Better Practice Blog- Dump the Notebook: Stop Limiting Your Students' Progress
Dump the Notebook: Stop Limiting Your Students' Progress
I often have those “Aha!” moments (or “Duh!” moments) where I think of the perfect assignment for a student to work on, or I realize I forgot to mention a key point - right as they walk out the door, assignment notebook and all. I’ll email the parents about it when the day is done, I note (my next student is already out there, waiting - so I have no time to email my new plans right then and there).
So, I jot it down in my notebook. It’s the most I can do at that moment. But with the rest of my day full of students, that assignment usually ends up forgotten (oops…) or, more often, I change my mental note to: I’ll just assign this next lesson.
Now, something that could have been done in one week is stretched out to 2 weeks - basically “wasting” a lesson in a way. If I could have easily just given that assignment for that week, we could have moved onto new material by the next.
The Notebook Only Gives You One Shot
There are a lot of things like this - subtle things that, in a way, put a stoplight on a student’s progress during the week. They’re not intentional actions - more like the lack of certain actions that could help the student reach their improvement potential during the week. I’m only given one shot to get the assignments and all the notes right. Often it’s under the pressure of running out of time in the lesson and having the next student waiting outside.
The notebook also limits my students’ momentum. A student usually looks at their assignments perceives it as: “These are your assignments for the week, so work on just these (no need to go further!).” I don’t know about other teachers, but I’m thrilled when a student sits down for a lesson and says “I finished this song, so I learned the two next ones too,” especially when the assigned piece was learned well. But this is a rare occurence for me.
Here at Better Practice, our goal is to give students more power in their practice - to see how they’re improving and to challenge themselves past their given assignments if they can! We’re all for that - to apply the information they’ve been given in lesson to other areas of interest (because a lot of the time, the assignments students have to go through are not exactly the music they enjoy!).
So, what if you want to assign a student more before the next lesson? What if they mastered their given assignments early in the week?
Well, with an assignment notebook, you probably have to rely on email/text to actually add an assignment mid-week. And usually, these go to the parents’ emails and texts. So it’s a whole lot of work to figure out how the student is doing mid-week via the parent and send some new assignments (and then probably clarify a couple of times because the parents have no idea what their kid is working on).
Enhance Progress with Real-Time Assignments
Think about the same scenario where you want to assign something to a student after they have left for the week with one difference: you use a practice/assignment app. Now, the scenario plays out differently: in that moment, if you still have the student’s assignment page open from their lesson, you can just tap the new assignment in and the student’s practice list will already be updated before they even get home. You could even quickly type in some notes to explain the assignment - all under a minute.
Well, what if you don’t have time for that? Maybe your next student has barged in and eagerly started playing their piece. You can still quickly jot it down as usual, and at the end of the day, just do the same thing - tap the assignment into the student’s list, and the student will immediately see it in their practice list at home.
No waiting, no emails, no texts - just a quick tap and both of you are up to date.
And, remember, with all of this - it’s directly between you and the student! It cuts out the middleman (the parents), so everything is just more direct, quick, and it’s not like playing a game of telephone.
Building and Sustaining Momentum
We all have our ups and down. This is especially true when learning music. Even my best students go through valleys where their interests may wane or their focus may not be as sharp. When progress stops is usually when students are lost. Being able to sustain momentum midweek but also week to week is important. When my students miss lessons due to illnesses or vacation, it usually takes a few weeks to get things going again.
With the static notebook, there were no options. Sure, they can do a make-up lesson, but by then the momentum is lost. You'll probably have to take a couple steps back to refresh and get back rolling. In contrast: using a practice app to keep updating assignments and hearing students' recordings in real-time, I’m able to keep the momentum going by listening to their progress and tweak the notes or new assignments until they get back in for their next lesson. Students can also chat with me directly in the app if they have any questions.
As our final installment in the Dump the Notebook series, I now have to ask the question: If you aren’t using a practice app yet, what are you waiting for? Traditional pen and paper may be working fine for you, and it might seem like a lot of work to switch your whole method - but it will make everything easier, much more efficient, and help you better understand and become closer to your students. Read the other articles here:
Dump the Notebook 1: Assignment Notes
Dump the Notebook 2: Staying Organized
What are your thoughts? Do you swear by pen and paper? Or are you looking for modern ways to expand your teaching capabilities and engage students? We know everyone works in different ways. We’d love to hear your thoughts below, and please share!