Week 6 Discussion

In the lecture and readings for week six I really saw my own students in everything that was being described. I teach a wide range of ages and grades, from kindergarten to twelfth grade, and I see the use of music in students’ life and it is very predominant. The biggest use of music I see just walking in the halls with my students at the end of the day is the use of headphones and cell phones to listen to music. I also know that my students love YouTube and are very familiar with using it. I think I could use these popular trends in my own classroom to bridge a technology gap and connect more with the music my students enjoy and the web services they already use.

“Throughout history, music has been an integral part of the lives and cultures of all people” (Bauer, 2014, p.104). The importance of music in our culture and our students’ lives is very evident. Most of my high school marching band members can be seen getting on the bus to travel to a football game with a pair of headphones already on their ears. They even share the music with their friends on the bus through headphone splitters. I have always had music on my Ipod or cellphone that I had downloaded, but most of the students I have learned are actually using listening platforms like Apple Music or Spotify. After using Spotify this week to create a playlist I really like the platform and the fact that you can find various music from various genres. One idea I had was to use Spotify as a classroom connection and a springboard of musical ideas. My idea is to have a classroom playlist that could be shared with my whole class of middle school choir students. They can share music they like, that is school appropriate of course, and I can use one song every day to use in class. Some of the songs may even be performed at a concert if it fit into a choir setting. I would also make the music listening go the other way by creating a second playlist that has music I would like the students to listen to. This could even develop into a listening journal where they need to listen to one song on my list and one song on the student list and respond in a blog type setting to the music.

The other idea in the lecture that I enjoyed and connected to was the use of YouTube. The past week, during the music inquiry interview, I was surprised how much my fourth graders use YouTube. They had great ideas to use YouTube in class and find tutorials for different instruments. I also have used YouTube for song lyrics for Christmas music and the students love watching the screen, even though it is just the lyrics. I would love to develop the use of YouTube more in my classroom. Starting with developing my own videos on how to play certain instruments and moving eventually to students making videos of them playing songs or explaining a concept we are going over in music class.

The most impactful thing I am taking away from this week is that my students already are using music sharing platforms and video sharing platforms. It would be advantageous of me to use these platforms in my room to connect with my students and develop their music skills.

Reference:

Bauer, William, I. (2014). Music learning today: Digital pedagogy for creating, performing, and

responding to music. New York, NY: Oxford University Press.