Reflection #5- Music

Music is an excellent tool to use in the classroom. It is fun, innovative, and effective. Songs can be used in original text or common ones can easily be revamped to fit different subject matter. Changing lyrics in songs to fit the core is an excellent way to remember and review learned material. Unlike notes, this is something they will always have with them. The song is memorized and will be with them when they come across that difficult problem on the end-of-levels or even just unit assessments.
I would love to use this tool in my class. I learned a lot just by listening to the groups present in class, so I can imagine how effective it would be. In high school, I took a class that required memorization of specific passages. These were easily memorized and remembered when they were put into a song format. I can still remember quite a few of them today. It is often just something that no matter how hard you try to get rid of it, you will always have it with you.
I think it is important to allow students to learn the song along with you. Repetition and actively engaging with the music seems like it would be the best way to learn songs. I enjoyed using the different techniques and instruments while learning all of the songs during class. I think by adding in little things, the lyrics just come easier.
I plan to use this in many ways. It would be a fun review but also a fun introduction to a subject. By knowing a song about a subject, the knowledge is able to be more concrete for the students. They almost always have the previous knowledge of the tune, so there is no need to start from scratch. Using something that they already know and adding upon it, just adds so many more connections and even simple understandings.
This project was really fun to come up with. I love to change lyrics into songs just messing around so I was excited when we got to do it for a purpose. Our group worked well together and were able to build off of one anothers ideas. We all got a say in how we would go about preparing and presenting our project.
I have enjoyed working with groups for each presentation this semester. I think it would be awesome to be able to work like this with other teachers teaching the same grade level. I like working with others because it opens up so many unseen doors and allows for so much more learning, exploration, and understanding to come into affect.
I think it is important to allow students to work with those they feel comfortable with as well as those who they don't feel as comfortable with. For the first two presentations, we were able to choose our groups. The groups I choose were people I had worked with in the past and I knew their working habits. For the last two when we worked with individuals in our grade level, it took me a little outside of my comfort zone. I enjoyed working with everyone that I got a chance to work with this semester and the things that were taught/learned through our collaboration.