At our recent iTeach training in Fairbanks, one of our participants, Tom Abbott from Maine, showed how he reorganized his Blackboard course after several different presentations given by the Design Team. One of the really great items that he added was a a course theme song. His course is a capstone course and so his choice was “Sabre’s Dance Song.”

I found a reference to a theme song from a geometry class – can’t really tell if it really has to do with geometry or if it is a classroom reference. NAS Geometry Period 10 Class Theme Sound – Oh Yeah by Yello.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3F-lkzQoPl8

I found this reference in the Higher Education Chronicle where the instructor creates a playlist of songs to listen before class to get pumped up before the beginning of the semester but I think he could take it one step farther and actually share this with his students!

Music has proven to be one thing that can bridge cultures and generations so what a cool idea to incorporate a theme song for your course or for individual lessons, especially in an asynchronous class. It could be a really great motivator for students to anticipate what song you might choose for the next lesson. And turning things around and making the student the creator – have them select a song that they think represents the topic of the week. Have them share it on the discussion board or class blog.

Here are some resources that might be helpful in choosing a song:

Lets you search by mood, life experience or song type:
https://www.experienceproject.com/music_search.php?

Songs by categories:
https://www.songfacts.com/categories.php

https://www.lyricinterpretations.com/categories/songs

This is an ESL site but gives some suggestions for themes (includes songs for teaching grammar):
https://www.tefltunes.com/Default.aspx