Music: Does Background Music Calm Students?

Two weeks ago I finally got my Spotify playlist complete and began playing it my classroom. It is a list of movie theme songs, Disney instrumentals, even some Mozart and Beethoven. I decided to collect some data, play it full time and write down some notes and after two weeks I would reevaluate if necessary. I explained to my students early on that "If I can't hear the music you are too loud." As my classroom is a student-centered classroom the majority of our class time is build around collaborative groups, which can get noisy at times.

Over the two weeks the volume was lowered a little every day to see if they would get quieter on their own. I would raise the volume at times, lower it at others. It took the full two weeks for this strategy to actually work. They quieted themselves almost on cue with little fuss it became automatic. One day I turned it off to see how they would respond. They noticed and asked me why it wasn't playing. It has now become quite routine.

Music in my classroom at least, does calm students. On occasion I will change to the playlist of upbeat current songs for brain breaks and clean up time. But the rest of the class there is a gentle, relaxing feel that keeps students focused. They are getting their classwork done earlier and as a class we are able to move at a faster pace. I am wondering why it took me this long to actually utilize classical music in my classroom. The students love it when I add a new song and they can figure out which movie or television show it is from. This week: The Walking Dead and The Lego Movie both of which they identified pretty quickly. Music the latest tool in my teacher tool box.