Director Resources

This page has a collection of links useful for informing hesitant parents about the benefits of music. It also has some links to help you inform parents of the importance of music education.

• The results of the Big 10+ Contest for 2021 are in! Check to see the final results! 

• Cares Act ESSER Funds - There are COVID relief funds that you can apply for to fund music programs. There is a wide variety of ways that you can apply these funds for your school. There are $174,777,774 in funds awarded to the state of Wisconsin, and only a very small amount of that has been redeemed. Not sure of what to use the funds for? Here's some ideas.  

• USA Today Article - Why Music Education is an Essential Refuge for Students. USA Today published an article about the importance of music and music education, especially in a pandemic. "How can singing, clapping and dancing in school be important during these traumatic times? Shouldn't we focus on figuring out how to teach students basic reading and math skills? Those are essential skills, but we underestimate the importance of music at the epense of our youth."

• A Ted.com video about the benefits of music to the brain. An ideal video to show to parents who might be on the fence about having their children participate in music. This video should also be made available to principals, superintendents, and school boards as additional justification for having students participate in music courses.

• A NAfME site that has organized a great deal of information for teachers regarding online learning. Includes access to many education webinars and resources for curriculum development. There are also links to other education sites that provide videos that are appropriate for online learning. 

• WMEA has recently launched a new distance-learning platform called "WMEA Online Teaching Project". This project provides an opportunity for music teachers to support one another through the generation of shareable plans (two-week, self-contained units) and resources for use in PreK-12 classrooms in Wisconsin.

• Be Part of the Music offers tools and resources for recruiting and retaining students in music. You can customize a website, create custom emails, utilize comericals they have produced and more all with the aim of showcasing how important music is.

• This fantastic video was produced by the United States Army Field Band and demonstrates and briefly discussing the instruments of a traditional concert band.

• Why Music? Why Band? is a fantastic chapter excerpt for parents who might prefer reading in a classic longform style article. The chapter is from the book series "Teaching Music Through Preformance in Band". While it is geared towards band, the message is applicable for all discipline's of music and art.

• These next few resources break down why music is good for you in easy to repeat bullet point style facts:
  • 8 reasons why music is important to us.
  • 10 Health Benefits of Music
  • 20 Important Benefits of Music In Our Schools

Music Education Initiatives at Heid Music

Music Education is embedded at the heart of Heid Music's core values. Each of our team members believe in the power of music education. At Heid Music, we've developed a few programs to help celebrate, stimulate and encourage music education. During Music in our Schools Month (March), we run our Big 10+ Contest and Music Matters program. The Big 10+ Contest is designed as a photo contest, allowing schools and music programs to showcase their talents and what music means to students, while competing to win amazing prizes from our vendors. Music Matters allows schools to fundraise by collecting donations for their programs at Heid Music stores or online. Heid Music matches all donations up to $500 per school district. 

Heid Music also supports local music programs with our School of the Month program. During the school year, we feature a new school each month as our School of the Month. We celebrate the accomplishments, enrollment numbers and programs. Each director that is nominated receives a certificate, story posted to our website and in-store and a commemorative bobble head. 

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