Student Snapshots

​Most of my piano parents drop their children off and pick them up after the lesson. A few of them stay in the waiting area where they can listen to their child's lesson but most of them leave and come back later.

​It is important to me to let the parents know how their child is doing each week - students do much better when their parents are involved in their music, but with back to back group classes, there isn't time to speak to every parent after the lessons.

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So I have begun to grade each student's practice. If I can hear from their performance in the lesson that they have worked on what I assigned them, I give them an A.

One young beginner asked me how will I know if she has skipped her practice time because I won't be at her house to know. When she returned one week with a dozen mistakes in her 8-bar piece, I told her "That's how I know when you haven't practiced!"

If there isn't much progress from the previous lesson, I give them a B or a C depending on how they do. Then I send a "Student Snapshot" email to the parents.

​Student Snapshot for Jonathon

• This week’s practice grade: C
• Number of “A” practice grades: 8 (of a possible 15)
• Number of pieces completed: 4 (Goal is to learn 30 this year)
• Other achievements: Learned all scales for the Level 2 Exam. Yay!

Comments: Please encourage Jonathon to put in a little more practice this week as he is not completing his practice assignments. Most students at his level have learned about 10 pieces so far and he has learned just 4.

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Student Snapshot for Asher

• This week’s practice grade: A
• Number of “A” practice grades: 14 (of a possible 15)
• Number of pieces completed: 12 (Goal is to learn 30 this year)
• Other achievements: Completed the Level 2A book today. Level 3, here we come :)

Comments: Asher really rocked the piano this week. Keep up the good work!

I use MyMusicStaff software to manage my studio. It has a neat function that allows you to make notes on each student's lesson. These notes can be sent to the parents too. I type my snapshot in the notes and click "Email Notes" to send it to the parents. It takes about 1 minute per student because I only have to edit the previous week's snapshot with the new numbers and comments. If I plan really well, I can even complete it in the last 5 minutes the lesson while the students are playing theory games or working on the ensemble pieces.

Many parents have commented that they appreciate these snapshots as they help them to stay on top of their child's practice. ​

How do you offer feedback to parents on their child's progress?