Clear parent communication is great because it allows us to make sure that everyone that's involved in our program has the information they need. But it also makes sure that we are covering our bases so that when inevitably, someone tells you that you didn't tell them about the concert, you have the receipts to prove it that you did.
You're listening to that music podcast with Bryson Tarbet, the curriculum designer and educational consultant behind that music teacher at the elementary music summit each week, Bryson and his guests will dive into the reality of being an elementary music teacher, and how music can truly be transformative in the lives of the students you serve. shownotes and resources mentioned in this episode can be found at that music teacher.com.
This episode is brought to you by the free elementary music newbie guide. We all know that you can't learn it all in four years. But the sad reality is that many new music teachers don't feel prepared for the elementary music classroom. In this free guide, we'll work through four of the most important things when it comes to being successful as an elementary music teacher, to grab your guide, head on over to that music teacher.com/newbie. Again, that's that music teacher.com/n e. W. vie. Hello, and welcome back to that music Podcast. Today, we're gonna be talking about parent communication. So this is something that is really important, but can kind of get people in a pinch sometimes. And I want to start off by saying it's not easy to communicate with all of our parents all the time, I want to completely validate that. But I also on the flip side of that, want to make sure that we understand just how important it is for us to truly make sure you have open lines of communication with the parents that we have for the students that we have.
Because I think it's really important for us to just make sure that expectations are clear, that can really help with classroom management struggles. And it can really just overall make you more part of the school community and less of a, you know, person stuck on music teacher island. So let's talk about how we actually make this happen. And the first thing I want you to do is talk to the other people or your school and see what are they doing. I know that at my elementary school, we most of us, most teachers use ClassDojo. So I had them all add me in as a co teacher to ClassDojo. So I can always send a message home to a parent or send a class announcement if there's a performance coming up or something. What I love about that is it translates into somebody in whatever language basically. So I have a lot of parents that don't speak English. So when I put it through ClassDojo, they're able to translate it into Spanish so that they can read it, which is another way to make sure that it's accessible communication as well. At my middle school, we use Canvas. So a lot of the parents who set up on Canvas, I'll be honest, it's not my favorite way to communicate with parents. I do prefer something like ClassDojo, or email. But that's another way to just have an open line of communication. I basically tell my parents, hey, I'm available on Class Dojo, you can send me a message on Canvas, or you can send me an email, all those things will come to my email anyway. So I just make sure I have open lines of communication so that parents know that they can reach out to me if there's ever any issue or if there's ever any questions or if they need more information on anything when it comes to communication. Positive proactive communication can give you so much more bang for your buck and then reaching out to a grownup or guardian when things get rough. I always I'll be honest, this is my goal to do it every like the entire year usually fiddles out sometime after the begin of the year. But I always start at the beginning of the year, at least, with creating positive connections with guardians of students, especially those students that I know that I have struggled with in the past, or like have classroom management issues or tend to need a little bit more interaction. I'll be sure like, hey, in the first week of school, if I see that they're rockin, and I'll send their parent a message and say, Hey, I love how Johnny was working really hard today, I just want to let you know that I was really proud of how hard he was helping and he was helping out someone over here and he was just it was just really great. I wanted to make sure that you are aware of how awesome you did today, that's a great way to send a positive message home. Because let's be honest, with our parents getting most communication home, probably went there are problems. So whatever we can do to have the first interaction we have with our parents as not necessarily negative really makes it so that if you need their help down the road, you know, figuring out a classroom management issue or if there was an outburst or something, then you almost you already have them kind of on your side a little bit. You have their support. You have the understanding that you're not coming after their kid, you're really trying to help them out. I especially do this when I have new families that have moved in or make like my kindergarteners the beginning of the year that are new, just to kind of again, form that connection. I would hate for them. The first time that they hear from me is when you know like in April when we have a performance like that's a long time do not hear from a teacher that you've been serving their student. So I would love to reach out to the students say hey, I love Oh, I just saw that you moved to our school. I had your student for the first date time today. He did amazing. It was so much fun. I'm really glad I'm really excited to get to know him a little bit better.
It can be something as simple as that. I know that we're busy. But I really believe this is such a worthwhile investment of our time. So while we're on the topic of communication, we let's talk about our performances and concerts and things like that, how do we make sure that everyone has the information they need. And I'll be honest, this is where I make sure that I'm sending everything home in lots of different ways. I always send home a save the date, on ClassDojo. And, and print long before the performance that way, no one can say, Oh, we didn't know. Then as the performance gets a little closer, I sent home another one on ClassDojo. And in print, I also make sure that it's included in anything that's going home from the school like in our newsletter, or the teachers newsletters, and that those dates and things are put in there, I will be honest, the younger they are, the more that parents typically need more information. For instance, my kindergarten parents, they typically, they you know, they haven't done this before. They don't know necessarily what a performance looks like. So it makes sense. So, with my kindergartners, especially, I'm very clear with you know, the grownups that say, Hey, you know, this is the date, this is what it will look like, students, they don't need to wear anything special, they they need to be there 16 or 15 minutes early, they don't need to bring anything with them. And we hope that you can, you know, invite family if you want, and come on over here, we'll be up on time. Because there's gonna be a lot of questions, especially if it's a new family or someone that you know, they haven't had someone go through this this school before, they really might not know what the expectations are. So putting those expectations out there. And I think being clear is kind and allowing, you know, grownups and families to understand what it will look like. And what's going to be expected of them is just a really way that a really good way that we can set everyone up for success. So what do you do when you get a let's say not so friendly message from a parent? Clearly, this happens, and it can stink sometimes. And as as hard as it is, I think it's important for us to pause for a second, assume positive intent whenever possible, and try to see it from their point of view. Sometimes that you might still be able to say, I firmly believe that I did the right thing, or I firmly believe that, you know, I am in the right here, and that I, you know, I'm seeing it from their perspective, but this is the way that it is. In that case, I think that we need to be very direct and say, hey, you know, I totally understand where you're coming from. These are the facts of what happened or you know, this is this is actually what's going on, I would love to talk for to talk to you about this further. If there's any way that any other specific questions I can answer or ways that I can make, depending on the situation, you know, maybe ways that I can make your student more comfortable in the situation XYZ. But also realize that you're not going to please everyone. I don't mean that to be like, do your thing.
And just don't worry about who you burn in the way but realize that sometimes we sometimes the importance of music education is going to be missed on the parents. And I think that's a little bit of our jobs to kind of change. But yeah, you might have a student that doesn't come to a performance because of a basketball practice or something. And yes, that's frustrating, especially, you know, performance versus practice. But that's the priorities that that that family has set. And we have to we have to go by that we have to respect that.
I think that it's important for us to be clear that, hey, if you're doing a performance that requires speaking parts, and a student says they want to be a speaking part, make sure that student knows that they are expected to be there. And you know, you could do send home a permission slip basically say, Hey, I will be there and things like that, depending on how you do it. But just make sure that we are again, being clear what our expectations, what do we expect our parents to do? What do we expect our students to do? And how can we make that incredibly clear so that there aren't any confusions. And then when it gets to performance, eight things aren't crazy.
When it comes down to it, you can only do what you can do your only control in control of so much. So just do the best that you can, and realize that you're going to have some learning experiences along the way. I've definitely had some learning experiences with my communication style. And sometimes parents will tell it to you exactly how it is. They will it will hurt and it will sting. But if you're able to iterate and realize like, oh, yeah, I probably could have sent this out earlier or like, oh, okay, I only sent this home to you know, give them one copy. And there. They have shared parenting, so we got to make sure I have more with it. And what can we do to fix this in the future? It can be really hard to think about how we can get through a situation. But I urge you that if you're in one of those situations where it feels like you're just set up for failure, try your best and just keep on going and keep iterating and get better in the future.
Because when it comes down to it clear communication, clear, consistent communication is not only in the best interest of us, it's in the best interest of our students.
