Course Description
We all recognize the importance of music in education. Who didn’t learn the alphabet or multiplication tables with a song? While kindergarten and elementary educators tend to use songs to teach on a regular basis, many higher education teachers forget the impact music can have on learning. And in many cases, no doubt, many opportunities are often missed by primary school educators as well. Designed for any educator who embellishes their class with creative ideas involving music, this course provides the opportunity to earn professional development credit for creatively incorporating music into your curriculum. Through this course, you can earn professional development credit for your time spent researching and implementing ways to incorporate music creatively into your classroom. Perhaps you set the mood for learning with apt music selections, enhance studies of countries or eras with music demonstrative of those regions or times, use music as a timer or background for classroom activities, employ music in interpretive activities, or employ music in some other way. However you use music in your classroom, you can earn credit for the time you have spent incorporating your studies into creative ideas for using music in your lessons. Earning credit is easy: just submit (1) a short description of the creative teaching ideas you have already created (or that you plan to create), (2) a self-created time log verifying the hours of work you have invested, and (3) selected proof of completed objectives.
About University of the Pacific
University of the Pacific, established in 1851, is California’s oldest private chartered university and is fully accredited by the Western Association of Schools and Colleges (WASC).
The credits offered are post-baccalaureate, graded, graduate-level semester units of credit, provided directly through University of the Pacific, Benerd College. They are specifically designed to meet the needs of educators for Salary Advancement and Recertification. The credits/units are acceptable where local districts approve and applicable to state licensing where authorized. We always encourage you to check with your employer for acceptability of these credits/units. Course participants are responsible to determine acceptability of these credits for their intended use. Each graduate-level semester credit is equivalent to 15 hours of academic involvement.
Course Objectives
Upon successful mastery of this course, you will be able to:
- Identify areas of your curriculum that can be enhanced by the addition of music.
- Apply musical strategies and insights gained to promote student mastery of a specific learning objective.
- Integrate and apply relevant musical strategies and insights acquired to a final project that will be used in your work setting.
- Integrate music in a variety of forms as mnemonics into your lesson (memory songs, mood association, relevant content, etc.).
- Investigate ways to more actively engage students in the curriculum through the interpretation, analyzation, or creation of music that reflects the values, themes, or mood of a topic, subject, or era.
- Integrate music and lyrics into your lessons through a multimedia platform to stimulate students to reflect, think, create, share, or react on an emotional level for deep learning.
- Reflect on the professional development experiences, specific to your future growth.
- Reflect on how the integration of music into your lessons will impact future student growth.