Alex Kajitani

SACRAMENTO — State Superintendent of Public Instruction Jack O’Connell announced that he has selected Alex Kajitani, a newly named California Teacher of the Year and middle school math teacher in Escondido (San Diego County), as the state’s nominee for the prestigious National Teacher of the Year competition.

Kajitani is known nationwide as “The Rappin’ Mathematician,” who uses music to make math, as well as the world, more relevant to his students.

“I am exceptionally pleased that Alex Kajitani is representing California at the national level. I greatly admire his passion for teaching, his creative approach to motivating middle-grade students, and his success in making math come alive and relevant,” O’Connell said. “He is a very articulate and engaging individual who is totally committed to reaching every child.”

Kajitani was chosen last month as one of five California Teachers of the Year, one of whom is selected as the state’s candidate for the National Teacher of the Year Program.

The other California Teachers of the Year are: Alastair Inman, science, Lexington Junior High School, Anaheim Union High School District (Orange County); Jose L. Navarro IV, social studies and U.S. history, Sylmar Senior High School, Los Angeles Unified School District; Mark Teeters, choral music director, Vintage High School, Napa Valley Unified School District; and Loredana Wicketts, Eisenhower Elementary School, Corona-Norco Unified School District (Riverside County).

The National Teacher of the Year winner will be selected in the spring of 2009 by a panel convened by the Council of Chief State School Officers. All candidates in the program will be honored at a White House ceremony.

‘Meet Them Where They Live’

In his application for the California Teachers of the Year Program, Kajitani wrote:
“No subject, especially the mathematics that I teach, can be truly learned if the students do not see the relevance of the information in their everyday lives. I am constantly looking for ways to ‘meet them where they live.’

“On any given day, I am weaving lessons about the math the students are learning with issues important to them, such as advertising, the Internet, and popular music. Never will a student leave my class thinking that they will not use the information we have discussed.”

Kajitani, who is of Japanese and Jewish ancestry, earned a bachelor’s degree in sociology from the University of Colorado at Boulder in 1995, and a master’s degree in curriculum and instruction from San Diego State University in 2004.

He and his wife, Megan, who is his backup vocalist and helps him run his business, Mathraps, have a baby daughter.

The Birth of ‘TRM’

Kajitani was a struggling new teacher at a tough, inner-city school in San Diego. As the students came in each day unable to remember simple math concepts from the day before, yet singing every word to the new rap song on the radio, he realized he needed a new approach.

Fed up with rap lyrics about violence, drug use, and mistreating women, he began to perform rap songs about math. He used authentic rap beats similar to what was on the radio, and interjected messages about making good decisions and living a positive life.

The songs quickly became legendary throughout the school, and the district. Test scores soared, and Kajitani’s “at-risk” students began outperforming their more affluent counterparts on district-wide tests.

Since then, The Rappin’ Mathematician (TRM for short) has turned a teacher’s desperate attempt to connect with his students into a nationwide teaching tool. Teachers, parents, home-schoolers and administrators across the country are reporting TRM’s music is not only getting their kids better grades in math, but getting them excited about math and school in general.

Among other honors, he has been named Teacher of the Year by Mission Middle School and the Escondido Union School District, Middle School Math Teacher of the Year by the Greater San Diego Math Council, and an Educator of the Year finalist by the California League of Middle Schools.

For information on his CDs, visit www.mathraps.com.