In a Northeast Philadelphia classroom, Kyle Schwarber's home runs are helping students learn math skills
Kids are learning math in elementary schools across America, but a local teacher is putting a quintessentially Philadelphia spin on her lessons.
At Mast Community Charter School II in Northeast Philadelphia, Amber Kiley uses her students' love of sports to teach them arithmetic and measurement, lessons and skills that will last the rest of their lives.
"As a first-year teacher, I knew I wanted to come in and really just make a difference, get the kids engaged, get them learning in a way that would be relatable to them," Kiley said.
It started with Saquon Barkley's rushing yards. After every Eagles game, Kiley's class would add up Barkley's season total. Barkley rushed for more than 2,000 yards last year, so the students got plenty of practice with place values.
"When we started doing it, I could see the difference in engagement with when we actually did the curriculum work in the book to when we started tracking his yards. The participation skyrocketed when we would track Saquon's rushing yards," Kiley said.
This spring, Kiley's students have shifted to following the Phillies and tracking Kyle Schwarber's home runs. They're not only keeping track of how many pitches he hits, but also how far they fly.
"We've connected it now to measurements, since that's the new lesson that we're in in our math books. So we're looking at measurement with inches, centimeters, yards, feet. It's been good," Kiley said.
With the school year about to end, Kiley is giving her students an optional summer assignment. But with so many budding baseball fans in class, she doesn't think they'll mind too much.
"I had to let them know, sadly, we're not going to be able to finish it out just because the season runs past our school year. So I've encouraged them to keep it up, you know, keep tracking it at home," she said. "Ask your parents to put on the games if they can, or even just look it up on the internet, keep tracking it."
The students have done a lot of learning with this sports-based curriculum, considering Barkley led the league in rushing last year, and Kyle Schwarber currently has 19 home runs, the fourth most in the major leagues.
