You Belong With Me

I let the kids write down songs they'd like to hear while they work. Then I choose one to type into Pandora. If they request songs out loud throughout the class period, I just say, "I'm an art teacher--not a DJ."

A little Chinese girl with a little Chinese name requested Taylor Swift. I typed her name in the station and we listened impatiently to a whole lot of honky-tonk until...over the speakers we heard those magic words:

You're on the phone with your girlfriend she's upset

Twenty five fifth graders and a teacher dropped what they were doing, and began to sing/shout at the top of their lungs the words to the entire song. I've never had so much fun. I turned the volume up. A few of us got out of our seats and danced around the room. As the song came to an end, students returned to their seats, picked up their pencils, and completed their drawings, as if nothing out of the ordinary had just occurred.