As I mentioned in yesterday’s post, this week I am conducting Year-End Evaluations with all of my students and their parents. A couple of weeks ago I sent them the questionnaires for this year (I change the questionnaires each year to collect different information that I think will be helpful) and then I got busy filling out their evaluation forms. As I spent several hours Saturday working on these, I came to the realization that the part of the form that is actually the most helpful for me is the part at the very bottom that says, “Recommendations/Goals for Next Year.”
Filling out this little section really forces me to think through where I’m headed with each student, and how I want to see them develop in the year ahead. It’s incredibly helpful to do this at the end of the year when their accomplishments and weaknesses are still fresh in my mind. Sometimes I list more generic goals/ideas like, “Combine creativity with structure and discipline to make greater progress” and then these lead into more specific goals like “Check into Keys to Success books as a possibility.”
Then I use this information later in the summer when I’m doing more intense planning for the following year to help develop appropriate goals and select new repertoire. One of the benefits of doing this is that it gives the student, their parents, and me a vision of what the student can accomplish in the next year. This is very motivating for all of us and provides good incentive for ongoing practice through the summer!
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