197- Bringing Popular Music into the Music Classroom

On a day you played one of your classes favorite songs, did you see their faces light up with excitement? Have you ever stopped to think about why? Some kids don’t associate the music they learn in school with what they listen to outside of school. There’s “music class music” and “other types of music” according to some of your students. Honestly, I didn’t try to bring popular music into my classroom for the first couple of years because I wasn’t ever told this is something I could do. In all my years of college prep and student teaching, no one ever talked about actually using music your students connect with. Maybe you can relate to this. You know your students will respond to popular music, but you’re just not sure how to do that.  If so, this podcast episode will help you to get started. You can also read the blog post that goes along with this episode right here. The Beyonce YouTube video mentioned in the episode can be seen here. Want to support my work? You can buy me a coffee! Find out more about the HARMONY membership here. Get your copy of Make A Note: What You Really Need to Know About Teaching Elementary Music Head here to grab your free music teacher guides and resources I'd love for you to leave a rating and a review of the podcast on I-tunes, be sure to share the podcast with any music teacher friends who would find it helpful and be sure to tag me on Instagram or Facebook.