Keeping Records

[Ike Harris]

Hey Teachers-

I'm expecting a slew of new students in the fall and would like to clean up my act in the lesson to lesson info department. So far, I'm just dedicating a page of notebook paper to a particular student with contact info, scheduling, materials, payment(if applicable), etc. This time around I'd like to keep better records possibly using some sort of spreadsheet or something. What do you folks use? Let me know.

Thanks, Ike

[David Potts]

I TRY to remember to write something down about each student's lesson in two cheap notebooks, one during lessons as a reminder for them (new ideas, explanations, homework, etc) and one soon after as a reminder for me next time about what happened last lesson (so I don't look like such a mug when I have to ask them!). I also SHOULD have a separate notebook for recording who has what music of mine, when they borrowed it and if/when it came back.

DP

[Chris Fitzgerald]

I keep a record in a word file of what we worked on that day and what our basic goals are for the next week (thankfully, the office is set up for this with the computer in a handy spot). I then email the a PDF of the last page to the student at the end of each lesson along with any audio examples we may have created (lo-res mp3 files email well if they're not too long).