A number of people have commented and/or asked questions about the Year-End Evaluations that I hold in my studio. I started doing this ten years ago and it has been so helpful for me and the families! The last lesson of the year one or both parents attend the lesson with their child. The week before this, I send home a Parent Questionnaire and a Student Questionnaire, and I complete a Year-End Student Evaluation. I tweak the questionnaires a bit each year so that I get input and feedback from the parents and students on specific issues. (You can click the above links to download copies of this year’s forms.)
Conducting these evaluations does take a considerable amount of time as I consider each student’s progress and evaluate where they are in different musical areas. But the results of my own time spent doing this and recommending specific goals and ideas for the future, along with the responses on the questionnaires from the parents and students, has proved to be invaluable as I work on a theme and lesson plans for the following year. I highly recommend giving this a try in your studio if you haven’t already! If you conduct Year-End Evaluations in your studio, I’d love to hear what you include and what’s been most helpful to you.
Remember, if you have a question you’d like to contribute to next week’s Monday Mailbag, leave it in the comments below or send me an e-mail sometime this week with Monday Mailbag in the subject line!
What’s been most helpful to me is your brilliant idea! I’ve been doing these evaluations for three years, now, and have never looked back. I’ve based mine off of an old version of yours, and I just incorporated some of your new ideas into mine. But a few additional things I also ask for on the Parent Questionnaire:
1) current email (some people change theirs, or change the one they use most without notifying me)
2) the parent’s evaluation of the child’s learning style
3) “Do you think your child needs either a stricter or a gentler approach in lessons? Please explain.”
What a great idea! Thanks for sharing that – I hadn’t thought of evaluations but I think I might do that now!
I’ve used an evaluation form for years that has evolved from the form my own children’s teacher used to use. Similar to yours with the 1 – 5′s but with more categories. I’d love to share it but not sure how (a real website may be this summer’s project!).
At the last lesson, I have my students fill out the same form I use. I keep theirs and don’t peek at them until after I fill out mine. Then I compare and send them both in the mail with the updated policy and registration form. I also save all previous years evals. on my computer so I can easily view them. That helps a lot.