President’s Message

by Anne Fennell, CMEA President

I hope you’ve all had a wonderful start to your new academic year. I know some members started in mid-July and are already enjoying a fall break, while others just began before Labor Day. No matter when your school year started, music rooms were a-buzz around the state with so many of our members putting in extra hours and days to prepare for their students’ arrival. Everyone was hustling to make sure their space was ready to go and that all details were in order to make it a seamless and engaging start. Every deliberate action laid the foundation for the classroom community that our students get to experience through music and your guidance. Our students in California are SO fortunate to have such dedicated teachers that care so much! I’ve been thinking a great deal about the communities we intentionally co-create in our classes, as well as the communities we make with our peers, and across the state in CMEA. We create these communities and establish places to learn because we know the personal and cultural value of music through our first-hand experiences, and because we want the best for our students as well as our own personal growth. It’s these very communities and relationships that make and foster memories of a lifetime, bring value to our lives, and also support us when things get tough. We’re so fortunate to be able to have these communities in music. In every action and thought we make on behalf of our students and ourselves, we are building a community’s foundation that will live beyond us while contributing to an expressive and creative culture. This is a gathering of passionate people that celebrate, motivate, and honor one another. So may we grow in our collective communities and celebrate the connections that will support us through this coming year and into the future. Our students need us at our best, so I encourage each of you to reach out, recognize, share resources, and provide words of encouragement for one another throughout the year.

By the way, we’ll need this community – because when Proposition 28 passes, we will quickly become the foundation for the 1,000s of new teachers that will appreciate our support as they venture into music education. So, vote YES on Prop 28 because millions of students in California need music teachers just like you!