Something new I’ve been doing this year is have some music playing in my room as my students enter at the beginning of a class. They have responded most positively to classical music, believe it or not. When we are doing collaborative work, they usually request solo piano music (Carol Rosenberger’s albums are very popular), Mozart, or Bach. Another favorite is Christopher O’Riley’s solo piano transcriptions of Radiohead songs (his rendition of “Let Down” is the track playing above). Having this music in the background definitely sets an atmosphere of high intellectual pursuit, and I believe my students are more productive in class because of it.
