Roundtable: College Resources

Calling in the Cavalry: Resources for K-12 music educators at colleges and universities

By Eliahu Sussman

Often located in a remote corner of the school, the band or orchestra room can feel like a lonely place. However, it doesn’t have to be that way. Music educators have at their fingertips innumerable resources that can provide support, foster collaboration, and stimulate instruction, as long as they know where to look. One particularly abundant – and often underutilized – source of assistance and inspiration is the music department at nearby colleges and universities. Many of these institutions have programs through which they send out in-class clinicians to local schools, provide student teachers or other material support, or create unique performance opportunities for a wide range of youth ensembles, among a host of other offerings.

And they are eager for your contact. Connecting with colleges and universities is mutually beneficial: music ed professors and students get the opportunity to see what’s happening in the trenches of real classrooms, while the teachers receive a little bit of assistance, the chance to present new ideas to their students, or the potential for expanding curricular offerings.