Okay, so I know that this is a little off-topic, but I have been doing a little experiment on myself over the past few days. My mother used to play the "Mozart Makes You Smarter" (or something like that) tape while we studied because it is supposed to help. I have been listening to music (of the softer variety, nothing harsh, but most of it has words) while I read for this class and my other education class (CI 3850). I find that I pay more attention to the reading when the music is on then when it is off and there is no cover to disturbing "background noise".
I was just wondering if any of you, as students and future teachers, think that music and art visuals (illustrations/interpretations) help students to learn better/more effectively? Any theories on why? Would you consider using it in your classroom?

I know that I cannot have any background noise when I try to read but that is only because I was not given the opportunity to start doing that. I am, however, a very visual learner and I believe that a lot of people are so incoporating visuals of any kind into the classroom would be very beneficial to the students. I have heard that teachers who put their regular lessons to music get better outcomes from them. The students enjoy them more and they seem to learn a little better. I believe that music and art is very important in classrooms and it is very disturbing that schools wants to take these things out of their school.

Yes, I definitely think it is an awesome idea to play music in the classroom, but I think you have to be careful about which subject. Although some students would have no problem with concentrating with music in the background, this will not go for all students. I know people who have to have COMPLETE AND TOTAL silence to read. So maybe it would work in certain subjects better than others.

I had an art teacher in high school who let people bring in CD's of our own music. We all loved this and it was actually helpful in art because in some ways it was inspiring and gave you ideas. This is because not only did you listen to your own choices in music, you listened to the music your peers chose (which wasn't always your favorite but we all had to negotiate so that we could keep bringing in our own CD's)

I think that it can be an extremely useful tool to help teachers motivate students interest. I would think that a teacher needs to exercise a bit of caution though by allowing students to bring in their favorite CD's. I know for example some of my favorite CD's would not only not motivate some students but may be viewed as inapproprate by some.

Seeing as I am music education major, we are taught to explain what we do as not being beneficial because of its impact on other subject areas (like the Mozart study did) but that music is important on its own. However there are reasons for core teachers to use music in classrooms. The "mozart makes you smarter" craze started in the 80's (not sure what year) when a study was done, one study, that showed two preschool classrooms. One had normal music education and the other class listened to mozart throughout the day at certain times. The class that listen to mozart showed more advancement than the other. There was never a follow up done nor was the study really recreated so MENC (music educators of north carolina) does not support that as definate proof. This is not to say that there aren't correlations between students who participate in music and better grades. We are taught how to integrate music into other areas of learning so the idea about the art class working to music is great idea. We also try to tie units together, like learning about certain areas in history and then listening to music from that area. As you can see I love to talk about music sorry.... The point was that there are trends in listening to classical music while studying and better grades but no real evidence.

HI I had a discussion about that in a class once and it was said that kids are brought up in a faster pace world than say our parents where now we are exposed to many stimuli all the time that we are becoming amune to the noise. I personally have to read in silence to be able to concentrate maybe because reading for me is a chore. but when I am working I love listening to music I have a painting in which was based on a purely emotional respose to Dave Mathews but I do find that I am so emotionally driven when it comes to my work that music will sometimes have an unconscienous effect on my art. As for visuals I think it is a must although I am a little bias.

For me I can not listen to music when I study, but I have to have some kind of noise in the background or I will be distracted by every little noise I hear. I guess I can listen to music without words but if the song has words in it I will think of what is coming next and not be able to concentrate. I guess you would just have to see what your class could do the best. My roommate has to have music on or she can not study. I guess it is just how different people learn. I am also a very visual learner but I also need to hear what I am learning. It is going to be really hard to remember not to teach everyone the way you learn best.