I talk a lot about the value of music as a teaching strategy and, in most of my sessions, I discuss the effectiveness of music as a way to calm and focus students. A couple of teachers in my fall seminars offered the ideas outlined below for using music for classroom management. I would love to give credit to these teachers for their ideas, but they didn’t give their names with these great ideas.

One teacher explained that she taught her students the song, “What a Wonderful World,” by Louis Armstrong. One day, when everybody was wound up and excited, she started singing the song. The students stopped what they were doing and everyone joined in the singing. They loved the song, knew it well, and they were calmed.

An elementary aide taught her class “The Chicken Dance” during inside recess days. On a day when no one seemed to be listening during clean up time, she turned on “The Chicken Dance” and told the class they had until the end of the song to finish putting everything away. It worked so well that the dance became the song they played every time they had to clean up.

While the first idea supports my comments about the calming and focusing effects of appropriate music, the second strategy also illustrates the value of movement in the classroom. While the example comes from an elementary setting, giving students these little opportunities to move is essential to maintaining good order and discipline in the classroom.

Transition With Song

Kindergarten teacher Marna Ingerson of Lancaster Schools writes, “All of my transitional directions are sung. ‘Line up! Line up! Everybody line up!’ Directions for activities: ‘Turn your eyes up here, up here’. Repeat and point up or down or left or to the chart. Then we begin to read, write, etc. We sing a thank you song for our guest speakers, volunteers, etc. ‘Thank you! Thank you! Thank you very much, Mr/Mrs ___________.’ We deal with respect and consideration of others constantly.”

Singing instructions to children early in their education is a marvelous way to introduce music to learning as well as a unique way to help students transition and to draw attention. Try it and see how it works for you!

For more help with using music in the classroom, visit www.songsforteaching.com for downloads, cds, and other sources to promote learning on any subject with music.