Music to Their Ears: Teachers get to play their favorite songs for the minute music, while learning a little bit about one another

Walking down the halls with only a minute left until the bell rings, economics teacher Robert Bickers’ favorite punk rock song blasts throughout the school speakers. Normally teachers would get to know one another on their way to the teachers lounge or while grabbing lunch, but staff had to get creative in bonding due to the COVID-impacted year.

In the past, the minute music was chosen by Vice Principal Britton Haney based on the mood he was in that day — with the exception of a few suggestions.

“You can blame all of the bad music in the past on me,” Haney said. “Usually I chose songs I thought students would at least know.”

Now Haney assigns a different department each week to control which song plays as students rush to their next class. 

When Bickers heard the social studies department was up for the week, he was fully prepared to create a big competition of whose music was superior with other teachers. Usually, he would just pop into his friends’ classrooms, but competing through the loud speakers works too.

“[Mr. Capello] called me out publicly — in a good way, though,” Bickers said. “We get along and enjoy talking smack.”

Bickers has worked at East for 12 years, giving him time to build strong relationships with co-workers, yet this year doing his usual smack-talk with Mr. Capello is more important than ever with the limited time to build their friendship.

Not only does the daily song selection give teachers something other than the pandemic and politics to talk about, but it’s a new way to learn more about each others’ personalities and interests.

While chemistry teacher Steven Appier is crammed on time between grading and planning for the next lab, he misses getting to know his co-workers, specifically at the annual faculty breakfast. However, he gets a little insight on individual teachers through their song requests. 

“I think I learn a little bit more about their personality than anything,” Appier said in an email. “It is for sure interesting to find out who chose what music because some are totally unexpected.”

Not only do teachers get to guess who chose the music for the day, but students get to hear the english teacher’s Beatles in contrast to the hard rap or relaxing country music on their own Spotify playlists.

“I thought that adding something small, but different to the day might help just lighten the moods with everything being so weird right now,” Haney said.