Dump the Notebook: Get (and Stay) Organized With Ease

A lot of the time, teachers become disorganized. And when we're disorganized, we may do things like forget who’s learning what or what we even taught at the last lesson with this student (what was his name again?). If this has happened to you, there's no shame in raising your hand because we have an easy solution!

Dump the Notebook Part 2: Disorganization

Think about how you currently keep track of your students’ repertoire, both past and present. Now think about how you keep track of your lesson plans - can you easily pick out a student and see what’s upcoming, what’s passed, notes on how you taught each assignment, and how the student did?

Do you even keep track of this information?

I’m going to put a firm bet that for many of you, it's no - at least, not for all of this information. You may track bits and pieces in an spreadsheet or even by hand - but all of this information? I can already see the incredulous looks that say, “Why in the world would I need all of this information?”

Well - would you believe me if I told you that you could be tracking and accessing all of this info with no extra work on your behalf?

What if I said having this info available to you can and will transform your teaching (and really simplify your life)?

You better believe it.

Why the notebook is hindering you as a teacher

If you’re using assignment notebooks or just writing assignment notes on the student’s music, those notes disappear with the student until the next lesson. And trying to log it by hand is out of the question - it would be an unnecessary amount of work that teachers just don’t have the time for! I found it hard with even just a few students to remember what exactly I had assigned each one; remembering what 10 or more students were working on would be impossible.

So, how was I supposed to lesson plan for each student without this info? Well, one answer was: don’t. It was the easy way out. I had a path set for each student (going through certain books, pieces, etc.) so if I simply guided them along the path, they would inevitably get better along the way.

Right?

Yes and no. Yes, of course your student will improve to some degree as they go through increasingly more difficult pieces and/or method books. But, it will be slow and inefficient. And students moving slowly are not happy students.

I didn’t just want to be a guide. I wanted each lesson to have real value and always build on the student’s progress during the week - which meant knowing when to change my lesson plan, even at the last minute. But to do this, I somehow needed a way to track a student’s assignments, my notes, and the student’s progress during the week - without breaking my back.

The Solution

Enter Better Practice - the answer to my problems! By assigning through Better Practice, the app would automatically keep logs for what I had assigned when. This includes all the notes I ever wrote and any attachments I included!

I could also see a history of how each practice on the song went - so I could see, even mid- week, if the student was struggling or getting through with flying colors.

Now I didn’t have to wait until lesson-time to see if the student was ready for the next assignment and adjust accordingly.

I could also use their Guide to view all of the upcoming songs I had planned and pick and choose accordingly. It even shows me when the last time I had assigned something from a specific category was - so I can diverge from my lesson plan every once in a while and always remember where I was.

Sometimes you may be limited only by the tools you choose to use. Make sure your tools give you more info than you could ever need so you can be the best teacher you could possibly be for your students. The traditional method of paper and pencil is very limiting in this day and age. Looking toward the future, going digital will be a necessity if you want to keep up with today’s students and tomorrow’s competition. So, dump the notebook! Make the move to something that does all the same things and infinitely more with a practice tool like Better Practice.

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Visibility. That’s what you get when you make the move to incorporate Better Practice in your studio. See how students are doing mid-week, what they’ve practiced, and what comes next - all with the touch of a button. See how it works at betterpracticeapp.com.