Keeping Track of Student Progress – Part 2

Based on the number of hits and emails I’ve received, Keeping Track of Student Progress is a concern for many of my teaching friends.  So, I decided to write a follow up post answering some of your questions about my original article.  I think the best way to do this is in a question and answer format.

Do your students have access to these forms?  Do you print them out for them each week?

Definitely not! I keep track of all kinds of things in these notes including notes about student attitudes, student problems, parent problems, late payments, etc.  One of the many reasons for this is so that I have a central place to document especially problems in case I need to dismiss a student.

How do you have time to write/type in both the student notebook and on the computer?

If you look at the other post and the picture to the right closely, you’ll see that I don’t write much every week.  I type very concise notes in the google doc during and right after the lesson (as the student is packing up), and spend much more time writing in the student’s notebook during the lesson.  Remember that I visit this google doc either at the end of the day or before the next week’s lesson in order to write more notes to plan for the next lesson.  I might spend a bit more time in this google doc during this planning session than I do in the lesson, so some weeks’ notes will seem longer than others.

During the planning session, I use a red font and present tense verbs such as:

4/13    Introduce eighth notes.  Hand out eighth note worksheet.

When we have completed those items at the lesson, I just go back and change the verbs to past tense showing that we completed it.  So, this week’s lesson will look like this:

4/13    Introduced eighth notes.  Handed out eighth note worksheet.

Notice that I changed the font to black.  I then make the next week’s plan in red.

If we don’t get to something, I just cut and paste it into the next week.  (ALL piano teachers should know the shortcuts for cut, copy, and paste!  If you don’t know this and want a separate post on it and other quick tricks, comment or email me.)

How is your studio set up?  How do juggle both a computer and the student’s notebook?

I have a great little laptop table I bought at IKEA and also a storage cabinet on wheels (also from IKEA) on which I place the student’s notebook. You can see from the picture that both are very accessible.  In the drawers, I keep games, office supplies, sheet music, etc.  If I need to play a game, I can just wheel the drawers away and move the red table easily.

That little box on the desk surface is where I place handouts to give each student.  There is a hanging file for each student in that box and I place items to give the student sticking out of the file so that I remember it.  These kinds of boxes can be found for about $10 at Target.

How can I implement such a program?

I think the most important thing is to do just one thing at a time.  If you already work with student notebooks, continue to do that, but try to take these steps as you can (you may only implement one or two of these things a week until they become a habit or are established).  After you have taken all these steps, you’ll find a groove that works for you and your students.

  1. Establish a system for your students to use.  This can be their practice notebooks, post-it notes (a few of my students do better with this than a notebook), emailing them assignments, etc.  Whatever works for you…just make sure that your system for your student doesn’t suffer when you are trying to implement something for your own use.
  2. Begin establishing a system for your use by choosing a document source.  Maybe you want to use a Word doc, or Mac Pages, or Google docs.  Just decide on what you will be able to access most readily in the most places.
  3. Set up your document.  Type in all your student names, insert tables, fill the tables in based on what your curriculum includes.  See previous post for a sample.  I use the Kansas Music Progressions Curriculum (and you can buy practice theory tests and sight reading pieces in the store to help prepare students or to test them yourself.)

2 thoughts on “Keeping Track of Student Progress – Part 2”

  1. Wendy,

    Thanks for this follow up to a great post. I have never liked google docs, but I’m going to give it another try now.

    Do you schedule back to back lessons, or do you have a little time between each one?

  2. I love efficiency, so I schedule back to back lessons, but I take a break every 4-5 students. This is partly because it works out nicely for the home school/public school schedule and partly because I need some breathing time between that many students. The tolerance for back to back students will probably be different for every teacher.

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