Music In the Classroom!

Music is a powerful tool and a very useful one at that. Especially when it comes to learning. I can't tell you how many times I was able to refer back to song that I learned in school and I was able to recall the lessons and facts I was learning. I mean why do we sing to children and teach them nursery rhymes, because so much of your brain can be developed through music. Music can help you control the mood of your classroom which is a huge part of classroom management. Of course every group of students you have will be different but I feel that Music will have a place in my classroom. For all my life I have sang and been in choirs, I feel that it has really helped me become a very strong verbal person.

I feel that if you connect songs and music to your teaching you will have your students more meaningfully engaged. You may not be able to remember everything you are taught but when you associate a song with your learning you can usually remember where you were when you learned it and what lessons you did that accompanied it. My group chose to do our 4th grade lesson plan on the 5 Tribes of Utah, immediately I remembered that when I was in 4th grade I did a report on the Goshiute tribe and we sang the 5 Tribes song, I was able to remember that we dressed up like our tribes and used drums to sing and dance. Also so many of the other songs that were presented in class I had learned throughout my early education career. So many of my wonderful learning memories are tied to learning a song. I feel that public education is lacking in Creative arts, teachers have so much to cover and they start to stress because they have so much to cover and that there is no way that they have time to sing and add music into their daily class schedule. But I know that isn't true by integrating the arts into your classroom and teaching through the arts rather then with the arts you are igniting a creative flow of learning that will boost your students learning and their enjoyment.

As a future teacher I plan on having music all the time! I want to open my future student's eye's to the world of creative arts. Have my classroom be well-rounded, so many of our students will never get the opportunity to have music, dance, and drama in their lives it is our job as their teachers to give them these chances. I know that I can't overwhelm my class with music just because I love it, there has to be a happy medium. I want my class to also have a say in their learning because then they can be proud of what they are doing. So I guess I will just have to see how it goes, but I know that CREATIVE ARTS will have a home in my class!