the Warren Zevon song, Werewolves of London. This uses the famous UVA quarterback, Matt Brent Blundin as its protagonist. He is a werewolf in two ways, first, he thirsts for blood and he's a calculus teacher, second he is a two-sport athlete, basketball and football.

5) Tell us about you now? How did your creative upbringing influence your career path? 

Unfortunately as a financial professional, I don’t have many opportunities to create songs or music videos anymore. However, I do think that by doing projects such as these and countless other intricate PowerPoints and interactive presentations has helped me become someone who thinks out of the box. I am able to approach problems and situations them in a much different manner than providing just traditional solutions. I certainly credit my upbringing and desire to be different to most of my successes.

Are you or someone you know, a student or educator making their mark in a creative way? Contact Andrea Calvin, andrea@fablevision.com, to be featured in a FableFive.