Using Music to Teach Social Studies

Using Music to Teach Social Studies

Because I recently changed my major to history teaching, I feel that this site really could help me out in the future in teaching kids of all ages.  This has everything from the 50 capitals and their states to learning about our government...in song form!  Any of these things can be easily found on YouTube or made into an MP3 for students to use as study tools.  I remember for my biology class, we were taught the DNA song to help us remember what DNA was made up of and we were welcome to sing to ourselves during the test to do better.  Unfortunately, I cannot remember how the words went without having lyrics in front of me.  I do remember it was to the tune of "Row, Row, Row Your Boat".  For the video, click here to watch it.  Yes, it's very cheesy but trust me, this saved my life when it came to the test questions about DNA.

Using "Music Writing" to Trigger Creativity, Awareness and Motivation

Using "Music Writing" to Trigger Creativity, Awareness and Motivation

I would have given anything to have been able to do this in my classes during my childhood!  This would open the doors so many creative writers and children will be able to not only open up their musical interests but also be able use creative writing for any song they listen to.  Music doesn't have to be used either, in the first example, the children counted back from 50 to 1 and once they were done, they were told to write about what they saw.  I can see this being done with pictures of places or even colors.  The students could even use their own music to come up with whatever they felt but I think it would be best to keep the music the controlled piece.  This would be perfect since almost everyone has Zune or iTunes so this can easily be done in the classroom and I feel that I might be using that technique sometime in the near future.

Pay Attention

   This is worth watching the entire 7 minutes and 45 seconds of video.  You never realize how much we have in our pockets and at home when you stop and think about how much technology we are using today.  I remember in high school, cell phone use was prohibited and it was frowned upon to use any musical devices outside of band or choir.  As this video explains, why can't we use the items we are given before us to help teach our students using something we are so familiar with?  The video throws out a statistic that only 39% of students "believe that school work will have any bearing on their success in later life."  It's sad to admit but I was one of the 61% who always questioned "When will I ever need to know this when I get older?  I don't think it'll be useful to me later in life."  While some of the things I did learn in high school helped, I would have to say that a lot of it that I learned has not given me much to help me later in life.
   I never thought of using a cell phone in a class to learn let alone an iPod or music player.  I even forgot that in this class, we use our cell phones to take surveys while in class.  It gives me an idea by using iPods and music players later in life, have students listen to their music and come up with a poem or short story of their music.  To make it more interesting, have them look up a few lyrics from each song and come up with a story or poem that fits.  It can be silly or serious but it's something that can incorporate technology into the classroom, no matter how small the technology device is.

Technology in the Classroom: Helpful or Harmful?

Technology in the Classroom: Helpful or Harmful?

   Is technology helping or hurting our children in today's society?  How can we as teachers incorporate something like technology in the learning experience in our classroom to make it the best and most productive while students still learn the material?

   What comes to my mind while I read this article is all the learning games that I used to play on the computer as a child.  I used to play Jumpstart when I was in first grade and I moved on to math and puzzle games when I was in 5th grade.  I even remember using Mavis Beacon Teaches Typing all through my middle school years and I also remember how much I felt that typing as fast as you could was a waste of time in a computer class.

   Not only do some subjects have a harder time integrating technology into the classroom the older students get, it's sometimes unnecessary and a waste of time.  While using the computer or other devices to get work done, it could also hurt the student's performance in the class rather than if it wasn't brought into the class.  There are many days in my life where I question if it is worth my class time to be on this computer when I have nothing that I could possibly do but play simple computer games or look up answers to homework problems that I had.

  I feel that when I become a teacher in the near future, I will find a way to incorporate technology into my classroom but it will be tough to keep students on task.  I know when I was younger, I had a hard time staying on task while seated in front of a computer screen.  So while there are pluses and minuses to having technology in the classroom, we need to remember that we need to treat technology as a tool that can be used to better help our children learn.