Interesting way to teach about science

On my way to work on Monday I was listening to the Bert Show on Q100 in Atlanta when they started talking about a teacher who had been bugging the producer to let him on the air. The reason he wanted on was to talk about how he changes the words on popular songs to include science topics that he was teaching that week. They DJs joked that writing each of them every week wasn't the way to get on the radio, but they let him on any way.

To my surprise, it was Mr. Limpert from McClure Middle School. Meghan is a rising 8th grader at McClure. Mr. Limpert teaches 6th grade but Meghan didn't have him when she was in 6th.

While I didn't get to here one of his 'lectures', he did describe how it works: every Friday he does an acapella version of a popular song, but changes the words. He said he teaches the kids the chorus, and makes them sing back to him. Sounds like a lot of fun and something most tweeners would find funny and unique.

I think it is great that he's doing this. While I've been impressed with most of Meghan's teachers so far, this guy is going well beyond presenting the materials. Reminds me of a couple of different teachers I had in school. One, who taught Anatomy, went out of his way to inject some humor, social responsibility and 60's Rock into the Catholic education we received. He's the reason I started listening to 60's groups like The Moody Blues and Jeroth Tull. He was also the first teacher who talked about cars with me. (He had a 65 mustang before he sold it to have kids. I had the 80 Capri). For example, extra credit questions were to define what group sung specific lyrics.

I'm surprised I hadn't heard of Mr. Limpert before, since we have friends with kids in all grades over there. Next time I'm in there for a career day I'll see if I can find him.