I. My first and foremost priority is that my students have what they need to succeed. I’m sure this priority will morph over time and with my increased experience, but as of now, I foresee my students needing their most basic needs met when it comes to the classroom. Let’s say I am teaching in a Secondary environment. They all need working instruments. Every student  needs an instrument, and depending on the school district, these may not be supplied, and families may or may not have the means to afford even basic level student instruments.

II. Opportunity. I want my students to be able to partake in all the opportunities possible to advance their education in music. What I mean by this is attending other concerts, attending field trips, attending away games in the high school or college level marching band. It is important to me that my students hear other musicians perform, and these types of opportunities also require funding.

III. Conducting an environment where educators, parents, community members, and administration create a tight knit community. This hopefully will foster more productive conversations about the state of the music departments in our schools and create an appreciation for all that music education does for students.

IV. 5 areas of communication to establish in my community or school to support the priorities 

1. I intend to communicate with parents and the community about funding. Fundraising has unintentionally become this dirty word in some circles where everyone rolls their eyes, but it has to be necessary to make sure every student can have an instrument, and also means to travel.

2. I intend to communicate with the local press outlets when possible, and that includes but is not limited to reaching out to the local newspapers, or local news stations, and invite them to come out and film a marching show or a holiday concert. This could promote interest among the community for those who may not have students currently in the music department, or even children at all.

3. I will enthusiastically invite school board members, administration, and other classroom teachers to come see what we are doing in the classroom. If I am doing my job right, I will be comfortable enough to have a figurative open door, and even other classroom teachers will want to peek in and see what’s going on.

4. I will workin conjunction with other groups/teams/clubs to corral support for both of our groups. For example, I would try to make better bonds between a marching band and a football team. Attend events together, fundraiser together, and root for each other always. Or perhaps in a middle school setting, a dance class or team could perform at a band concert, and maybe even do a collaborative piece together.

5. I will create social media profiles for our program/band/class. Perhaps one on facebook could be more like a forum where ideas could be shared, and then one one instagram, which is extremely popular, and have “follow us on…” on all of our concert programs as well as posters around the school. That way, it would be easy enough to gain a social media following. Through instagram I (or I could delegate to a student leader) could share the innovative things we are doing in the classroom or the exciting performance features of the week.