EDIT: On the occasion of the college patent, this Thursday, June 30, we suggest you re-read this article dedicated to a teacher from Gironde who uses rap to teach mathematics.
On his YouTube channel or social networks, the comments are mostly rave reviews, and many regret not having had a teacher like him…
Antoine Carrier is a math teacher at Dupaty College in Blanquefort, near Bordeaux (Gironde). And for a few months, his videos Rapemathics are a hit, with in particular a peak at more than 3.5 million views on TikTok for “The simplification of fractions”.
“When my students ask me for free styles, it’s a no”
Performances that propelled him to the rank of star with his students. Which really makes him laugh. “I absolutely did not expect that, for me there was only an educational aim in my approach, to help students revise before a test, and especially in order to prepare for the college diploma” , says the 36-year-old teacher. “Sometimes I use it in class, he adds, on the other hand when my students ask me for free styles [improvisations], it’s no: the song without the clip, it’s useless. »
Originally from Bordeaux, Antoine Carrier spent his childhood in Pian-Médoc, attending the Jean Monnet high school in Blanquefort. Once he graduated, he worked for seven years as a teacher in Stains in Seine-Saint-Denis, before returning to Blanquefort.
A fan of “text rap” since his adolescence, he started rapping himself a few years ago. The idea for these clips came to him a little over a year ago. With a friend who works in the voluntary sector, they looked for a way to combine rap and math, for educational purposes.
“From mid-October I got into it all the way”
“I had to find the right formula, that I think about what I could do to really help them, that’s when I told myself that I could put myself at my board, throw little refrains that allow it goes into the head, while illustrating with concrete examples. I shot two or three clips that I showed to fellow math teachers, to the head of the establishment, to friends, to my inspector too… Everyone told me that it was great, and to From mid-October I got into it thoroughly, I wrote several songs, which I record on weekends, in the evening…”
His Rapémathiques channel on YouTube now offers 19 clips that evoke fractions, proportionality and even trigonometry. Themes that are not really sexy at first glance, but it is precisely by approaching them in a new way, with rhythm, that Antoine Carrier hopes to facilitate the task of some, or even allow others to hang up the wagons.
“I have a lot of feedback from young people who tell me that it helps them, but beware, it’s not a magic formula. These are only review sheets, to listen to from time to time to keep the automatisms. And it’s not for everyone: there are also students who say that the music confuses them, or that it goes too fast – even if you can slightly reduce the pace of the video. »
A clip on the health crisis seen 200,000 times on YouTube
After a last clip put online at the beginning of June, Antoine Carrier stops there for this year. He will take over the Rapémathiques next year. “But I won’t do the same because it’s a lot of work. In addition, I try to respond to as many comments as possible. His videos have so far mainly been aimed at the fourth and third, a little less at the fifth and sixth. “I will try to widen myself, aim more for the sixth, because it is at this age that they hang on the Rapemathiques the most. »
The rapper A’Rieka pursues in parallel his own artistic projects. He had in particular made people talk about him during the first confinement with a song, We are pamperedon the conditions of teachers during the health crisis, the clip of which had been viewed more than 200,000 times on YouTube.