I admit it. My favorite technological tool that I use consistently in my classroom is my phone. Ever since we have been able to turn a phone into a music player, I have been able to access and use all of my "school music" with incredible ease.
A couple of years ago one of my parents came into the classroom every afternoon for a week. He downloaded and categorized all of my CDs onto my iTunes Library. More recently, every iTunes purchase is automatically synched to my phone. Convenience times 10.
Gone is the old boombox CD/tape player with the broken handle. Gone is the issue of opening disc covers, only to find no disc! Gone is the cassette tape conversion Rube Goldberg apparatus to connect to my iPod. These days I just plug my phone into the charger plus speakers on my desk, hit a playlist, and, ahhhh, music to my ears. Literally.
I know how lame that sounds to all of you tech fast-laners, but seriously, it is huge. I use music several times a day in my 2/3 classroom. Here's a small sample:
For studying - The Vitamin String Quartet. Nothing quiets my class faster.
How about a little G-Love and Special Sauce sing-a-long?
...and we've been learning this one from The Makepeace Brothers for Thanksgiving - "Thank You"
I hope you enjoy them. Then you can put them on your phone!
I love love love The Vitamin String Quartet! Especially for the classroom! I even used them for most of my wedding music & walked down the aisle to their cover of Paramore's "Hallelujah" :) Music is so important to people and definitely has a place in the classroom--I'm surprised there's not more sharing of classroom playlists or music suggestions out there! Thank you for sharing a couple of your favorites!
ReplyDeleteYou know I thought I lost my iPhone about three weeks ago. I realized that i didn't only lose my phone, i lost my main internet source, my entertainment source, my texting tool, my music, my pictures, etc. There is so much loss in a phone now a days than even five years ago.
ReplyDeleteMy sister is a pre-school teacher and she has experienced some of the issues of misplaced CDs or boom boxes that don't work. She has an iphone, so perhaps I will transfer her school music into her itunes! What a great idea. I just started buying songs through itunes and I do love how it just magically appears on my iphone.
ReplyDeleteI think our cell phones are the new 'it' as of a few years ago.. Old school? No way, new school! It's our livelihoods, out DJ on demand, black/phone books, entertainment, and who can forget our communication device! Go you for using it to it's fullest extent in your classroom!
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