I’ve let a few weeks go by again without doing a Forum Q&A, so I think it’s high time for another! 🙂 Last time, we discussed attending conferences but only received a few comments. Feel free to add your thoughts.
The school year is wrapping up — at least for those of us in the U.S.! So, I’m curious:
What are you up to? What end-of-the-year preparations preparations are you working on? Summer scheduling, progress reports, re-registration for the fall, planning summer camps, etc? Fill me in!
Leave your comment below this post. 🙂
There’s just a few more weeks to go in the UK too, though the Summer Term is very much still in ‘full swing’. I’ve got three with exams coming up so we’re very much still focussed on them. Aside from that, I’m beginning to think about end-of-term reports and how to manage these – I’ve never come up with a totally satisfactory way of doing these which provides the most useful info for the pupils/parents, but which reduces the amount of writing time for the teacher!
I’m in the process of changing my Studio Policy ready for September, and I’m thinking about the best way to present this to pupils over the next few weeks. I’ve already allocated days when I’ll be teaching over the summer holidays and I’ll need to encourage pupils/parents to sign up for these.
I’m already starting to think about the Autumn Term too. I’m starting to think about possible events and workshops I’ll run, and suitable dates for these. I’m beginning to think about those who might be doing exams later in the year too. There’s always the inevitable drive to boost pupil numbers ready for the new term too, so no doubt I’ll be trying to drum up interest over the next few months! It’s definitely one of the busiest times of year!
I am changing my policy next year, too. I am now grouping lessons into semesters, and having the option to pay upfront at the beginning of each semester.
I am doing once a month lessons this summer with about half of my students, and that way we don’t have to do quite as much review when we start in the fall. 🙂
This is my first year teaching. I have all BOYS! So this summer I am hosting an “Exclusive – Girl’s Only” beginner group. I have lots of fun group activities and stations for them to work on fine motor and music activiites – including a few from your site! I’m really exciting and busy wrapping up last minute lesson plans and photo release forms.
As my private lesson term comes to an end, we’re wrapping up our Mario Challenge – they all worked hard each week to advance on the game board. Since I have one student continuing weekly this summer and another biweekly (plus my own two kids), I have made personalized laminated practice sheets that are broken down by warm-ups, technic, songs, games ,etc… We will graph the total amounts of time practiced and each time a student reaches a 150 minute increment they get to get in the prize box…whoever gets to 1000 first will get a set prize.
This is my first year teaching (in addition to working another job and raising my three young kids). I have 6 students continuing through the summer and I’ve been spending lots of time gathering musical games, worksheets, and listening activities to do outside where it’s more comfortable-my house is hot in the summer and fans blow our music pages around. Your website has been a huge help. I’m also redoing an entry room in my house to be a studio so I can have a little separation from my home- lessons are currently held in my living room 🙂 I’m considering offering a group class in addition to private lessons, and advertising for more students- I do a flyer with pull off tabs at the bottom for them to take my phone number. Thank you for all that you, your website is incredible and I visit often.
Laura E.
Manistee, MI
Thanks, Laura! Your entry room sounds like a great place for a studio. Good luck with everything! 🙂