Musical Engagements

One of the professors I've coached, I'll call her Kate, started the first day of the new semester with a musical interlude.  I liked her anecdote so much that I asked her permission to share it with you.

A couple of weeks ago, on the first day of class, as Kate's students filed in and sat down, they did it to the music of "Our New Orleans", the fabulous collection of Big Easy hits put together by some of n'awlins greatest musicians to benefit the victims of Katrina. (All proceeds of the CD go to Habitat for Humanity's rebuilding efforts along the Gulf Coast.)

While students listened to "Yes We Can" by Allen Toussaint, Kate handed out the class syllabi.  They read the course requirements while tapping their feet to Edie Bo's version of "The Saints Go Marching In".  And they filled out brief "student profiles" while swaying to "Prayer to New Orleans" sung by Charlie Miller.

While still playing the CD softly in the background, Kate explained how the album had been produced and why she was playing it for this particular class.  She talked about ways the disaster and its aftermath provide examples of main themes of the course.  (Katrina provides an appropriate case study for Kate's class -- but for pseudonomy's sake, I'll skip details that would give away her field.)  The class spent much of the next hour discussing the effects of the Hurricane and how it related to themes they would be studying throughout the semester.

"The students got really involved in the topic," said Kate enthusiastically.  "It was probably the best 'first-day-of-class' discussion I've ever led."

Inspiring use of music, eh?

teaching carnival

Comments

[Yvette]

This is great! I always work to music. In fact, whenever I read a piece of my major writing (e.g., seminar paper, dissertation proposal, conference paper) I can remember specific pieces of music that I was playing while working on specific sections. Kinda like all of my writing has a permanent soundtrack to it!

The only problem is that sometimes I get a little superstitious about this. Like one time I couldn't find a certain CD that I had been writing to (and writing *well* to) and so burned up about an hour looking for it because I felt I couldn't work without it...

[Scrivener]

What a great idea to play it the first day. I took an African American lit and the vernacular class in grad school where we started each session off listening to jazz and then the prof would set up how that piece played into the reading in some way and the turn us loose. It set a great tone for the discussions.

Which reminds me that I need to make sure I've got "Strange Fruit" loaded on my iPod because we start discussing Beloved tomorrow and it will give some context for that image near the beginning of the novel, of the beautiful trees in Sweet Home that push out of Sethe's mind the image of black boys' feet hanging in those trees.

[academic coach]

Yes, Scrivener,
When I read your great post about teaching classes about the theme of "home", I was imagining music you could play....

[Scrivener]

Even better, music my students can play. Their group projects at the end of the semester are to select a few songs about home and analyze them for the class.

[karen mishra]

One of my UNC j-school professors, Pat Curtin, uses music as a way to ease our entry into class. Both last year and this year, we walk into class with music playing. It is always different, always interesting. I enter her class intrigued, wondering what I am listening to that day. I'm taking notes...I'd like to try that myself once I graduate.