Pennsylvania teacher uses Taylor Swift's 'Shake it Off' to teach multiplication to his students

A math teacher Pennsylvania might want to switch to music instruction after he was filmed using a catchy Taylor Swift song to teach students mathematics.

Mr. C decided to use the lyrics to Taylor Swift 2014 hit Shake It Off to teach is youngsters to count by eight while learning their multiplication tables Hanover Elementary School in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania.  

The educator who teaches elementary school managed to cleverly insert the numbers where the lyrics would normally be - and the children could be heard enthusiastically singing along. 

The math teacher, known as @teachwithmrc online, projected the revised song lyrics onto the whiteboard for the kids to recite - and it seemed to work, posting the results to his TikTok account.

A math teacher used a Taylor Swift track to teach his young students their eight times table which he set to the sounds of Shake It Off

The teacher projected new lyrics using numbers instead of words for them to sing

'I can count by eight - got so much in my brain!', the song begins.

'8, 16, 24, mmmm,' the children sang in harmony.

'32, 40 but wait... there's also 48. 56 and 64 mmmhmm. 

No matter the content, the message is all in the delivery and it seems to work.

'My students are so hyped for the Eras Tour in Philadelphia with Taylor Swift. They hope this Shake it off count by 8 version goes viral and Taylor sees this one,' the teacher wrote.  

Taylor Swift, who hails from nearby Redding, Pennsylvania, was in town last week having played three dates at Lincoln Financial Field.

Of course, the difficulty for the children who have learned mathematics in Mr C's  class may well come when they find themselves singing through their upcoming examinations instead of trying to solve math problems in silence.

Pennsylvania elementary school special education teacher @teachwithmrc appeared to get a kick out of his young students singing the song to Swift's lyrics

The teacher's TikTok account sees him teaching various lessons using famous songs

Taylor Swift, who hails from nearby Redding, Pennsylvania, was in town last week having played three dates at Lincoln Financial Field

Mr C has also gone viral for his math teaching videos involving other Swift hits including Trouble and Anti-Hero as well as songs by artists such as the Backstreet Boys, N'Sync and Adele. 

Mr C's real name is Sean Connolly, and he's based out of Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, where he's a special education teacher in the local district. 

Connolly, who has a masters in education from Wilkes University, has been teaching for 15 years. 

'I have been a learning support special education teacher for 15 years. I quickly learned that every textbook program that any district buys requires the learning support/intervention teacher to reinvent the wheel to reach struggling students,' Connolly writes on his website.'

In an interview with We Are Teachers, Connolly said that he came up with the method of using songs when he first discovered TikTok. 

'I realized I could do a lot with the TikTok short video format. Then I came up with an idea for a Count by 9 method using the Backstreet Boys’ “I Want It That Way” song. I posted it on a Friday night. By the morning it had 2,000 views, and by the end of the day, it was almost to 100,000 views,' he said.

In the same interview, Connolly said that even Taylor Swift has liked one of his videos. He added that he has no musical background and that his favorite Swift hit is Shake it Off.