In March each year, music teachers create opportunities
to highlight Music Education . . . . . . .
encouraging recruitment, lifelong music learning . . .
and community involvement in school music programs.

There are many ways to celebrate MIOSM.

The World’s Largest Concert is back!
Check out this link for details . . . .

They don’t call it MARCH for nothin’!

MIOSM Awareness items can be viewed and ordered at this site

Please send me details of press your students receive
so we can share it on the FMEA web site.
karen_johns@sarasota.k12.fl.us
MIOSM & Communications Chair for FMEA

Below are some ideas to keep advocacy efforts going year ‘round.
Check out the MIOSM Calendar for more ideas; maybe add some of your own.

Plan Ahead.

• Contact you local arts business (symphony, opera, ballet, theatre, professional chorus, college/university music department) about letting your students know what music camps are available next summer. When your student earns scholarships and other awards, be sure to LET THE MEDIA KNOW!
• Write grant applications (or find volunteers to write them) over the summer to be ready for the next school year. Discover what grants are available by checking with your school board, contacting your arts council, or searching on the Internet. Many funding opportunities are out there. When you are awarded a grant, LET THE MEDIA KNOW!
• Join forces with your colleagues to create momentum. Community performing groups Elementary, Middle, High School, and College/University bands, choruses, and orchestra, other teachers at your school, Administrators, school board members, business partners, legislators, etc. Community music supporters such as your local arts council, caecilians, NMTA, opera, dance, symphony booster clubs and organizations, etc. And be sure to LET THE MEDIA KNOW!
• Make time available for college students and community arts people to talk with your students about the advantages of continuing to study music, and LET THE MEDIA KNOW what you are doing.
• Chat with students, boosters, and community organizations about the satisfiactions you personally find in your career as a music educator. We often do our jobs without sharing the reasons why we do them. Everyone needs to know the many positive aspects of our work.
• Tell your legislators and board members what you really think about the importance of Music Education. Give them specific stories about children whose lives have been changed through studying music. How will they remember if you don't tell them? Call, visit, email, and/or write a letter today.
  To discover who your legislators are, see the FMEA home page.
  
• Ask your school board to ADOPT a RESOLUTION for MIOSM. For information on the subject see this site.
  
• Start each function with the Star Spangled Banner. Include the lyrics in your program booklets. LET THE MEDIA KNOW about MENC's National Anthem Project.
  
• LET THE MEDIA KNOW what you are doing. Contact them for publicity ... often. Don't get discouraged if they don't print everything you send them. Keep sending it before and after events. Call. Email. Write letters. Drop info by that includes pictures.
  If you don't have time, find parents who will keep trying for you. Sooner or later, someone will report something about the value of your programs and the public will become much more interested in what you are doing.
  Newspaper reporters
  Newspaper editors
  Radio news and public service announcements
  Movie Theatre slides before the films
  Local television news
  Educational shows
  Public service announcements
  Your school's closed-circuit TV station
  Concert, opera, dance and theatre program booklets
  School newsletters
  Boosters organization communications with parents
  PTA/PTO meetings
  Fairs and Cultural Festivals
  Art Exhibit Openings
  Community clubs' meetings and newsletters
  Internet web sites
  Email
• Information on the usefulness of the arts in helping students develop the crcial thinking skills and motivations they need to achieve at higher levels and not be left behind can be found in the CRITICAL LINKS NEWSLETTER.
  

Results of recent polls regarding music education
can be found at this site.


Please share the exciting findings with everyone.
*administrators
*school board members
*legislators
*community partners
*students and their families

 

 

~And Remember~ LET THE MEDIA KNOW!