As teachers, most of our practice is intensely focused on working with our students, making sure that their support needs are met, their musical interests are satisfied, and their minds are engaged in music lessons. We don’t often focus on communicating with parents, but it’s an important part of our job as teachers. Parents are your biggest partners in a student’s music education. They are the most in-tune with their child’s communication style, behaviours, and learning needs. Today’s blog offers some tips and scripts for communicating with parents and keeping them interested and involved in their child’s music learning journey.
As adaptive music teachers, we often have
tricks up our sleeves for supporting a student’s lagging skills or breaking down a new skill into manageable tasks. However, our process isn’t always clear to the parent. When you use a non-musical method to support a musical skill, invite the parent into the process and explain the why behind your method. For example, my students and I sometimes bounce racket ball back and forth on a beat. This activity helps them keep a pulse, and doubles as a body break while working on motor planning and hand-eye coordination. Afterwards, I quickly explain my process to the parent:
“Bouncing the ball with a partner helps us understand a steady beat and work on our hand-eye coordination, which helps us play the piano. Let’s add some music and see if we can bounce the ball to the beat of the music.”
Not every lesson ends in smiles and laughter (although
we hope most of them do!). Sometimes a student brings frustration or worry to a lesson, displays adverse behaviour, or has a meltdown in their lesson. If something outside of the norm happened in a lesson, reach out to the parent the day after to check in on the student. You can use the following script and adapt it to your situation:
“Dear (Parent),
I noticed that ______ was having a bit of a hard day yesterday when we tried (activity) and demonstrated some frustration by slamming the piano keys. I tried to redirect them to a preferred activity during the lesson. We played some rhythms on the djembe and did a movement song instead. I just wanted to check in with you and see how they were after the lesson. Please let me know if I can support them better in their music-making. I am looking forward to seeing them at their lesson next week!
Warmly,
(Teacher)”
This small gesture lets the parent know that you noticed something was off, how you handled the situation, and that you cared to follow up and check in. It’s a small act that goes a long way in reassuring both the parent and the student.
Parents of students with exceptionalities often hear negative feedback from teachers and support workers. We don’t want our only communication with a parent to be when their child is having a hard day. Highlight a student’s successes to their parents in front of the student. Beyond “that was a great lesson,” aim to share specific successes, musical breakthroughs, or even a fun game you did in the lesson. This reinforces to the parents what their child is learning and communicates the progress they are making. If a parent doesn’t attend a lesson, I will often invite them in for the last 5 minutes for the student to do a “show and tell.” I may also take a video recording during a lesson, and text the recording to the parent after the lesson with a little note of encouragement for the student.
If your student’s parents don't sit in on
lessons, it’s especially important to communicate with the parents after each lesson about what you worked on, student progress, and any updates for practicing at home. I often give quick positive updates to the parents at the end of the lesson, and then I follow up with a quick email with ways the parent can support practice at home. You can also do this through a sticky note or writing in a student's notebook. Post-lesson communication might look like:
“(Student) had such a great lesson today. I was so impressed with how they were keeping a steady beat in Lavender’s Blue. This week, we are working on our 8th note rhythms in the song. I bet you they would love to show you what they worked on! I will send you a short email with a link to a rhythm song to do at home and how to practice their current piece.
Have a great week!”
I hope these few ways of communicating and partnering with parents are helpful in your
music teaching practice.
Happy teaching!
