Tag Archive for music

Five simple ways to ‘brand’ your class or form

Image from uwadmnweb.uwyo.edu

Image from uwadmnweb.uwyo.edu

How distinctive is your classroom from any other? Would it be possible for a parent, pupil or other member of staff to see a photograph of a new display you have put up over the holidays, and recognise it was in your room? What if you created a worksheet and left it on the photocopy plate – aside from the content, would any member of staff recognise it as being in your class?

I believe that, along with the rise of the brand in our children’s lives, branding a classroom is a very beneficial thing. It is not something to try and be used as a superiority tool next to your other colleagues, more to make your class environment more focused and aware for the children. Below are some ways in which I ‘brand’ my classroom to both enhance the learning, and create a strong, cohesive bond with my class.

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Lesson Themetunes

Listening to musicWhen you hear French music in the supermarket, does your mind start, even unconsciously, considering French wine? Apparently it does, even if you deny it influences you directly. (See MindHack for a neat introduction to the research). So what impact does this have for our learning consumers?

Just like Proust’s Madeleine cake extract, hearing certain music makes an enormous difference in introducing themes, topics, subjects and lessons in our classroom. These can be played as a pause to the lesson, as the theme for the start of the lesson, or even as music to be played as a ‘bed’ when they get books out. I have used music for years, and the use of subject theme tunes has a definite impact – by the second or third lesson, pupils cotton on to the sound, and (it is my belief), gear themselves up for that subject. Read more