Thursday, June 7, 2012

Pandora for Teachers

Music helps students learn (MathReadingScience). We need more teachers to play all types of music in the classroom. The trouble is finding new and interesting songs and albums, then creating playlists for different occasions.

Pandora makes this very easy. Teachers can search for artists or albums and a new 'station' will instantly analyze your selection and play an inifinite amount of songs that compliment your selection. 

Teachers can choose upbeat songs for group work times, classical or jazz for quiet times of reading and working, or somewhere in between for transitional periods. Music has a way energizing, focusing, and inspiring students. With so many new songs to discover, conversasions around artists and albums can lead into learning about Math with timing beats and counting notes, about Science when analyzing sound waves, and Language Arts by studying the poetic nature of lyrics.

Students memorize an entire song's lyrics faster than most of us teachers hear the songs on the radio (of through Pandora). Why not create songs with lyrics centered around the current topic of study? If you need inspiration, just turn on Pandora!


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