This Teacher Helped Her Class Learn Geometry With Beyoncé's 'Formation'

As an adult, trying to relate to teenagers is tricky territory.

You can be successful, or you can wind up sounding like your crazy Uncle Bob who thinks “turn up” is a way of asking someone to speak louder.

Like I said, tricky territory.

Fortunately, this geometry teacher got it so, so right.

Ciera Paul, who teaches seventh-graders at ReNew Cultural Arts Academy in New Orleans, Louisiana, was at home one Sunday evening when she heard Beyoncé's “Formation” on the radio.

Predicting the song would be an instant hit, the fun-loving educator decided to teach her students about different geometric principles using a re-mixed version of the track.

Paul replaced Bey's lyrics with ones about geometry (i.e. “I'm so reckless every time I square radius”) and brought the updated song to class. The students, according to Paul, loved the idea.

She told ABC News,

They were all just like, 'This is so fun, this is so awesome.'

After a few weeks of practicing, she says, nearly all of the students have the new version of “Formation” memorized — and as a result, many of them are doing better in class.

She explained,

This is just an interesting way to change it up a little bit and get away from the traditional teaching methods of just pens and paper. It's just something out of the box that the kids can relate to. The kids are looking for something that's fun and enjoyable, and adding a little song or dance makes [the lesson] more memorable for them.

Her teaching method may have been unconventional, but it totally worked: You've never seen a group of teenage students this enthusiastic about anything.

Mission accomplished.

Check out the brilliant Beyoncé-inspired song up top.

Citations: New Orleans Teacher Remixes Beyonce Song to Teach Math Lesson (ABC News), Brilliant Teacher Is Using Beyoncé's "Formation" to Teach Geometry (ELLE)