He did an awesome job. His message was exactly what our teachers needed to hear. Thank you for recommending him and helping me to arrange to have him come to our event.
Alex Kajitani
Teacher of the Year, Author of the acclaimed book, Owning It: Proven Strategies for Success in ALL of Your Roles as a Teacher Today
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San Diego, CA, US
Alex Kajitani
Biography
Alex Kajitaniis the 2009 California Teacher of the Year and a Top-4 Finalist for National Teacher of the Year. He is the author of two acclaimed books for educators, including Owning It: Proven Strategies for Success in ALL of Your Roles as a Teacher Today, named "Recommended Reading" by the U.S. Department of Education.Alex is also known across the country as "The Rappin' Mathematician," and his CDs and workbooks are being used in classrooms and homes around the world. He has been honored at the White House, has a popular TED Talk, and has been featured in many media outlets, including the CBS Evening News with Katie Couric.However, it wasn't always this way Ten years ago, Alex Kajitani was a struggling new teacher at a tough, inner-city school in one of San Diego's poorest neighborhoods. As the students came in each day unable to remember simple math concepts from the day before, yet singing every word to the new rap song on the radio, Alex realized he needed a new approach. Fed up with the students coming in rapping lyrics about violence, drug use, and mistreating women, Alex began performing rap songs about the math he was teaching. He used authentic rap beats similar to what was on the radio, and interjected messages about making good decisions and living a positive life.The songs quickly became legendary throughout the school, and the district. Test scores soared, and Kajitani's "at-risk" students began outperforming their more affluent counterparts on district-wide tests. Since then, Kajitani has turned a new teacher's desperate attempt to connect with his students into a nationwide teaching tool.A tireless and innovative advocate for our schools, Kajitani now speaks across the country to educators of ALL levels and subjects. He delivers powerful keynotes that are honest and real, and capture the essence of what it means to be a teacher today. Through heart-wrenching stories, thought-provoking ideas and immediately implementable strategies, Alex inspires us all to teach, not only for the world as it is, but for the world as it can be.
Alex Kajitani
Featured Videos
Current: Making Math Cool
Time 14:42
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Alex Kajitani
Featured Keynote Programs
Owning It
How To Be Highly Effective & Love What You Do
Fifteen years ago, Alex Kajitani was a struggling new teacher in one of California’s poorest neighborhoods. His students were unmotivated, unengaged and uninterested in what he was teaching. Demoralized and desperate, he set out on a journey to turn his class, and his life, around. From frustrated new teacher to being honored at The White House – this journey is one he now shares with educators across the country, to inspire them to new heights and fresh ways of thinking about the students they serve and the subjects they teach. Alex tells refreshingly honest stories of what it truly takes to succeed as a teacher today, and interweaves them with real, easy-to-implement teaching strategies, which can be used the very next day, to create the world as it can be.
Kajitani’s “Six in the Mix”
Six Principles to Motivate and Reinvigorate Teachers
Teaching is not just what we do. Teaching is what we are. This session presents six principles that remind us why we chose teaching, why we love teaching, and exactly what we can do to be the greatest teacher ever! From learning from our own failures to understanding our students' ethnicity, Alex shares stories, strategies and inspiration that can be immediately implemented to have a lasting effect on our students and our profession.
The TurnAround Teacher
Real Classroom Management for Real Students
After eight years of successful teaching, one of the country’s top teachers found himself with a class that left him frustrated, helpless, and wanting to quit.
Instead of quitting, Alex dedicated himself to mastering four principles of classroom management that revolutionized every aspect of how he ran his class. In this presentation, Alex weaves stories of brutal honesty and hope with classroom management strategies and solutions that will inspire new teachers, reinvigorate veteran educators and motivate mid-career educators to teach with passion, courage, and a determination to succeed.
Rap & The Gap Why Understanding Our Students Is The Key To Helping Them Achieve
Let’s be honest: We can’t teach our students if we don’t understand who they are, and how they’re motivated. The key is to stop trying to force our curriculum into our students’ lives and, instead, fit our students’ lives into the curriculum. Alex connects his own desperate attempts to connect with his students to the lessons he learned along his journey to becoming one of America’s top teachers. Be prepared to laugh, to cry, to return to your school ignited with fresh strategies that can be immediately implemented.
Alex Kajitani
Featured Review
Alex Kajitani
Featured Articles & Resources
Another Year, Another Principal: How to Manage Your Relationship with a New Principal
If you teach in a school that's had the same principal for the past five years, you needn't read any further.
Still reading? Of course you are.
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