Teach & Serve III, No. 2
Playlist 2017-2018
August 16, 2017
… time to put together the mixtape that will be the soundtrack for the upcoming nine months, the backbeat of the days and weeks and months ahead.
It’s that time of year again: time to put together the mixtape that will be the soundtrack for the upcoming nine months, the backbeat of the days and weeks and months ahead.
In Teach & Serve Volume I a couple years back, I wrote about #OneSong, stealing the idea from my good friend and esteemed educator Sean Gaillard. The playlist is more than one song… it’s a concept album for an entire school year.
How do songs make my playlist? They land there for one of two reasons.
First, I like how they make me feel. In the fall as the year begins, I am searching for energy, excitement and enthusiasm. You won’t find too many ballads on the playlist, but you may find some instrumentals.
Second, the lyrics resonate with me, move me, inspire me and send me a message.
I listen to the playlist all year, adding to it, deleting from, adapting it like any good teacher should do.
Here’s this year’s edition:
- Theme from Superman: The Movie – John Williams
- Is there a more rousing movie theme – ever – than the theme from Superman: The Movie? I don’t believe so. This anthem never fails to inspire me.
- Working on a Dream – Bruce Springsteen
- Springsteen really captures characters well and this story, about striving for a better and hopeful future, ought to be the story of schools thematically, yes?
- Enter the Young – The Association
- What a silly, fun song! “Enter the young! Now they’ve learned to think, more than you think they think!”
- Be True to Your School – The Beach Boys
- Is there a better song about fealty to your school? Nope.
- Here Comes the Sun – The Beatles
- Make it happy. Make it positive. Melt the ice and get into the work of the school year!
- Can You Dig It (Iron Man 3 Main Titles) – Brian Tyler
- Try not to be excited listening to this! I always though this is the song I’d use introducing new faculty at fall meetings.
- Show Me What I’m Looking For – Carolina Liar
- I think our students don’t even know they want us to help them find that for which they are looking…
- What Is Life? – George Harrison
- The big questions. The big answers provided by one of the Fab Four. After the Beatles broke up, Harrison was ready, like the next week, with a double album. Don’t hold people back, man!
- Least Complicated – Indigo Girls
- Let’s not always overthink things, okay? Sometimes the answer is the least complicated one.
- Suddenly I See – KT Tunstall
- There are moments of awakening we are privileged to witness… suddenly, they see, and so do we!
- 27 Jennifers – Mike Dougherty
- I don’t know how well anything in this song fits the school year except the idea of being faced with classroom after classroom of students with names I have to learn – and they all seem to have the same one! And this song rocks!
- Let My Love Open the Door – Pete Townshend (or the Luminate cover which I LOVE)
- I want my love to open the door all year long…
What are you listening to this fall?