I’ve been putting off writing this blog post.  I’m confident in my teaching abilities, especially in my subject matter of health, and my ability to connect with my teenage students.  Writing a short article is outside of my wheelhouse and my comfort zone; although I’ve written plenty of papers and short stories throughout my life as a student.  My mother is an author and the pressure to be “good” at writing has hung over me my whole life.  I prefer to read, listen, and experience other’s writing and listening to music with my students has been one of the ways I’ve been able to deeply connect with them.  

I first got the idea to bring my records into school from my fiance, Chris.  He suggested that I bring in an old record player that we no longer used at our house.  I picked out a few records from our personal collection of over a thousand (I know…it’s a problem) and lugged everything into my classroom.  I feel strongly about having an inclusive, fun yet calming environment in my classroom; especially given the subject matter I teach. Yes, we have fun days where we learn about how many ounces of beer are in a standard drink by using solo cups, we practice putting condoms on demonstration tools, we even play games and color during our stress management unit.  But my students and I also explore deeper and more vulnerable topics; consent and rape culture, the link between pornography and sexual exploitation, and suicide trends among youth their age.  I have dim lighting, hygiene materials and snacks available for the taking, and now I also have my record player.

I quickly realized that teens didn’t even realize what a record player was or how it works.  There was general education about how to handle a vinyl record, where to place the needle on the grooves, and even some mishaps with dropped sleeves and skipping songs.  Once we fell into a groove (see what I did there?), students started to expect their “vinyl of the day” history lesson.  I started with some of my favorite albums – Neil Young’s “Harvest”, Tracey Chapman’s & Rage Against the Machine’s “Self-Titled”, Tribe Called Quests’s “Midnight Marauders” and Carole King’s “Tapestry”.  I rushed to try to get them to listen to all of the BEST albums and I found myself saying over and over again “this is one of the greatest albums of all time”.  

Embarrassingly, it took me about a year and a half to realize how I could connect the music we were enjoying together to the lessons I was teaching.  I started to bring in artists that struggled with addiction during our unit on drugs and alcohol, I played Kendrick Lamar’s “To Pimp a Butterfly” when we discussed mental health and suicide, I even played TLC’s “CrazySexyCool” and told the students about Left Eye making an unhealthy relationship decision…by burning her partner’s house down.  

Now, I bring in a combination of different albums.  Some days we listen to smooth jazz while students work independently on an assessment, other days I bring in Taylor Swift and we sing to “Love Story” to get our energy up on a Monday morning.  No matter if we’re listening to Miles Davis, Chappell Roan or Black Sabbath, my students know that they’ll get a double lesson when they get to health class.  One about music, vinyl records, and one about health and wellness.  Most importantly, they know that health class is fun, engaging and has a teacher that is passionate about the subject she teaches and always wants to be right there in the classroom with them jamming out. 

This microblog post was a featured post in #slowchathealth’s #microblogmonth event. You can search for all of the featured posts here. Please do follow each of the outstanding contributors on social media (including Shannon Beatty, the author of this post) and consider writing a microblog post of your own to be shared with the global audience of slowchathealth.com

Pair this post with the following:

Multicultural Appreciation Through Music by Dom Servini

Moved by Music by Andy Milne

Creating Classroom Playlists by Andy Milne

Have you read the latest Book of the Month recommendation?