Mar

30

Yes, listening to music in the classroom can help students be more productive, especially students with ADHD type symptoms.

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icon for podpress  Yes, listening to music in the classroom can help students be more productive, especially students with ADHD type symptoms. [3:53m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (471)

Well I don’t know what happened, but this week’s post just disappeared from my WordPress files even though I know I saved it . I’m still in a state of shock as I keep trying frantically to find the post. No, my dog didn’t eat it- that’s a favourite student excuse for not handing in work. I was so pleased with what I had written. It was so good, so thorough, so everything. Today post would finally settle “the music in the classroom debate” once and for all -or so I thought until what I had written disappeared. (I wonder if there’s some kind of lesson in there for me that I will realize at a later date. Maybe it’s something about hubris and saving your work in more than one spot)

I’d decided that because there was so much interest in my articles about listening to music in the classroom that I wrote here and here some time ago that I would revisit the whole topic. Basically at that time, I argued that listening to music in the classroom increased students productivity. I got lots and lots of feedback about this both supporting what I had said and questioning it. Many students wrote to tell me that music helped them focus and wished teachers would let them listen to music while doing their work. Some teachers wrote and told me their students worked better with music. Other teachers were skeptical and wanted to see scientific research to back up my contention. Some people wrote to tell me that they couldn’t work while listening to music. That was good to know. I appreciate all the feedback and thought that I would do some research to back up what I believed that listening to music can help students be more productive in the classroom.

I found research that supported my contention that music can facilitate learning, especially the learning of students who have the ADHD behaviour characteristics of excessive fideting, being easily distracted, difficulty focusing and following instructions, daydreaming, difficulty with materials management, impulsively acting before thinking etc. Now since I’ve spent most of my teaching career supporting students like this, I was really pleased to read Daniel Reit and Dr. Patricia Chiodo’s “Implications of ADHD Research on Music Education Practices” published in 2006, Nina Jackson’s article “Music and the Mind” and Chris Boyd Brewer’s “Music and Learning: Integrating Music in the Classroom. I was really excited after reading these articles because they gave me some information that supports what I believe.

Next week, you’ll be able to read how these articles support my contention that listening to music can facilitate learning and why it does. When I first starting blogging, I used to write my articles in Word and then transfer them to Wordpress. I stopped doing that some time ago and just write whatever directly into WordPress’s editor so I’ll have to go through and recompose my argument from the bits I highlighted in the printouts of the articles. At least I highlighted pertinent bits of info and have made comments in the margins in pencil so I do have something to work from. If you can’t wait for some reason or other, please go to those sites and see for yourself. The links should take you there and the articles are very accessible.

Please check back here next week and if all goes well and I don’t have any more lessons to learn, you should be able to see how these articles support my contention that listening to music in the classroom can facilitate learning.

Mar

24

Interview with author Sean Donaghey

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Show notes to “An Interview with author Sean Donaghey”

Please click on the MP3 player button to hear the interview. For some reason, the other button isn’t working.

 
icon for podpress  Interview with author Sean Donaghey [17:10m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (297)

Sean Donaghey

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The Ten Funniest People by Sean Donaghey

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Ironclad by Sean Donaghey

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Newspaper articles by Sean Donaghey

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Look for Sean’s other three books out this Fall.


Mar

23

Name the virtual kitten contest

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I was reading Miss Profe’s blog today when I noticed the blog had a virtual pet. Cool. I want a pet for my class blog, too. So I went to the Adoption Centre site and eventually a sweet little black kitten with her own basket found her way to the class blog. She loves to play, and if you click on the “more” button you’ll find toys she loves to play with. She needs a name though, and I thought it would be fun to have my students name her so we’re going to have a ” Name the Kitten Contest”. Perhaps your blog would like a pet, too. There’s lots of choice. Drop in to our class blog and play with our new kitten. She’d love to play with you.

Update

I didn’t want to leave our class’ virtual kitten at school all alone, so I thought I’d bring her  home with me so I could feed and play with her until I go back to class. :)

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