A creepy vision in white slowly entered the classroom. It was a mummy, bandaged from head to toe. The students weren't scared, though. They had a feeling it was really their incredible teacher, Kay Toliver. She was simply dressed for the occasion. Halloween? No--a lesson about geometry and shapes, like pyramids.
Toliver uses all sorts of unusual tactics to teach fourth- through sixth-graders to solve real-life problems with math. She even had them race Tinkertoy cars to teach them how to calculate speed. "You can learn while having fun," says Toliver, a teacher at New York City's East Harlem Tech/P.S. 72 for 33 years.
Now millions of TV viewers can learn math while watching Toliver's antics on The Eddie Files, a PBS program she is host of. A fictional main character named Eddie uses Toliver's math lessons to solve his everyday challenges. He used her lesson on speed, for example, to calculate the fastest route to catch a lost dog.
Unlike Eddie, an actor who's heard but never seen, Toliver and her students are real people. The kids don't get a grade for the videotaped summer sessions, but they do become math wizards--and they get to be on TV. The show also introduces real workers who describe how they use math in their jobs.
Toliver's wacky ways work wonders! A study of more than 500 students in four U.S. cities recently showed that their math skills multiplied after tuning in. Toliver says her greatest gift isn't fame or the educational awards she and the show have won. "It's when students get that 'I got it' look in their eyes, then share with the class," Toliver says. "That means learning is taking place." And that means she'll have another trick up her sleeve tomorrow!