Radical Math Talk

In this episode, I had the chance to chat with Nayoung Weaver about growing up as a transnational student (i.e. "Third Culture Kid"), her personal Math journey, combating the Model Minority Myth, engaging in translanguaging practices, student agency in the international Math classroom, and so much more!  To learn more about Nayoung's work, you can visit the Association of International Educators and Leaders of Color (AIELOC) website at aieloc.org or you can follow her on Twitter (@NayoungWeaver).

BIO: Nayoung Weaver is a College Counselor and AP Math teacher at an international school in Asia. As a “Third Culture Kid (TCK),” she is raising her second-generation TCKs while working to make mathematics education global, equitable, and inclusive to diverse learners.

In this week's episode, I have an in-depth conversation with hip-hop Math edutainer Keziah Finney about her personal math journey, the founding of Lyrical Math, the power of hip-hop as a medium for Math pedagogy, and so much more! To learn more about Keziah's work, you can visit the Lyrical Math website at lyricalmath.com and follow her on Instagram & Twitter (@lyricalmath).

BIO: Mrs. Finney was born in Chester, Pennsylvania and moved to New Castle, Delaware at a young age with her mother, father and four older brothers. She grew up in a musical family and spent years in her family church choir gaining her first experience sharing her voice through music in front of a large crowd. She loved teaching from a young age and knew she wanted to be a teacher since elementary school. Growing up with many siblings and cousins being rappers and music producers, she gravitated towards hip-hop music and performed as a rapper in many talent shows while growing up. In 1998, she graduated from William Penn High School. She completed her undergraduate degree in 2002 with a Bachelor’s in Biology from the University of Maryland Eastern Shore. Upon graduation, she started her teaching career in Chester, Pennsylvania at Village Charter School. Diving into her love of teaching , she returned to college and received her Master’s of Education from Wilmington University. Over the past 18 years, she has taught middle school math and science and various middle schools in Chester, Pennsylvania and in Wilmington, New Castle and Hockessin, Delaware.

As an artist and educator, Mrs. Finney noticed early on in her teaching career how quickly students memorized and recited hip-hop songs throughout the school day. While her students walked in the hallways, socialized in the school cafeteria or completed class work, she would find many of them rapping popular hip-hop songs or even creating their own lyrics. These moments led to reflection on her own similar experiences with hip-hop when she attended grade school. When introducing math lessons to her class in the traditional fashion, she would see a disconnect in her students. Eager to have her students engaged in the lesson as well as increase their level of comprehension, Mrs. Finney started creating lyrics that explained the math content she was hired to teach. When she shared the lesson lyrically, her students lit up! Their excitement for learning increased and so did their level of comprehension. Administrators, teachers, parents, students and community members expressed their appreciation for Mrs. Finney’s ability to tailor the curriculum to meet the needs of her students. This made for a more rewarding and memorable classroom experience.

Mrs. Finney expanded her ability to teach more students through music when she met her husband, James Finney. With his undergraduate degree in Studio Production and Digital Filmmaking and Master’s in Applied Technology in Education, Mr. and Mr. Finney combined their passion for education and disciplines to create Lyrical Math. With this edutainment program, Mrs. Finney created two CDs that teach basic math skills through hip-hop music.  With the support of her husband and four children, Mrs. Finney aspires to help students all over the world become more engaged and interested in math and science by teaching through educational hip-hop music.

In this inaugural episode of Radical Math Talk, we kick things off with an in-depth conversation with our special guest Michole Washington about her personal math journey, life as an applied mathematician, the founding of her company, STEMulation, the current state of STEM education for Black women, and so much more!  To learn more about Michole's work, you can visit the STEMulation website at stemulationescaperoom.org and follow her on Instagram & Twitter (@mathematichole_).

BIO: Washington’s “abolitionist approach” to STEM education started the year she graduated from Georgia Tech. In 2016, she was the ninth Black woman in history to earn a bachelor’s in Applied Mathematics from the Institute. That fact signaled to her that there were deeply rooted, systemic issues in the education system, including racism, sexism, and imperialism; this makes it hard for Black and Brown students to feel seen, challenged, or excited about learning STEM concepts. She’s committed to shifting the narrative of what STEM education is and who can do it. As a doctoral candidate in mathematics education at the University of Michigan, she studies different aspects of informal STEM environments like extracurriculars designed for students who are underestimated because of their race or economic status. As a resident researcher intern at NASA, she conducts research and develops tools focused on evidence-based, effective practices aimed at sparking and sustaining underestimated K-12 girls’ interest in STEM. She is also CEO and founder of STEMulation, an educational games and media production company that promotes STEM learning through the lens of social justice theory and practice.

“Even though most of my current success is about critiquing mathematics education and the culture around it, my formal mathematics training at GT has set a sturdy foundation for my messaging,” Washington says. “By that, I mean my undergraduate experiences as a math major at GT gave me a first-hand perspective to understand when a student is not comfortable within a STEM space, and secondly, the motivation to want to do something about it.”