Engaging Students With Music

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When teaching virtually, it is important to find ways to connect with your students. Music is a great way to build connections. Students love to listen to music, and they always have an opinion about a song. When teaching virtually, you can play music at the beginning of the class while students are logging into your class. For example, if their last class ended at 10:30 AM and your class begins at 10:35 AM, you could play music for those five minutes. When the music goes off, it means class has started. During this time, students will talk about the songs, and you can engage them in a conversation. Also, this is a great mind break for students between classes, and students will log in early to engage in the music and conversation. 

When choosing the music you will play, it is important to find kid friendly music. For example, you don't want swearing in the music because you are teaching at a school. Kid friendly music is key. You can find kid friendly music on YouTube and/or Pandora. On YouTube, you could pick specific music that you know is appropriate. On Pandora, there are several stations that are kid friendly. I personally like "KIDZ BOP" on Pandora because the music will be different every day, and it is kid friendly. You can find other ideas for Pandora stations here:
Next, you can use music in creative ways to engage students. At the beginning of this blog post, you saw a parody for COVID-19 safety in a face to face school, but this same concept could be used in the virtual classroom through creating lessons revolved around music, or having students complete projects involving music for your class.


Lastly, you will need to play around with your virtual class to see if you are able to play music, BUT, if your virtual classroom causes you any issues, you can play the music on your phone and place your phone next to the speaker of your computer, or you could share your screen in class.

References

(2014). Chemists Know [Online video]. University of California Irvine. Retrieved from https://youtu.be/iM_I6rtIgn0

(2014). A Chemistry Parody of Disney's "Let it Go" [Online video]. Retrieved from https://youtu.be/TyVq4rtp4mY

Lee, Q. (Actor). (2020). Dr. Lee presents Can't Touch This Covid 19 [Online video]. Retrieved from https://youtu.be/oeAN8Xxz0q4


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