Hello, I have been a Special Ed. Resource teacher in the 8th grade for several years. Next year, I may be getting a 3rd/4th self-contained Special Ed. classroom. I am excited, but nervous. Planning ahead, I have many ideas and questions rolling around in my head. One idea that I have been mulling over today is music in the classroom. I'd like to buy a cheap MP3 player that would allow me to play music at various times throughout the day. My question is: if you had your ideal 3rd/4th grade playlist on your iPod, what would it include? I'm hoping to gather together a huge list of songs to check out. Ideally, I would like songs from every genre (motown, country, rap, pop, rock, "oldies", etc.) that are kid appealing and appropriate for school. So, what would you want to hear? Mrs. Mommy
I play a lot of blues, oldies, and country. I also play a lot of Disney CD's...you know; Lion King, Toy Story, movie sound tracks.
A lot of teachers at my school play classical music. It's calming, and a lot of the kids like it, even though they initially think it's boring. If the music has lyrics it can distract from learning, but if your goal is exposure to different types of music then I think you can have them listen to basically anything that is swear-free and not too sexy. =) Are you looking for specific artists?
I tried music in the classroom a couple of times, as background for free writing in my writing classes. A number of kids found it distracting,though, and I didn't see that it really helped anyone. I dropped it. Oddly, I've tried burning a candle a few times too, and everyone seemed to like that. It's expensive, though, and it probably breaks some sort of safety law or something.
In my experience, music can allow students to prolong their ability to concentrate if two things are true: - Only play music during right-brained activities like drawing or handwriting practice. - Start the music period out with NO talking. This will put most of the students into a beautiful zone where they are very productive. Music slows down students involved with left brain activities like writing or math. I play mostly Disney and classical. It's amazing. _______________________________________________ favorite blogs: http://ed-is-life.blogspot.com/ and http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/Bridging-Differences/
I think it really depends on what type of disabilities will be assigned to your class. For example, if you have a student with hearing impairment, wouldn't he feel left out if you do an activity which he might find hard or even impossible to accomplish. Some kids with attention problems may also find music very distracting thus hindering learning instead of increasing it. If however, it is possible to use music, like many have said in this forum, classical music is the best. It's relaxing and it stimulates the brain cells. Nursery rhymes is also good. The children are familiar with it, it can help improve their memory.
I have a lot of classical, but I also keep other music on hand as well. My collection includes Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dream Coat, The Green Album (Muppets), a couple of those relaxation CDs from Dollar Tree, and Jock Jams (most of those are pretty clean).
There was a thread about this a week or so back http://forums.atozteacherstuff.com/showthread.php?t=156022
It's so different for each student. I liked when I worked in the computer lab and students could go to Pandora or similar service and choose their own music. They don't become obsessed with changing the song because you can only skip so many times before it makes you stop. The headphones meant that those who wanted quiet, had peace and quiet.
I use a couple of resources: The most relaxing classical music in the world CDs (that is the name) and also some acoustic guitar music from Joe Miller or other instrumental artists...Jim Brickman. I also play some popular (not really good) music during transitions that is a bit more rock/pop.
