Featured Stories
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Smart Shorties on Donny Deutsch
July 24, 2008 0 Comments -
Smart Shorties on NBC
June 9, 2008 0 Comments -
Smart Shorties on ABC
May 22, 2008 0 Comments -
Smart Shorties on CBS!
May 21, 2008 0 Comments -
Smart Shorties Hip Hop Multiplication Teaches Math Through Music
April 22, 2008 0 CommentsSmart Shorties Hip Hop Multiplication, a new CD and workbook from Spark The Mind that melds the world of Hip Hop and R&B into an innovative collection of hook laden tunes geared to teach kids of all ages their multiplication facts will be released April 22, 2008 via www.smartshorties.com. The product is being marketed directly to educators and schools and will be released to major retail outlets later this year. The brainchild of creators Alex Nesmith, a longtime music producer and Christine Smith, a former school teacher, the CD is a compilation of songs covering multiplication facts from 0 to 12 using the back beats of radio hits by some of today's most popular music artists including Chris Brown, T-Pain, Soulja Boy, Akon, and Cassie, to name a few. The songs are performed by students who were chosen after they met the challenge of successfully learning their multiplication facts and displaying the ability to write their own lyrics.
The CD alone is priced at $17.99 and the Teacher Edition double CD and its companion Student Workbook will each sell separately for $29.99. Bulk discounts and Teacher Answer Key's are also available to education professionals. The Teacher Edition double CD is an extended version of the Hip Hop Multiplication CD and includes an additional song for each recording that's only the multiplication facts isolated for teachers to use in their classrooms. The double CD has the instrumental version of each song for the students to practice their multiplication from memory. There is also an enhanced CD with a Lesson Plan Video of How to Use Our Products Effectively for teachers, a presentation about Spark the Mind, a preview of "Smart Shorties Math Facts - The Movie." And a bonus track, "Riding The 50 States," which was inspired by Chamillionaire's "Ridin' Dirty" single, all included in the Hip Hop Multiplication Teacher Edition double CD. The companion Student Workbook is a great way to follow along with the Teacher Edition double CD and is sold separately. In addition to being purchased online, the products can also be ordered by calling 800-880-9839. The CD's and workbooks were designed to give teachers a cool, modern educational tool that students would enjoy learning with while also being affordable for parents to utilize as an educational supplement at home. Unlike the typical workbook, Smart Shorties is printed in full color and uses symbols such as blinged out headphones, musical notes, sports cars and other highly identifiable emblems of hip hop culture, which have proven to hold kids attention.
Smith and Nesmith met while Smith was teaching inner city children grades 4th - 6th in Toledo, Ohio. She approached Nesmith, known for producing hit records for a diverse group of artists ranging from Akon and Outkast to Keith Sweat and Charlotte Church, about turning her math lessons into songs to help her students memorize their facts. "I couldn't understand how my kids couldn't grasp these math equations, but they were able to recite every line from the most difficult hip hop songs," says Smith. She and Nesmith decided to have the students write their own lyrics using the beats from popular music as a key to the student's ability to memorize and easily process math problems. This process was an immediate hit with the students so they formalized the first song into a professional workable classroom program and they found the scores on the standardized math tests showed marked improvement.
A pilot study utilizing Smart Shorties Hip Hop Multiplication materials was recently performed in Washington D.C. public schools, amongst the nation's lowest performing districts. The school exposed to the Smart Shorties product out performed the control group by 25% after initially testing 42% lower than the same control group.
Smart Shorties Hip Hop Multiplication is just the first of what will be a multi-product roll out for Spark The Mind. The company plans to develop a series of educational CD's and workbooks across critical curriculum areas.
Spark The Mind is an edutainment company based in Maumee, OH founded by Christine Smith, a former elementary school teacher and Alex Nesmith, a popular music producer who share a lifelong commitment to early childhood education. Founded in 2006, the company's goal is to harness the international power of hip hop music to inspire kids to learn at every grade level while having fun.
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Teacher, producer create CD for math success
April 10, 2008 By Cyril Josh Parker 0 CommentsThe Amsterdam News
“Schoolhouse Rock” has crumbled, and rappers like Akon, Mims, Solja Boy and Yung Joc are taking over teaching kids their multiplication tables. When Ohio-based teacher Christine Smith and Atlanta-based music producer Alex Nesmith crossed paths in 2006, they created the newest method for teaching inner-city elementary school students to learn. Together, they created education company Spark The Mind and the album “Smart Shorties: Multiplication Hip Hop Math Facts.”
The innovative math songs take current hip hop hits like T-Pain’s “Bartender” and Cassie’s “ Me and You” changing the lyrics to help kids memorize their multiplication tables from 0 to 12. The idea started when Smith was working as an elementary school teacher in inner-city Toledo, Ohio, and struggling to teach her students their multiplication tables. She realized that while they were knowledgeable of every hip-hop song on the radio, when it came to math nothing seemed to click.
“It was a struggle getting then to learn their multiplication tables” she said. “Most of all, they didn’t like learning multiplication.” Smith called upon music producer Nesmith, who has previously worked with acts like Outcast, Twista, and Keith Sweat to create some songs that students could memorize to learn math. After pulling some strings and getting licenses to use some songs, he recorded 13 math songs using vocals from students at Smiths’s school. The recording resulted in a CD with song like “ Throw some 4s on It,” a mathematical version of Rich Boy’s “Throw some D’s On It,” and Jim Jones’ hit “We Fly High” changed to “7’s Ballin’.” Nesmith said, “ I told Ms. Smith that you can get kids to learn anything if you put a beat to it. The kids are learning and the parents love it, too.”
Smith and Nesmith said that the songs go beyond teaching children about math. The lyrics make “learning seem cool” and glorify the benefits of getting good grades. On the track “ Crank Them 3’s,” a cover of Solja Boy’s “ Crank That,” kids hear on the hook “ Watch me crank that honor roll and super boost them scores.” A recent study done by the University of Toledo proved that “Smart Shorties” equals results. The study was done in Washington, D.C., at two proverty-stricken elementary schools. One was given “Smart Shorties” while the other was given the traditional method. The study showed that not only did the students using “ Smart Shorties” learn all multiplication tables, but also learned them at a rapid rate. “A smart shorty is a kid who accepts the fact that it is cool to be smart,” Smith said. “ They know that they don’t have to be the smartest kid in the class, but know what they have to do to learn.
Nesmith and Smith produced learning resources to go along with the CD for teachers. They have received thousands of orders form all around the globe via their website. This summer, the two, along with the students form Smith’s school will be in Brooklyn to film a movie musical containing the lyrics form the CD.
Press
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Using Hip Hop to Teach Kids Wow!!
October 3, 2008 By Word on the Streets Magazine 0 CommentsMusic Producer Alex Nesmith & partner Christine Smith brings unconventional learning to classrooms
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Smart Shorties on Fox!
October 1, 2008 0 Comments -
Musical Math
September 19, 2008 By Jacqueline Minogue for Scholastic 0 CommentsIt all adds up with Smart Shorties: Hip-Hop Multiplication Math Facts—the Movie
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Stevie Wonder endorses Smart Shorties!
September 11, 2008 0 CommentsListen to the radio interview on KJLH - FM in Los Angeles. Check it out HERE
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Local teacher + students + math = fame
August 1, 2008 By Kyle Reynolds 0 CommentsA locally produced album that teaches kids about multiplication facts is adding up big time.
Christine Smith, a former teacher at Paul Laurence Dunbar Academy, Alex Nesmith, record producer, and students are leaving to begin a film adaptation of the educational CD in New York City.
Smith and Nesmith call their edutainment venture “Spark the Mind.” The Maumee-based company released a CD in April called “Smart Shorties: Hip Hop Multiplication,” which features more than 40 students ages 11 to 15 from Toledo rapping and singing about multiplication facts over the beats of popular hip-hop tracks.
Most of the students who will be starring in the film appeared on the CD and are students in Toledo, but some outside auditions were hosted for the film.
Nesmith describes the film as an urban “High School Musical” and said the story is about the “Shorties” and a rival group that they are competing against in a math contest.
Marc Calixte, who wrote the screenplay for “The Perfect Holiday” starring Gabrielle Union, Morris Chestnut and Queen Latifah wrote the script.
Rappers Mims and Soulja Boy, whose music is sampled on the CD, have already been confirmed to appear in the film, with more celebrity cameos expected, Nesmith said.
Mike Moon, 13, has acted in some local plays before, but this will be his first time acting in front of a film crew.
“I'm excited,” Moon said. “It should be fun.”
All the kids in the film and on the CD have contracts and will receive royalties from their work, Nesmith said.
The film will be distributed by Scholastic to schools nationwide, and a distribution deal with retailers is in the works to get the film carried in stores like Toys “R” Us and Barnes & Noble, Nesmith said.
Smith said she was inspired to try music when no one in her class of sixth graders passed the math portion of the Ohio Achievement Test. She bought different learning CDs to help her students, but none of them was feeling it.
“They were all kind of corny and they didn't like them at all, but all the students would come into class singing a hip-hop song word for word,” Smith said. “I wanted to use a cool song that they already liked, so I contacted Alex about one song about memorizing multiplication facts.”
That song went over so well with her class that they created a whole CD, and her class the following year reached a 48 percent passing mark on the math portion.
Nesmith, who has worked with artists such as OutKast, Keith Sweat, Akon and Ronald Isley, uses his connections in the music business to obtain instrumentals of the popular songs, but the songwriting is almost entirely up to the students.
“The basis of ‘Spark the Mind' is to include the children in the creative process,” Nesmith said. “They know what they like more than anyone else.”
Smith and Nesmith make a list of popular songs on the radio and present them to the students to see what songs they want to write lyrics for. The rule with the songwriting is it has to be about math, “nothing about money, cars and girls.”
When Smith was teaching at Paul Laurence Dunbar Academy, she would give the students a break with the hip-hop math.
“We would take a break every 20 minutes and put a song on and then get back to the regular curriculum,” Smith said. “The kids won't resist it that way.”
If a teacher is just rambling for hours without a break, it is difficult to pay attention, Moon said.
“I get bored and tired and can't focus anymore,” Moon said.
Moon said creating the CD has helped him with his math skills.
“It is amazing,” Nesmith said. “These kids are so good and talented. As long as they keep good grades, they have potential in the music industry. I'm amazed how comfortable they are in the recording studio, they do better than a lot of adults.”