From the Classroom to the Community and Back Again: Engaging the Active, Supportive Community in Your Direct Proximity

From the Classroom to the Community and Back Again explores how music educators can intentionally engage the communities surrounding their schools to create a unified, sustainable learning ecosystem. Drawing from personal experience as a K–12 and college classroom teacher, community musician, and arts organizer, this session highlights how sound, space, and relationships shape student identity, motivation, and belonging. Through real-world case studies—including campus second lines, culturally relevant performances, and interdisciplinary partnerships—participants will examine how community engagement functions as a powerful teaching tool rather than an “extra” activity. The presentation offers practical, immediately applicable strategies for expanding a school’s sound footprint, building meaningful partnerships, and aligning values with practice. At its core, this session affirms that community is the classroom, creativity builds agency, and when educators intentionally build ecosystems around their students, learning becomes visible, empowered, and transformative.