What: This week (as in yesterday) we presented the songs we created and taught them to the entire class. Something I learned from doing this activity is that people remember things better when the information is put in to a song. There are many people who know the 50 states because of the "50 States" song, or prime numbers because they have been placed in a song, and so on. Music leaves such a large imprint in our minds and helps us remember things we learned weeks, months, and maybe years ago.
So What: Something I would really like to do when I'm a teacher is either make songs about main subjects or find songs that have already been made. When teaching about the presidents of the United States, a song would be really helpful. Or, learning about the water cycle is something that is hard to remember, and if a song was created about it (like Matt Jensen's group) then students (and myself) are more likely to remember the cycle. When students learn a song they sometimes don't even realize they are learning something new, but later when asked a question about it they can refer to the song.
Now What: The next steps for me would have to be to save any song I come across that teaches about something that would be taught in school, regardless of the grade. Also, I would like to experiment and try teaching songs to the students whom I will be student teaching. I will have many opportunities to do this while I still have 4 semesters of being in the schools. I am truly a believer in teaching students songs to remember information. I have experienced it first-hand and know, without a doubt, that it works (probably better than any other method).
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