The Mozart Effect

Very recently a friend got me thinking about the effects of listening to music while studying. I know for myself I was never one of those people that could listen to music when I needed to get some serious work done. I'd get sidetracked singing along with Destiny's Child instead of learning the phases of cell division....okay, maybe not Destiny's Child...but whatever song it was had nothing to do with Prophase, Metaphase, Anaphase and Telephase...

I know friends, classmates and students that listen to music while doing homework but I've never really thought much of it before. As a teacher, it intrigues me now more than ever. Why not play music in my classroom if it helps students work better? So I looked to Google to find our more!

Many articles that I went through had very consistent information. What I came across is known as the "Mozart Effect".

When you write, you trigger the left hemisphere of your brain. When you’re listening to music, you’re triggering the right hemisphere of your brain. When there are lyrics in a song, the left side of the brain becomes divided. It tries to decipher the school material and analyse the words in the song at the same time. It is done completely subconsciously, and is essential why music is not good to listen to while studying.

However, if the music doesn’t have any lyrics, then the left side of your brain no longer has to split its attention.

Listening to music without lyrics will still stimulate the right side of the brain.  When both hemispheres work simultaneously, they work better as a whole. As a result, non-lyrical music actually increases your ability to memorise and retain information.

Classical music is the way to go. Hence, the "Mozart Effect".

Now, I realise everyone is different and what works for some may not work for others. Along with the fact that although I'm musically open minded when it comes to genre, classical music is one that is not on my Ipod.

After years of struggling with studying, I've found a way that works for me that does not involve classical music and naturally one might think don't fix something that's not broken... but why not make something good, great? Its worth a try.


...and okay, maybe it was Destiny's Child.

http://ucdavis.uloop.com/news/view.php/3436/music-studying-good-bad
http://www.phoenix.edu/forward/student-life/2013/08/should-you-listen-to-music-while-studying.html
http://education.seattlepi.com/listening-music-doing-homework-affect-grade-school-1365.html

A Bit About Me

So, my last post left me thinking that with all the outdated technology that was used in my classrooms growing up, people arent going to have a clue when I was actually in grade school. Time to fill you in on me!

I am currently 24 years old, born in 89, late birthday in September, graduated highschool in 2007, which had me being one of those 17 year olds starting University and missing all the fun 'kick off the year' type celebrations that required you to have an 18th birthday. I grew up and went to school in Thompson, Manitoba and then moved to Brandon, Manitoba to attend University.

I'd love to tell you that I knew I wanted to be a teacher my whole life, and everything's been butterflies and rainbows....not exactly the case. Throughout most of elementary and highschool I was pretty much the ideal student, and I had a great experience, had many friends, was at top of my classes, captain of the sports teams, participated in extra curricular activities, recieved athelete of the year and acedemic awards and never got in any sort of trouble. But even with all those things going for me there was never a point in all my life that I had the slightest idea what I wanted to do when I graduated.

Fast forward to fall 2007, classes at University begin and i'm in a bunch of random classes I just chose based on interests. I find myself dropping out shortly thereafter to work for my parents,whom owned a resturant at the time. Needless to say my parents weren't thrilled. (about me dropping out of school, not me working for them!)

I'm a huge believer in everything happens for a reason and thus starts the "rainbows and butterflies" portion of my story. A job oppoutunity came up to work for the City of Brandon at a youth activity centre. Without much experience with youth at the time I soon came to realise I had a knack for it. I went back to school with teaching in mind, graduated with my Bachelor of Physical Education, minor in Biology and applied for Education. Other than some indecisiveness about what stream I wanted to enter into everything went quite smoothly.

And here I am and loving it. I'm probably in the best place in my life I have been in a long time. I still work for the City as i'm attending school, running youth programs through the school year and a summer program as well. That job has opened so many doors for me I can't even begin to explain.

To find out more about the awesome free program I run, click the Youth Activity Centre (YAC) link and check out the video below!

Evolution of Classroom Technology

 

 

First blog of my life. Never thought I would be a person to write one. I'm taking a course where it is the option for an assignment and after giving it some thought it actually sounded like a good idea. It couldn't be more perfect that I'm taking an ICT course in University this semester. In my first teaching placement I found myself always wanting to do fun and interesting things with technology in the classroom, I just didn't have a whole lot of knowledge on how to do it. In my lifetime, the varieties of technology that I've seen used in a classroom has made leaps and bounds. In grade 5 I sat in my classroom watching a slide show of projected pictures along to a cassette tape, when the tape beeped the teacher pressed a button to change the picture. I couldn't even tell you what that gadget was called. If anyone knows, please tell me! It was a treat when we watched the videos on film...ooo moving pictures! A nice amount of time was wasted on the teacher setting up the reels on the machine. And then who could forget the excitement in the room when the big TV and VCR wheeled into the classroom. Some things have surprisingly lasted....overhead projectors...still used in my current University classrooms. Not to mention all those notes taken on a chalk board, it was a pretty big deal when a classroom had a whiteboard. I'm sure some individuals my age did not have the luxury to use some of these outdated items, but for those that did, I'm assuming we can agree that if a smart board was set up in our grade 5 classroom we would have fallen off our chairs. I remember hearing about them, but the first smart board I actually ever seen and worked with was my second year of University! During my first student teaching placement we were lucky enough to have a brand new smart board installed...no board necessary, just a projection on a surface was enough for it to have all the usual touchscreen smart board capabilities....like wow! There's a number of items in a classroom we could compare to what we have now...computers, tablets, smart phones, the use of wifi, emailing, social media etc. and I want to be able to make use of them in the classroom effectively. So I'm hoping to learn as much as I can and keep you updated along the way. Just to further jog your memory on past classroom technology check out this video!http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UFwWWsz_X9s