Promoting Music Advocacy in Your Classroom

We teach and learn at a time when music advocacy needs to be a constant focus for our students and programs every day. Educators are finding themselves in a position where engagement with colleagues, legislators, and involvement with local school district is no longer an option, but a necessity.

Advocacy efforts often seem to come as a reaction to problem or a decision that effects our program in an adverse way. A phone call to policy makers at the state capitol or an appearance at a school board meeting to challenge a local decision are reactive forms of music advocacy. I would encourage a proactive approach to your advocacy efforts.

A valuable advocacy tool for any music educator is a rigorous and healthy classroom at the local level. A quality music program becomes much easier to defend and support when it includes engaged students and a flourishing curriculum. Promotional advocacy in your classroom is a vital component to the advocacy picture.

What follows is a list of ideas that may help connect students and parents to your curriculum and classroom activities:

• Find a parent or community volunteer to develop a Facebook page, Twitter account, blog, or YouTube channel for your music program.
• Use school announcements, local news, and social media to publicize awards, competitions, and scholarships. Meet with local media and request coverage of school music events, exemplary music students and the results of district and state music competitions.
• Have a core group of students ready to perform for community events. Attend and have students perform or speak at school board, PTA, town council and civic organizations meetings. Develop impact statements and understand the curricular elements of your program.
• Make a video featuring your students to promote music education to play before and after public performances. Upload to social media.
• Personally invite legislators and community leaders as well as school board members and school administrators to attend school concerts. Ask them to MC your performance or recognize them in the audience.
• Recognize and thank supporters. Tell funders, parents, hard-working teachers, alumni, your Educational Rep, and anyone else who helps preserve music education in your community that you appreciate their support.
• Consider branding your ensembles with a logo or quote. Involve the students or the art department with artwork.
• Music bulletin boards for the classroom highlighting a month or time of year is a great project for elementary and middle school students combining music, art, history, design, and research.
• Connect students to music through mythology and literature. Work with the Language Arts department for unit timelines.
• Connect students to music through historical or social events (Medieval, Baroque, 20th Century, Civil War). Work with the Social Studies department for unit timelines.
• Have a class or ensemble photographer. Use photos in a slide show, celebrating student work, or to evaluate position and posture. Develop a department newsletter featuring photos of your ensemble.
• Identify local musicians and educators and invite them to your classroom as a guest director or to teach a master class.
• LIVE STREAM your concerts for those who can't leave their home. Ask your district tech team to assist, and host on the district website.
• Collect the names of local teachers who give private lessons. Encourage students to take private lessons and solicit funds from a booster organization or the community to assist students with scholarships for private lessons.
• At your next concert, invite parents to come to the stage and take a selfie with their child while they perform (I suggest this happen on the last selection -- a fun, light piece of music). Upload to social media! Parents on stage during the concert -- they love it!
• Start a student and parent band! Rehearse one night a week for several weeks and put on a concert. Parents will "buy in" when they actually perform with you!
• Encourage students to audition for local, district, and state honor ensembles and community ensembles. Develop a relationship with community ensembles and offer resources. Support and encourage participation at solo and ensemble festivals in your district.

There are many curricular activities that will help convince your students that music plays an important part in their life. Promotional advocacy in your classroom can be just as important as proactive advocacy with our legislators and educators.

Jeff Melsha retired from teaching in 2018 and now serves eastern Missouri and western Illinois as an Educational Representative for Palen Music Center. Jeff is the Past President for the Missouri Music Educators Association and continues to advocate for music education at the state and federal level for equitable offerings of music in underserved schools in rural and urban areas. Jeff is married to Martha. They have a son, Jacob, who studies jazz trombone at Juilliard, and a daughter, Olivia who plans to study linguistics and music at Universitat Hamburg next Fall.