November 4, 2024 • 17 mins
What can a hip-hop beat teach you about photosynthesis? Join us as we uncover the story of Matt Green, the rapping science teacher whose educational rhymes are taking classrooms by storm. Matt combines his passion for science and his love for music to create captivating rap videos that make learning both fun and effective.
By meticulously editing his content using the CapCut app, Matt ensures that each video is a dynamic blend of timing and visuals designed to spark his students' "light bulb moments." His unique teaching style has left a profound impact, evidenced by the outpouring of gratitude from students who have benefited from his engaging approach.
Check out Matt's YouTube channel Here: https://www.youtube.com/@MattGreenJGM.
Teach Middle East Magazine is the premier platform for educators and the entire education sector in the Middle East and beyond. Our vision is to equip educators with the materials and tools they need, to function optimally in and out of the classroom. We provide a space for educators to connect and find inspiration, resources, and forums to enhance their teaching techniques, methodologies, and personal development. We connect education suppliers and service providers to the people who make the buying decisions in schools.
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Hosted by Leisa Grace Wilson
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:05):
You are listening to the Teach Middle East podcast
connecting, developing andempowering educators.
Speaker 2 (00:15):
Hi everyone.
This is Lisa Grace coming toyou again with a Teach Middle
East podcast episode a littlebit different than normal.
Today I have Matt Green on mypod and Matt is the rapping
science teacher.
I feel cool just talking to him.
I feel like I should burst outin a rap.
You know a little something,but you guys don't want to hear
(00:38):
that, believe me, and I am not arapper.
Maybe he will do something forus.
Welcome, matt.
Hey, thanks for having me, it'sa pleasure, it's a rapper,
maybe he will do something forus.
Speaker 3 (00:46):
Welcome, matt, hey, thanks for having me.
It's a pleasure, it's apleasure.
Speaker 2 (00:49):
It's so good to have you on the podcast.
I have watched your YouTubevideos First of all before we go
into it.
How do you get all thosegraphics on the screen?
Speaker 3 (00:59):
Painstaking time I'd like to say I have an editor,
but it's actually all me thatdoes it.
It's time I'd like to say Ihave an editor, but it's it's
actually all me that does it.
It's just you, it's just methat does the editing.
I think, yeah, pretty much forthe science raps.
It's almost all me unbelievableguys.
Speaker 2 (01:13):
If you're listening to the podcast and you haven't
seen one of Matt's videos, youhave to go and watch it.
It's like rap and drill and allof that meets science and it
makes it so much fun.
But what I love continuallyabout it and my boys watch it,
by the way is the graphics Likehow you know they come on screen
(01:39):
the right time and brilliant.
Speaker 3 (01:42):
The app is CapCut, by the way, and, yeah, the
graphics.
It's a particular importantpoint of me because it's the
timing, musically, when thingsappear.
But then it's the timinginformation-wise, because having
10 years in the classroom, Iknow kids' attention-wise and
when people understand things,things need to appear in a
certain way at a certain time.
So yeah, the graphics are veryimportant to me.
(02:03):
Hence it's difficult tooutsource, because someone might
be good animation, they don'tget the sense behind it so tell
me, matt, where did this startbefore?
Speaker 2 (02:13):
before we even talk about the whole rapping science,
teach a bit.
Why did you get into education?
How did you get here?
Speaker 3 (02:21):
well, I I love science.
I've always loved sciencessince I was a kid and in my
early 20s I tutored a little bitand I really liked it.
And then I got a job in aschool teaching and you know it
felt it never felt like a job tome.
Teaching always felt like aprivilege to be able to do two
things I like doing, which ishelp helping kids and and
talking about science.
And yeah, the job was aprivilege even into my last day
(02:44):
when I was in school, which wasthree years ago.
I was sad to leave, but it'svery difficult to juggle all the
things I do in life now.
But that's it.
It's helping kids understandthings and getting that light
bulb moment.
That's what it is for me.
Speaker 2 (02:56):
It's amazing to think that somebody who has come up
through you know, maybe notwanting to be a teacher
initially, but then kind ofgetting into education, could be
creating such an impact in theunique way in which you deliver
the information.
How did that develop?
Speaker 3 (03:16):
it came out of every year.
I always tried to come up withways that make it easy for kids
to learn and understand things.
So I used to do power pointsyou know the age-old thing that
we all do as teachers but try touse certain images, display a
certain way, explain things in acertain way or do worksheets
whatever we did to make kidsunderstand things.
But one summer I said, what canI do this term to help students
(03:39):
understand?
And I had a song playing and Iknew the words to it.
I know the words to that songand I never attempted to.
And this thing that I'm tryingto get kids to learn right now
I've got to spend so much timegetting them to try and
understand it.
Then they're going to have tospend all this time.
But these lyrics we both knowwhen no one taught us, to us the
light bulbs of moment here.
If I can make a song actuallygood as good as the song I'm
(04:06):
listening to right now then whycan't you just learn the lyrics
automatically?
And then, and then it comes tonot just making the song good
musically, but it actually makessense.
So whenever I write around,sometimes it can take eight
hours because it it doesn'tlyrically.
It just have to be good, it hasto make sense, as if it didn't
rhyme.
So I don't write it for it torhyme and have the flow and the
(04:27):
tempo and all the musical partsgood.
If all those bits were strippedby it and I was just talking to
you plainly, would it makecrystal clear sense.
So that's why it's difficult toconstruct these sometimes,
because both things have to workCrystal clear explanation,
absolutely perfect wordplay,lyrics and rhyme scheme.
And if those two match, thenthey almost always go viral.
Speaker 2 (04:50):
It's interesting because you use popular beats.
Were you always into music?
Speaker 3 (04:54):
Yes, oh yeah, I've always loved music.
I've loved music since theyoung kids, school years.
You know I was always listeningto 2 Back 50 Cent.
You know those are my favouriterappers and yeah, they probably
influence the way I write now.
But I love a lot of the UK guystoo, to be fair.
Speaker 2 (05:09):
Because it's interesting, because when you
can relate to the beat then it'seasier for you to get the
lyrics.
What impact has your work hadso far that you've heard about,
because sometimes the impact isso far reaching?
You don't know, but what impactare you aware of that your work
has had?
Speaker 3 (05:28):
It's helped thousands of students that I'm aware of
personally just from themessages I've got, if not
millions.
But I couldn't tell you thetens of thousands of messages
I've got from kids saying Iwasn't a grade two, science was
just not happening and I'dwritten it off as a failure and
I've managed to scrape through apass of a four or a five.
(05:49):
I get those a lot.
I've had students that alreadywere passing but their parents
and themselves wanted to getmaybe higher grades but they
just didn't feel it was in thetank.
They heard the raps and thenthey start to find a love and
joy for science and you knowthey've passed with seven, seven
, seven, eight.
I've even had students come andsay, look, I've got two nines or
three nines because of goingthrough your raps.
And yeah, and that's what it isreally.
(06:12):
I want kids to love the subjectand understand it easily.
I don't want it to be a chore,I want them to just turn on the
music.
It makes sense.
They go to the exams, theyremember what it was, but if
they forget some of the nuances,the lyrics are just playing in
their mind and they can go yeah,that's it, and they can write
the answers down.
Speaker 2 (06:31):
It's interesting because my nephew, who he's just
finishing up with uni and stuff, I was telling him I'm going to
interview you on the pod andhe's like, yeah, I know, matt
Green, he lets the man them likescience and I was like man them
.
What are we talking about?
But how do you feel about itgiving access to kids who would
(06:55):
probably not be turned on by thescientific terms that you
explain in their language?
Speaker 3 (07:03):
that's what it's all about.
That's why I do this.
You know, science is not arenownedly loved subject in
school and I just happen to loveit.
There are some kids out therethat happen to love it, there
are some kids that don't, andthat was me for history.
I hate, I'm still not fond ofit now, but I I speak to the
version of myself that wouldhave been the equivalent in
(07:25):
science.
So whenever I'm making this, I'mlike if there was a rapping
history teacher, what would theyhave had to do for me to
actually engage with the subject?
It would have had to be quick,explained, well, basically what
I do for science, and that's thelogic I use.
And that's the logic I use, youknow, and I don't sort of
convince myself.
It's a widely loved subject.
I know students struggle withit and they don't like it, they
find it boring and I'm just.
I'm just trying to change that.
(07:45):
I know white kids feel likethat.
They get to year seven and thesubject gets stalled for some
reason and I'm just trying toput a bit more fire and flame to
it.
Speaker 2 (07:54):
yeah, let's go wider with the thing, matt, because a
lot of students find schooldeathly boring.
They really do, like they can'twait to be out of there.
What's causing that?
Do you have any ideas aroundthat, like what's causing kids
to be just so bored they want toopt out?
Speaker 3 (08:11):
Oh, it's a very deep question I could just spout
immediately.
I'm going to give a consideredresponse, I think, being deeply
psychological.
I think whenever you have to besomewhere, that's always going
to be difficult.
Right when I had to do jobsthat I didn't want to do, I
don't want to be there.
When it came to teaching,teaching never really felt like
a job to me, so I was happy togo there.
(08:32):
When it comes to working formyself.
Now I can wake up at ungodlyhours in the morning because I'm
happy to be here.
So kids don't want to go toschool.
They can ask the question, butthey don't know why.
Why are they finding it?
If it was amazing, if they werethere playing football every
day or just playing computergames, they probably would leave
out of it.
I suppose it's the way thatit's taught.
(08:54):
We've got like aVictorian-style system that
hasn't changed very much.
You sit, you've got a teacherexplaining, you have to listen.
If you're not understanding it,tough and you just have to sort
of not passively, but you knowit's difficult sitting listening
even.
As you know, I'm 36 years oldnow and if I've got to sit
somewhere and listen to someonespeak unless they're the
(09:16):
funniest person ever I I tend tofall asleep and it's.
I think most people are likethat.
I think kids are definitelylike that.
So if most of your lessons arelike that, it's going to be
difficult.
And yeah, if your day-to-dayexperience is you're in front of
a teacher for an hour listening, then the next teacher
listening, and you're struggling, you're not getting stuff, then
it's going to be very hard.
(09:37):
If that turning point is thereif you just have one lesson like
oh, I get what's going on hereand I like it, then you'll like
that lesson.
If every lesson's like that,then you'll want to go to school
.
But sadly it's.
You know it's not for the faultof the teachers.
Teachers work very, very, veryhard, it's just difficult.
Limited resources and limitedamounts of makes it impossible
(09:57):
to sort of fix that overnight.
I think.
Hopefully with the potential of.
AI and maybe robots not ElonMusk's robots yet, but I think
you know, in the next 10 to 15years I think school education
can change massively if teachershave more time to devote to
planning and time with studentsrather than marking and doing
(10:17):
admin, and then students cansort of feel that they'll feel
that difference.
But we're a little wide off.
Speaker 2 (10:22):
Yeah, what do you think that would look like,
though?
Like what do you envision thatset up to look like?
Speaker 3 (10:27):
If I was envisioning a classroom in the future where
I was in it, it would be me, 30students, let's say.
And you know I come to front ofthe classroom, I say today
we're doing photosynthesis and Ican explain it in 30 seconds
maybe.
Then they're off to do theirthing.
They can offer water plants,grow plants, plant seeds, do
(10:49):
things in this, and they've goteither a robot or some sort of
system.
So I don't have to go to eachindividual one.
If I'm that bored student reallynot know what's going on the
air machine, hey, little man, Ican see you're not quite getting
this.
Where's the trouble?
And they go.
Well, I don't get whatphotosynthesis is and I don't
know what we're doing.
And the computer can go right.
This is what it is.
You understand that.
(11:09):
And if it was first goodexplanation, first time, oh, I
do get it right.
And your instructions, let'sjust take these things, do this.
And if there are 13 studentsthat feel that way and ai can
help them, then the class canmove much more fluently.
Then I have time to go to weekone and say hey, look, I saw for
a second ago on this computersystem you were achieving 53,
but you're now at 70.
(11:30):
Well done the improvement there.
I'm watching you rather than menot being able to have that
interaction because I'm busymarking or something, and I
think if AI and computing cantake that onus out, then you can
have more interactions that aremotivational and I think
learning will just go off thecharts if we have that.
I don't think it's an if.
I think it will happen.
It's just how soon.
Speaker 2 (11:51):
Yeah, that would be amazing because I think it would
help the teachers to focus onthe human side of things.
You know, that connection andthings to the support, et cetera
.
Speaker 3 (12:02):
And I think that's the thing AI can't replace.
I was joking with friends aboutthis recently.
I was like, if you know, Ican't speak any languages, but
if an AI bot was going to teachme French and I went from 10% to
20% and the bot went Matt, youreally impressed me, you've done
well.
You know that can't reallymotivate me because I know it's
about person.
(12:22):
Because if there was a physicalteacher that could come and go
hey, I've seen your percentages,you're doing really well on me.
Hey, okay, thank you.
Yeah, and that would motivateme.
That would motivate me and youneed that person, that real
person, to push you and theymake a difference yeah, yeah,
there's just a limit to what aiand I don't know.
Speaker 2 (12:39):
You know, maybe one day they'll figure out something
, I don't know.
It's just there's.
Humans need humans, you knowjust like birds need birds to
flock together.
It's just how life is question,though.
You have transitioned out ofthe classroom.
What are you now doing?
Speaker 3 (12:56):
I.
I now run my company, ggmScience Tutors, so it's nearly
seven years old, started as justme as a solo tutor and is now
growing to 100 of us.
So there are 100 tutors.
We have an office manager,andrew, and my wife, who also
works for the company, and we,you know, we work hard together,
making sure that we can deliverhigh quality tutors to students
that need science.
(13:17):
We also provide for maths,english and other subjects,
mainly for making sure that wecan deliver high quality tutors
to students that need science.
We also provide for maths,english and other subjects,
mainly for GCSE and A-level andG-Stage 3.
Why did you make that shift?
Because I was tutoringone-to-one heavily at the time
when I was teaching almosttogether and a lot of friends
were saying they were strugglingto find high quality, reliable
(13:38):
science teachers and I found agap in the market, a gap I
thought I could plug quite welland quite happily, and I did.
I mean it took about a year ofbackbreaking work to get it in
motion, but once it was inmotion it started rolling.
I enjoyed it.
So I just started growing it tothe point that I was able to go
from five days a week at workto three days, two days, and
(13:59):
then I started to complicate mylife by by rapping, um, so just
at the point I could leavefull-time.
Speaker 2 (14:04):
I then had another thing to juggle, which is the
rapping and running the company,which is now what I do
full-time yeah, so you're onyour way to Dubai for the guest
show in November and you aregoing to be speaking at the
guest show.
What are you going to betalking about?
Speaker 3 (14:22):
I'm going to be doing two, two main shows.
The first show is aboutengaging, so it's about how
leaders in schools can raisetheir game and engage students
using a mixture of thestrategies I use, which is music
in the classroom and how to usecertain new AI technologies
(14:42):
that can help engage learners,as well as how to get social
media on side and use socialmedia to help as well, because
this is a difficult one.
It's usually taboo and ignored,but there are some things that
make social media quite powerfulto help engage students.
That's what one of thepresentations is going to be
about.
The second one will be more ofa sort of show called rhythm and
(15:03):
rhyme.
Where I am, I showcase a littlebit of rapping in science
brilliant.
Speaker 2 (15:09):
I'm almost tempted, before we close the podcast, to
ask you to wrap something for us, just a little something that
some that people can expect, butI don't know if I should put
you on the spot like that.
What I will ask you to do,though, is to look straight at
camera and just invite people tocome along and see what you
have in store at Guess 2024.
Speaker 3 (15:32):
OK, all right, come and see one or both of my shows
at guest 2024, where I'll beshowing you ways to engage
students using the power ofsocial media music.
And ai, can I drop a rap?
Drop a rap, mate.
Okay, I might have to get.
Speaker 2 (15:50):
I might have to get some lyrics up, you know go on,
then I will definitely beclipping this for sure.
Speaker 3 (15:58):
Okay, A shout out to my sponsor Guests in Dubai, the
education conference that I willpass by to talk and do
experiments and even be onpanels to find out more about
the source they locked into ourchannels.
Speaker 2 (16:09):
Ooh, so you are set to be here in November.
Do you have any plans formoving, expanding
internationally?
Matt.
Speaker 3 (16:23):
Oh yeah, 100%.
We've got a few clients inDubai.
Now we would love to reallywork with a few schools in Dubai
.
So we work with a number ofschools in the UK and we work
with a very, very large buildingcompany called Skanska in the
UK where we train their traineeengineers.
So that's one of our big areasof expansion now.
So we'll always maintainhelping families.
(16:44):
When families need us andthey've got their children and
they want tutors, we do that.
But where institutions likeschools and companies need a
fleet of tutors to train theirtrainees, or if a school's got
classes that they need, we'redoing that as well.
Everything we do is online.
We've got all theinfrastructure in place, so
we're just making a big push forthat now Brilliant.
Speaker 2 (17:06):
Thank you for being on the podcast, Matt.
Speaker 3 (17:09):
No, it's a pleasure.
Speaker 1 (17:13):
Thank you for listening to the Teach Middle
East podcast.
Visit our websiteteachmiddleeastcom and follow us
on social media.
The links are in the show notes.
You are listening to the Teach Middle East podcast
connecting, developing andempowering educators.
Speaker 2 (00:15):
Hi everyone.
This is Lisa Grace coming toyou again with a Teach Middle
East podcast episode a littlebit different than normal.
Today I have Matt Green on mypod and Matt is the rapping
science teacher.
I feel cool just talking to him.
I feel like I should burst outin a rap.
You know a little something,but you guys don't want to hear
(00:38):
that, believe me, and I am not arapper.
Maybe he will do something forus.
Welcome, matt.
Hey, thanks for having me, it'sa pleasure, it's a rapper,
maybe he will do something forus.
Speaker 3 (00:46):
Welcome, matt, hey, thanks for having me.
It's a pleasure, it's apleasure.
Speaker 2 (00:49):
It's so good to have you on the podcast.
I have watched your YouTubevideos First of all before we go
into it.
How do you get all thosegraphics on the screen?
Speaker 3 (00:59):
Painstaking time I'd like to say I have an editor,
but it's actually all me thatdoes it.
It's time I'd like to say Ihave an editor, but it's it's
actually all me that does it.
It's just you, it's just methat does the editing.
I think, yeah, pretty much forthe science raps.
It's almost all me unbelievableguys.
Speaker 2 (01:13):
If you're listening to the podcast and you haven't
seen one of Matt's videos, youhave to go and watch it.
It's like rap and drill and allof that meets science and it
makes it so much fun.
But what I love continuallyabout it and my boys watch it,
by the way is the graphics Likehow you know they come on screen
(01:39):
the right time and brilliant.
Speaker 3 (01:42):
The app is CapCut, by the way, and, yeah, the
graphics.
It's a particular importantpoint of me because it's the
timing, musically, when thingsappear.
But then it's the timinginformation-wise, because having
10 years in the classroom, Iknow kids' attention-wise and
when people understand things,things need to appear in a
certain way at a certain time.
So yeah, the graphics are veryimportant to me.
(02:03):
Hence it's difficult tooutsource, because someone might
be good animation, they don'tget the sense behind it so tell
me, matt, where did this startbefore?
Speaker 2 (02:13):
before we even talk about the whole rapping science,
teach a bit.
Why did you get into education?
How did you get here?
Speaker 3 (02:21):
well, I I love science.
I've always loved sciencessince I was a kid and in my
early 20s I tutored a little bitand I really liked it.
And then I got a job in aschool teaching and you know it
felt it never felt like a job tome.
Teaching always felt like aprivilege to be able to do two
things I like doing, which ishelp helping kids and and
talking about science.
And yeah, the job was aprivilege even into my last day
(02:44):
when I was in school, which wasthree years ago.
I was sad to leave, but it'svery difficult to juggle all the
things I do in life now.
But that's it.
It's helping kids understandthings and getting that light
bulb moment.
That's what it is for me.
Speaker 2 (02:56):
It's amazing to think that somebody who has come up
through you know, maybe notwanting to be a teacher
initially, but then kind ofgetting into education, could be
creating such an impact in theunique way in which you deliver
the information.
How did that develop?
Speaker 3 (03:16):
it came out of every year.
I always tried to come up withways that make it easy for kids
to learn and understand things.
So I used to do power pointsyou know the age-old thing that
we all do as teachers but try touse certain images, display a
certain way, explain things in acertain way or do worksheets
whatever we did to make kidsunderstand things.
But one summer I said, what canI do this term to help students
(03:39):
understand?
And I had a song playing and Iknew the words to it.
I know the words to that songand I never attempted to.
And this thing that I'm tryingto get kids to learn right now
I've got to spend so much timegetting them to try and
understand it.
Then they're going to have tospend all this time.
But these lyrics we both knowwhen no one taught us, to us the
light bulbs of moment here.
If I can make a song actuallygood as good as the song I'm
(04:06):
listening to right now then whycan't you just learn the lyrics
automatically?
And then, and then it comes tonot just making the song good
musically, but it actually makessense.
So whenever I write around,sometimes it can take eight
hours because it it doesn'tlyrically.
It just have to be good, it hasto make sense, as if it didn't
rhyme.
So I don't write it for it torhyme and have the flow and the
(04:27):
tempo and all the musical partsgood.
If all those bits were strippedby it and I was just talking to
you plainly, would it makecrystal clear sense.
So that's why it's difficult toconstruct these sometimes,
because both things have to workCrystal clear explanation,
absolutely perfect wordplay,lyrics and rhyme scheme.
And if those two match, thenthey almost always go viral.
Speaker 2 (04:50):
It's interesting because you use popular beats.
Were you always into music?
Speaker 3 (04:54):
Yes, oh yeah, I've always loved music.
I've loved music since theyoung kids, school years.
You know I was always listeningto 2 Back 50 Cent.
You know those are my favouriterappers and yeah, they probably
influence the way I write now.
But I love a lot of the UK guystoo, to be fair.
Speaker 2 (05:09):
Because it's interesting, because when you
can relate to the beat then it'seasier for you to get the
lyrics.
What impact has your work hadso far that you've heard about,
because sometimes the impact isso far reaching?
You don't know, but what impactare you aware of that your work
has had?
Speaker 3 (05:28):
It's helped thousands of students that I'm aware of
personally just from themessages I've got, if not
millions.
But I couldn't tell you thetens of thousands of messages
I've got from kids saying Iwasn't a grade two, science was
just not happening and I'dwritten it off as a failure and
I've managed to scrape through apass of a four or a five.
(05:49):
I get those a lot.
I've had students that alreadywere passing but their parents
and themselves wanted to getmaybe higher grades but they
just didn't feel it was in thetank.
They heard the raps and thenthey start to find a love and
joy for science and you knowthey've passed with seven, seven
, seven, eight.
I've even had students come andsay, look, I've got two nines or
three nines because of goingthrough your raps.
And yeah, and that's what it isreally.
(06:12):
I want kids to love the subjectand understand it easily.
I don't want it to be a chore,I want them to just turn on the
music.
It makes sense.
They go to the exams, theyremember what it was, but if
they forget some of the nuances,the lyrics are just playing in
their mind and they can go yeah,that's it, and they can write
the answers down.
Speaker 2 (06:31):
It's interesting because my nephew, who he's just
finishing up with uni and stuff, I was telling him I'm going to
interview you on the pod andhe's like, yeah, I know, matt
Green, he lets the man them likescience and I was like man them
.
What are we talking about?
But how do you feel about itgiving access to kids who would
(06:55):
probably not be turned on by thescientific terms that you
explain in their language?
Speaker 3 (07:03):
that's what it's all about.
That's why I do this.
You know, science is not arenownedly loved subject in
school and I just happen to loveit.
There are some kids out therethat happen to love it, there
are some kids that don't, andthat was me for history.
I hate, I'm still not fond ofit now, but I I speak to the
version of myself that wouldhave been the equivalent in
(07:25):
science.
So whenever I'm making this, I'mlike if there was a rapping
history teacher, what would theyhave had to do for me to
actually engage with the subject?
It would have had to be quick,explained, well, basically what
I do for science, and that's thelogic I use.
And that's the logic I use, youknow, and I don't sort of
convince myself.
It's a widely loved subject.
I know students struggle withit and they don't like it, they
find it boring and I'm just.
I'm just trying to change that.
(07:45):
I know white kids feel likethat.
They get to year seven and thesubject gets stalled for some
reason and I'm just trying toput a bit more fire and flame to
it.
Speaker 2 (07:54):
yeah, let's go wider with the thing, matt, because a
lot of students find schooldeathly boring.
They really do, like they can'twait to be out of there.
What's causing that?
Do you have any ideas aroundthat, like what's causing kids
to be just so bored they want toopt out?
Speaker 3 (08:11):
Oh, it's a very deep question I could just spout
immediately.
I'm going to give a consideredresponse, I think, being deeply
psychological.
I think whenever you have to besomewhere, that's always going
to be difficult.
Right when I had to do jobsthat I didn't want to do, I
don't want to be there.
When it came to teaching,teaching never really felt like
a job to me, so I was happy togo there.
(08:32):
When it comes to working formyself.
Now I can wake up at ungodlyhours in the morning because I'm
happy to be here.
So kids don't want to go toschool.
They can ask the question, butthey don't know why.
Why are they finding it?
If it was amazing, if they werethere playing football every
day or just playing computergames, they probably would leave
out of it.
I suppose it's the way thatit's taught.
(08:54):
We've got like aVictorian-style system that
hasn't changed very much.
You sit, you've got a teacherexplaining, you have to listen.
If you're not understanding it,tough and you just have to sort
of not passively, but you knowit's difficult sitting listening
even.
As you know, I'm 36 years oldnow and if I've got to sit
somewhere and listen to someonespeak unless they're the
(09:16):
funniest person ever I I tend tofall asleep and it's.
I think most people are likethat.
I think kids are definitelylike that.
So if most of your lessons arelike that, it's going to be
difficult.
And yeah, if your day-to-dayexperience is you're in front of
a teacher for an hour listening, then the next teacher
listening, and you're struggling, you're not getting stuff, then
it's going to be very hard.
(09:37):
If that turning point is thereif you just have one lesson like
oh, I get what's going on hereand I like it, then you'll like
that lesson.
If every lesson's like that,then you'll want to go to school
.
But sadly it's.
You know it's not for the faultof the teachers.
Teachers work very, very, veryhard, it's just difficult.
Limited resources and limitedamounts of makes it impossible
(09:57):
to sort of fix that overnight.
I think.
Hopefully with the potential of.
AI and maybe robots not ElonMusk's robots yet, but I think
you know, in the next 10 to 15years I think school education
can change massively if teachershave more time to devote to
planning and time with studentsrather than marking and doing
(10:17):
admin, and then students cansort of feel that they'll feel
that difference.
But we're a little wide off.
Speaker 2 (10:22):
Yeah, what do you think that would look like,
though?
Like what do you envision thatset up to look like?
Speaker 3 (10:27):
If I was envisioning a classroom in the future where
I was in it, it would be me, 30students, let's say.
And you know I come to front ofthe classroom, I say today
we're doing photosynthesis and Ican explain it in 30 seconds
maybe.
Then they're off to do theirthing.
They can offer water plants,grow plants, plant seeds, do
(10:49):
things in this, and they've goteither a robot or some sort of
system.
So I don't have to go to eachindividual one.
If I'm that bored student reallynot know what's going on the
air machine, hey, little man, Ican see you're not quite getting
this.
Where's the trouble?
And they go.
Well, I don't get whatphotosynthesis is and I don't
know what we're doing.
And the computer can go right.
This is what it is.
You understand that.
(11:09):
And if it was first goodexplanation, first time, oh, I
do get it right.
And your instructions, let'sjust take these things, do this.
And if there are 13 studentsthat feel that way and ai can
help them, then the class canmove much more fluently.
Then I have time to go to weekone and say hey, look, I saw for
a second ago on this computersystem you were achieving 53,
but you're now at 70.
(11:30):
Well done the improvement there.
I'm watching you rather than menot being able to have that
interaction because I'm busymarking or something, and I
think if AI and computing cantake that onus out, then you can
have more interactions that aremotivational and I think
learning will just go off thecharts if we have that.
I don't think it's an if.
I think it will happen.
It's just how soon.
Speaker 2 (11:51):
Yeah, that would be amazing because I think it would
help the teachers to focus onthe human side of things.
You know, that connection andthings to the support, et cetera
.
Speaker 3 (12:02):
And I think that's the thing AI can't replace.
I was joking with friends aboutthis recently.
I was like, if you know, Ican't speak any languages, but
if an AI bot was going to teachme French and I went from 10% to
20% and the bot went Matt, youreally impressed me, you've done
well.
You know that can't reallymotivate me because I know it's
about person.
(12:22):
Because if there was a physicalteacher that could come and go
hey, I've seen your percentages,you're doing really well on me.
Hey, okay, thank you.
Yeah, and that would motivateme.
That would motivate me and youneed that person, that real
person, to push you and theymake a difference yeah, yeah,
there's just a limit to what aiand I don't know.
Speaker 2 (12:39):
You know, maybe one day they'll figure out something
, I don't know.
It's just there's.
Humans need humans, you knowjust like birds need birds to
flock together.
It's just how life is question,though.
You have transitioned out ofthe classroom.
What are you now doing?
Speaker 3 (12:56):
I.
I now run my company, ggmScience Tutors, so it's nearly
seven years old, started as justme as a solo tutor and is now
growing to 100 of us.
So there are 100 tutors.
We have an office manager,andrew, and my wife, who also
works for the company, and we,you know, we work hard together,
making sure that we can deliverhigh quality tutors to students
that need science.
(13:17):
We also provide for maths,english and other subjects,
mainly for making sure that wecan deliver high quality tutors
to students that need science.
We also provide for maths,english and other subjects,
mainly for GCSE and A-level andG-Stage 3.
Why did you make that shift?
Because I was tutoringone-to-one heavily at the time
when I was teaching almosttogether and a lot of friends
were saying they were strugglingto find high quality, reliable
(13:38):
science teachers and I found agap in the market, a gap I
thought I could plug quite welland quite happily, and I did.
I mean it took about a year ofbackbreaking work to get it in
motion, but once it was inmotion it started rolling.
I enjoyed it.
So I just started growing it tothe point that I was able to go
from five days a week at workto three days, two days, and
(13:59):
then I started to complicate mylife by by rapping, um, so just
at the point I could leavefull-time.
Speaker 2 (14:04):
I then had another thing to juggle, which is the
rapping and running the company,which is now what I do
full-time yeah, so you're onyour way to Dubai for the guest
show in November and you aregoing to be speaking at the
guest show.
What are you going to betalking about?
Speaker 3 (14:22):
I'm going to be doing two, two main shows.
The first show is aboutengaging, so it's about how
leaders in schools can raisetheir game and engage students
using a mixture of thestrategies I use, which is music
in the classroom and how to usecertain new AI technologies
(14:42):
that can help engage learners,as well as how to get social
media on side and use socialmedia to help as well, because
this is a difficult one.
It's usually taboo and ignored,but there are some things that
make social media quite powerfulto help engage students.
That's what one of thepresentations is going to be
about.
The second one will be more ofa sort of show called rhythm and
(15:03):
rhyme.
Where I am, I showcase a littlebit of rapping in science
brilliant.
Speaker 2 (15:09):
I'm almost tempted, before we close the podcast, to
ask you to wrap something for us, just a little something that
some that people can expect, butI don't know if I should put
you on the spot like that.
What I will ask you to do,though, is to look straight at
camera and just invite people tocome along and see what you
have in store at Guess 2024.
Speaker 3 (15:32):
OK, all right, come and see one or both of my shows
at guest 2024, where I'll beshowing you ways to engage
students using the power ofsocial media music.
And ai, can I drop a rap?
Drop a rap, mate.
Okay, I might have to get.
Speaker 2 (15:50):
I might have to get some lyrics up, you know go on,
then I will definitely beclipping this for sure.
Speaker 3 (15:58):
Okay, A shout out to my sponsor Guests in Dubai, the
education conference that I willpass by to talk and do
experiments and even be onpanels to find out more about
the source they locked into ourchannels.
Speaker 2 (16:09):
Ooh, so you are set to be here in November.
Do you have any plans formoving, expanding
internationally?
Matt.
Speaker 3 (16:23):
Oh yeah, 100%.
We've got a few clients inDubai.
Now we would love to reallywork with a few schools in Dubai
.
So we work with a number ofschools in the UK and we work
with a very, very large buildingcompany called Skanska in the
UK where we train their traineeengineers.
So that's one of our big areasof expansion now.
So we'll always maintainhelping families.
(16:44):
When families need us andthey've got their children and
they want tutors, we do that.
But where institutions likeschools and companies need a
fleet of tutors to train theirtrainees, or if a school's got
classes that they need, we'redoing that as well.
Everything we do is online.
We've got all theinfrastructure in place, so
we're just making a big push forthat now Brilliant.
Speaker 2 (17:06):
Thank you for being on the podcast, Matt.
Speaker 3 (17:09):
No, it's a pleasure.
Speaker 1 (17:13):
Thank you for listening to the Teach Middle
East podcast.
Visit our websiteteachmiddleeastcom and follow us
on social media.
The links are in the show notes.
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