Incompetech is a great website to locate royalty-free music that is covered under the Creative Commons agreement. It is one of the best ways to locate music to implement within the classroom. I found a wonderful piece of music titled, ‘Willow and the Light’ by Kevin Macleod. The instrumentation used: percussion, harp, flute and voice. It was so easy and quick to download, I listened to it and it sounded so relaxing, perfect for my Yoga sessions I carry out with my preps after lunch. I am so proud of them they thoroughly enjoy learning new moves (they know ten off by heart) and know when the music is playing there is no talking. For preps some of you may already no this can be very hard to achieve, but they do this so well.
I also use music in the classroom for the following:
- Yoga or rest time music: As stated above using peaceful and relaxing songs is a great way to calm students down after lunch or PE.
- Pack up time music: this can be a good motivator for students to pack up materials quickly and happily.
- Transition music: A fast paced fun song can be used for the changing of group rotations.
Music can be incorporated for students in higher grades by allowing them to:
- Listen to music while working
- Incorporate music within their assessment presentations
- Investigate music as a subject itself students could analyse pieces of work and the elements within each piece
- Listen to how music has changed from their parents and grandparents childhood to now
- Listen to different cultures music when exploring another country or my favourite aboriginal dream time music. Which is very popular for Queensland schools as most of them have an Aboriginal history within the school foundation. My school I am currently in have many areas of the school grounds dedicated to specific Aboriginal tribes.
Incorporating music within the classroom can be aligned to the theory of Active Learning (ACU Adams Centre for Teaching Excellence, 2000). Active Learning consists of three components input, process and output. Music used effectively within the classroom relates to the first component Input, as students are actively learning through the input of multiple senses and music assists greatly for students who learn best through an auditory learning style.
Overall I love the idea of using music to create purposeful learning experiences and I feel it is a great tool when used correctly within the classroom.
Until next time,
References:
Macleod, K. (2008). Royalty Free Music. August 17, 2009 from http://incompetech.com/m/c/royalty-free/faq.html
Prensky, M. (2005). Engage Me or Enrage Me - What today's learners demand. Retrieved August 16, from,
http://net.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/erm0553.pdf
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