Music education is very important to our culture, history, and especially our schools. Minute by minute, funds are being cut from music education programs all over the country. There are many ways and opportunities as a music teacher to help these programs stay alive, and just bring more attention to them in general. The first priority that is an essential to helping music programs get attention is making sure the different groups and ensembles in your school get the attention they deserve by their community. I chose this priority because the main way to get noticed by the public is to be in the public, and once citizens of the community see and learn more about what is going on in their schools, they will start to care and pay attention more. The second priority I chose is to make sure parents of your music students, fellow teachers, and your superiors understand how important music is to the students in every way possible. Once they understand or get a better view of how quickly the students are transforming, they will try to help keep the program running right along with you. My last priority is making sure my students understand how important and amazing it is that they are in this program and that their passions don’t go unnoticed. This priority is extremely important to me because if the students don’t understand how important they are to the program, they would get no full meaning to what they are pursuing.

With these priorities, we need communication and steps to make them happen. I believe that one of the largest steps and form of communication that would help with local music programs getting noticed by the public is getting your musical groups to perform at different community events, whether it be sports games, seasonal concerts, or any kind of special event. This will open peoples’ eyes to the music side of education going on in all schools. The next example of communication is to keep up with the students’ parents and keep them up to date on their child’s progress, let them know important dates and performance schedules, and let them know if their child is having any sort of issue in class. This may seem obvious, but keeping in touch with parents is one of the most important things you could do for your music program. It lets the parents know that you are a form of trust, and they may decide to let their younger children join the program when they are old enough and if they are interested. Another very important example of communication is to invite fellow teachers or the principle of the school to come observe your class if they have free time or a free period in their day. Even if it is just for a few minutes, one observation of a music class could quickly help administrators/important members of the school understand how much the kids learn and get out of it and also helps gives them perspective. Lastly, communication with your students is extremely helpful when it comes to their growth and understanding of what they are accomplishing in their program. One huge way of communicating with them is doing an activity at the beginning of each day that helps them communicate their feelings and thoughts. For example, writing down things like “What is your favorite song right now and what meaning does it give you?” Or “If you had to pick one thing about music that you love the most, what would it be? Why?”. Little things like this will stick with the kids and help them remember why they love music so much.