3 Questions For Your Child’s Teacher

Are you curious about your child’s progress with music lessons? So are we. At Dawson Music Academy, we’re committed to helping students make progress towards their musical goals. We believe that meaningful communication between parents and teachers contributes to student progress. We want to celebrate students’ accomplishments with you. We also want to work with you to help them overcome challenges they experience.

Throughout the semester, we’ll communicate practice goals, performance opportunities, and feedback about progress. But we’d like to invite you to help us take the communication to the next level. To open the communication lines, we invite you to ask your child’s teacher these 3 basic questions.

1. How did today’s lesson go?

One way to gain insight into your child’s musical progress is to ask the teacher’s feedback about the lesson. This allows the teacher to share skills your child has mastered and to mention areas that need improvement. Two key indicators of student success in a lesson are mental focus and student effort. When teachers and parents communicate about these indicators, we can work together to praise students for their progress and to find solutions to deal with any challenges along the way.

2. How is my child progressing?

All of us enjoy making progress. Whether it’s learning a new skill or finally playing a song with musical accuracy, we like to see results from our lessons. Of course, in learning an instrument, there will be times of working hard to master new skills. But overall, even in learning challenging skills, students should still be making consistent progress. If students are not making progress, it’s important for teachers, parents, and students to communicate. As we partner together, we can identify any obstacles and brainstorm ideas to help.

3. How can I support at home?

Even if you’re not a professional musician, we welcome your help at home. Musical talents need consistent reinforcement to develop physical coordination and mental skills utilized in making music. While we only have 30 minutes each week to share new skills with students, you get to see them every day. We’ll share resources, ideas, and details to help along the way. Helping at home may be as simple as setting a timer for practice time or being an audience for a “practice concert.” Perhaps it’s as simple as an encouraging “high 5” for a good practice session. Even though it may seem small, your support at home is priceless in the musical success of your child.

We appreciate the opportunity to partner with parents to provide the best learning experience for students. We know there will be questions along the way, and we’re excited to help answer those questions. Our teachers are committed to helping students make progress towards their musical goals. Register for lessons today and see for yourself.

Contributor Kimberly Jones is a wife, mother, and the Director of the Dawson Music Academy at the Dawson Family of Faith.