Music Advocacy: Get Classroom Teachers and School Staff Involved

A little birdie told me…..teachers and staff are musical, too!

How do you advocate for music education in your school? 

I love to get as many teachers and staff involved as possible. 

In February, I send an email, post a flyer in the workroom, and place a music survey in staff mailboxes. I give them a week as a deadline to motivate them to complete it in a timely manner. I also send a reminder email the day before the deadline. I ask questions like the following:

• Were you ever in a music ensemble in school? 
• Do you currently perform in any ensemble?
• Do you play any instruments?
• What type of music do you like to listen to?
• Have you ever met a famous musician?
• What music concerts have you attended?
• If you had the chance, what musical instrument would you like to learn?

My goal is to get as much information from the staff as possible. Even if they don’t play an instrument or sing in a choir, they can tell me what type of music they prefer to listen to. 

Next, I am able to pick and choose what to display. Every staff member that returns a paper will be included in my wall display. I generally have 35-40 staff members participate.

I have prepared my bulletin board in two different ways in the past. I either post the name of the staff member with a description of how they are musical, or I give a clue with a number and make it a schoolwide game to see if students (and staff!) can guess the staff member.

You can show students the importance of music and encourage them to continue learning music in the future by including the staff and teachers on your bulletin board.

Side note: unfortunately, my computer died and I lost all of my previous pictures so I do not have any pictures. I will update this when I can find them.

In what ways do you encourage music advocacy in your school?