Has a student ever come to his lesson without his assignment book and you have *no* idea what you did last week? Yes, it happens! If you have a full studio of private students, it is hard to remember exactly what you do week from week with each student. I’ve tried various ways of keeping track of plans, but Amy Chaplin’s king-size master spreadsheet has helped me tremendously the last two years.

My favorite thing about the spreadsheet is that I can see what areas I might be neglecting with a student. It also helps me set clear goals for each student. I keep the file on Google Sheets so I can access it on any of my devices.

Here is a glimpse of what my spreadsheet looks like:

I keep a separate sheet for each day of the week. Then for each student, I add a column of what I’d like to accomplish in the month. For each lesson, I record what we did in the following categories:

• Technique
• Reading
• Concepts
• Repertoire
• Theory
• Other
• Notes

If I don’t get to something, I can make a note in the column for the following week. I also keep a sheet of contest pieces and record if a student has paid for participation.

I typically plan my students’ music for the entire school year. (You can read how I do that here.) I keep it in Evernote, but next year I’m thinking about adding the list of my students’ music books in my master spreadsheet so I can quickly refer to it while planning.

In addition to using a master spreadsheet, I’ve also used a teacher planner (where I write quick notes each week) or just a plain notebook (where I keep notes for one student per page).

Lauren Lewandowski

Lauren teaches piano to students of all ages. She enjoys creating resources for her students and teachers. She is the author of Ready for Theory®. For personalized help, check out the consultations page for teachers.

Related posts:

5 Ways to Make-up a Music Lesson How to Organize a Music Library Planning Piano Music for One Year Fitting It All In