A nice mention of Frank Corcoran, one of the founding teachers of the first NYC KIPP in the Bronx.

When Frank Corcoran dons a cowboy hat and strums a guitar in the middle of his algebra lesson, it's clear his is not an average seventh-grade math class.

His 26 students cheer for the "Singing Cowboy" - a side order loaded with ham on the daily menu at what Corcoran calls his Math Café classroom, a row of diner-style booths at KIPP Academy Charter School in the South Bronx.

"If I did chalk and talk all day, I'd lose them," Corcoran says of his students after performing his ditty about mathematical ranges to the tune of "Home on the Range."

"They like games and songs and change," Corcoran said. "A lot of people make the assumption that middle-school kids don't want to do the silly elementary stuff, that they're too old for it. That's the conflict of teaching the middle grades."

Corcoran's techniques are among those that researchers say are key to creating high-achieving early adolescents. The same researchers say students whose teachers rely on lectures and old-style worksheets remember less and are less productive.

 

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TEACHERS TAKING WRONG 'TRAIN'

COURSES SHORTCHANGE MIDDLE-SCHOOL ED.

By DAVID ANDREATTA

 

 

January 3, 2007 -- When Frank Corcoran dons a cowboy hat and strums a guitar in the middle of his algebra lesson, it's clear his is not an average seventh-grade math class.