A Modern-Day School House Rock

Teachers have long relied on mnemonic devices and catchy lyrics when they want to help their kids remember vital information for tests. But what about teaching the kids how to study for a test in the first place? Enter McKinley Broome (MD '10).

Broome, a fourth-grade math and reading teacher at Baltimore, MD's Woodholme Elementary School, received the Milken Educator Award, in part, because of his focus on keeping learning fun and engaging. He calls his students the 212 Crew after his classroom number, turns lectures into trivia challenges, laughs off wrong answers instead of scolding the students who say them, and yes, even composes song lyrics set on inspiring kids to learn and study. Naturally, that last one was just begging to be made into a music video.

"In my first year of teaching, my class government had decided that for our Valentine's Day party, we'd play music on the radio," said Broome, explaining how the idea came about. "I was completely amazed at how well the whole class not only sang along, but also that they knew all of the words to each song we heard. Part of me was a little frustrated by this because these were the same kids that at times struggled to remember some of the skills I taught the day before. I knew that I had to find some way to incorporate music into our daily lessons.

"I started off using songs the kids already knew and just replacing the lyrics," Broome said. "After the second year, some of our songs were starting to get old because their original counterparts were no longer on the radio. So then I started to purchase music beats offline and made new lyrics to music the kids have never heard before. Each year, I make some differences to excite my new class and give them some sense of ownership to the songs."

Aside from songs about studying, Broome also composes raps about science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) and the Maryland School Assessment (MSA). (An example from his STEM Fair rap, set to the tune of Terror Squad's 2004 song "Lean Back,": Time to write the procedure, so let's get busy / A lot of confusion will make us dizzy / List all the steps in the right order /And know what data should be recorded").

“We'd play music on the radio. I was completely amazed at how well the whole class not only sang along, but also that they knew all of the words to each song we heard. These were the same kids that at times struggled to remember some of the skills I taught the day before. I knew that I had to find some way to incorporate music into our daily lessons.”

Broome also mixes in a bit of home team pride and tracks students' growth by posting "A" students' photos on a 3D poster of the Baltimore Ravens' arena. At the end of the quarter, they have Tailgate parties during lunch and recess that have included kid-friendly chemistry experiments like making Silly Putty and bouncy balls and playing with Alka-Seltzer rockets.

The payoff has been worth the missed lunch breaks: All of Broome's fourth-grade students received proficient or advanced math scores on the MSA for 2008, 2009 and 2010. But test scores aren't Broome's only merits for validation.

"My ultimate goal as a teacher has always been to increase the amount of time that families spend talking about school with their child and doing anything I can to increase the level of importance of a good education," Broome said. "This has led to awesome relationships with the parents and my relationships with my students have involved me being invited to parties, dinners, and their sporting events. [Recently,] our class had a surprise going-away party for one of our classmates at one of the student's homes. My students' attendance has always been good, but my best moments are when the students would rather not go home at the end of the day, or when the end of the year comes and half of the class is crying because they don't want to leave my class."

Contact McKinley Broom via email at mbroome@bcps.org