Visibility toward parents, guardians, and the communi- ty will also serve to build a foundation to support your music program. When allowed by district guidelines, I recommend scheduling opportunities for parents and guardians to visit your classroom to see how their chil- dren create, perform, and respond to music. Allow them to witness how your classroom activities help to build musical competencies and engage students in active learning. Consider producing informances to supple- ment concert performances, wherein audiences may be guided through learning and participating in a piece or are given an example of how students learn a musical skill. If any parents, guardians, or relatives have musical talent, invite them to share their skills with your students. Also, be sure to keep parents and guardians up to date on what is happening in your music classes by using district approved social media platforms or classroom websites. Include details about musical goals and objectives for each of your classes, share information about interesting classroom events and activities, and provide detailed information about any upcoming performance events. A well-informed parent and guardian population will appreciate your efforts.
Within your local community, I encourage you to find opportunities for your elementary students to perform publicly. If there are traditional events that elementary school musicians normally participate in, such as patriot- ic celebrations, continue these. If your elementary music classes have not previously performed publicly, consider bringing your students to sing or play ukuleles at local events or senior centers. You may also want to reach out to the community to personally lead or participate in a community music group. Is there a ukulele singalong that you could lead or a guitar class you could teach? Are there community drum circles you could participate in? Are there community choirs, bands, or orchestras you could lead or perform in? Our roles as music teachers need not be limited to our school music classrooms and students. If there aren’t many established opportunities for the adults in your community to perform, you could start one of your own. I also encourage you to consider the cultural relevance of your music program within the community you serve. Are you able to find ways to connect with the musical heritage of your school district’s surrounding community? If you feel uninformed about your community’s musical culture, reach out to commu- nity leaders and music groups to learn about different and varied musical repertoire that you could bring into your classroom to share with students.
In addition to making connections to your local com-
munity, reach out to the music education community for support when you need it. Are there music teach- ers near you who have had some success with building their programs? If so, find out what the elementary music teachers are doing in that district to contribute to the program’s success. If you teach in a small school district, consider partnering with another small district music program for combined performances or events. I also recommend attending professional workshops and conferences to stay abreast of new ideas for elementary music classrooms. Not only will you learn new strategies for the classroom, but you will also be able to network and converse with other music educators to professional- ly recharge. Conferences and workshops are also terrific venues for you to share your own successes with others. Your experiences, whether positive or negative, will be valuable to share, especially with music teachers new to the classroom.
Te music education community also includes college and university faculty as well as professional music education organizations. Don’t hesitate to reach out to nearby university music education programs for support from faculty or ideas for collaboration. Faculty members are oſten happy to share ideas for curricular development or provide workshops for your students. Many college and university music programs will also have traveling groups that may be able to come to your school, perform, and speak with your students. Professional organizations are valuable sources of information to the music educa- tion community and will help you stay informed about advocacy efforts and educational policy changes that may impact what you do. I encourage you to visit the Nation- al Association for Music Education advocacy page for access to Te Advocacy Bulletin, the Public Policy News- room, the NAfME Grassroots Action Center, and the NAfME Public Policy Hub:
https://nafme.org/advocacy/.
Finally, keep in mind that your students may be your strongest advocates, so it is important to nurture positive attitudes toward music in every class. As an elementary music teacher, you will have the opportunity to teach and beneficially influence students for several consecutive years. Te relationships you build with students and the connections you make with parents and guardians of ele- mentary students will set the tone for good relations with the rest of the school music program faculty. Not all of your students will have ambitions of becoming perform- ers, and that is absolutely fine. If you create a culture of creativity and positivity in the elementary music class- room, you will be providing an environment for students to grow in a variety of musical ways. In the elementary
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