Shared experiences are what bond a group together. Whether the group is taking a nature walk, creating art, or sharing personal reflections about music or literature, it is all part of the process we need to share with our students. I believe that these experiences can all be linked to and integrated into the curriculum you teach.
But it is also true that you don’t have to justify everything you do by attaching a standard or strand to it. In fact, just last week, my principal emailed the staff saying this would be a good time of year to take some time and revisit those community building experiences. Sharing experiences and building community can and should be done just to be done. It creates that safe learning environment you want in your room and with your students. It allows students to share their work, ideas and plans more openly with you. And building community is a skill our students will need for the rest of their lives.
One year, I had a second grade class who truly loved our daily listening time during snack. We listened, reflected and shared every day. Students talked about the music freely and after a while, even spoke about it in their free time to one another.
“I liked your idea about how Beethoven must have really felt sad and angry at the same time when he composed that piece of music,” I heard a girl say to another one day at recess. It was then that I had that “great teacher feeling”. What I was doing was working! Those students were connecting on a new level. They felt comfortable talking with one another even outside of our Active Listening time in class.
That year I also got a great compliment about my class during field day. “Your kids work really well together,” said a parent volunteer in charge of one of the stations. “They have great communication and really look around to see what and who is where.” That made me beam!
I probably can’t attribute all that great teamwork to actively listening to music each day, BUT I know that those times, those experiences we shared were real and they surely contributed to a sense of community.
So, as I finish this series for the month, what have I learned? Here is a list:
• Take the time to create experiences.
• Start early in the year.
• Continue throughout the year.
• Be spontaneous sometimes.
• Keep in mind the life skills that are being taught!
Elizabeth:
Im happy you had these positive experiences in terms of your classroom with your music integration components. It makes me want to do more with music in my classroom as well. I usually allow my high school students to listen to their own music while they are working on a lengthy media project. At times I will also play one of my favorite channels on Pandora ( Shinedown) as a backdrop and students will ask me ” Hey Mrs. Y..do you really like this band?” and I am able to start up a dialog with the student about how I do enjoy several up to date hard rock bands and see them in concert. So for me it makes me look less old!! Not that being 3 years from retirement I should forget what the real picture is! But for a moment I may appear cool!!
I am emphatic about respect in my classroom as I find teenagers at times dont treat each other with enough respect…its all over my walls and it is part of my Class Participation grade..so students come to feel very safe sharing at times their inner most thoughts through media with me. As well I embrace, within reason, all of their musical tastes as long as the language is not inappropriate for school. They know that and go forward expressing themselves through the musical tracks they rearrange with me without fear of judgement by others in my classroom.
See you next week!
Cindy
That’s awesome that you share your musical tastes with your students. Doing that really helps with so much, especially as kids get older. We share a piece of ourselves, and they feel safe with us. Then really great learning can happen. Kudos!
I am so happy to hear you talk about community building and experiencing things just for the sake of the experience. It is such an important part of a child’s education and something that all to easily gets pushed aside in the busy hectic days full of time on learning demands. I have witnessed the effects of Responsive Classroom for several years now with is focus on community building. I am excited to incorporate music into the schoolday as well.
I sometimes have trouble remembering the importance of taking this time to build community. We listen to music everyday, but sometimes even that seems rushed. It’s so nice to get these comments which help me remember the importance of doing these things in our classrooms.
Community building is especially important for me with my lunch groups. I have usually between 4-6 students who are in the same grade in a group together. Usually they all know each other but they may or may not be friends. I always start off groups playing a get-to-know each other type of game so that we can start making connections and building community within the group. It is important in this type of setting for the students to feel comfortable, safe, and connected with each other so that eventually we can discuss and share more personal thoughts and feelings.
I have never tried using music in this type of setting before but I am thinking it could be especially useful for my “worry” and “control (emotion management)” groups as a way to express and keep in control of our emotions. I think starting off by connecting through the music I share will make it easier for everyone to express their feelings in a non-threatening way. Rather than saying “I feel sad”, they could say “The music sounds sad. It reminds me of when I…”.
It makes these feelings more relatable and easier to express to others. Hopefully this will help in building a safe community.