During the holiday season, teachers receive gifts from students, and the search engine can help you keep track of what you received from which student.
In the student lesson notes section, I write xmas-gift, followed by the gift received in the private notes section. If I just type xmas, a search will pull out any lesson notes with the word xmas in it. As some of my students learn Christmas music during this time of year, I have the word xmas in many lesson notes.
After the holidays are over, you can go to the Lesson History under the Lesson tab, and search for xmas-gifts. This search will give you a list of all the students that gave you a gift during the holidays. Quite helpful.
I also use this technique to enter particular grades, whether weekly, monthly or quarterly. I precede the grade with an astrick *. An example of a grade is *10. A search for * will pull up the student grades.
There are many uses for the search engine that will enable MTH to work even harder for you. On the bright side, you don’t have to give MTH a raise for taking on more responsibility and work.
What creative ways do you use for the search engine?
I’d like to know more about how & what you grade…
I use a 4.0 grading system. A grade of 5.0 is for students that exceeds the student expectation, such as playing their lesson on an expert or teacher level.
I grade on performance. I will take off for a student who did not bring their music. A 3.0 is good, and my expectation. 2.0 is for a performance of lesson material that is less than my expectation, and 1.0 is for students that did not practice and need to repeat the assignment.
Do you mean asterisk, where you wrote astrick?
Do your students and parents like getting a grade?
Jean, some parents and students wanted to get a grade. However, I have not used a grading system in a while. Instead I put into the notes how the student did on their piece.
I love the search engine. I use it for lesson book payments.
I am able to enter all the information in the fees section of MTH beginning with “ordered”, followed by book information. I am able to copy and paste the fees from other student’s orders so I don’t have to enter the fee information each time. After I order books, I usually type myself a private note to Deliver books (which then shows on my daily summary the following week). I am able to quickly use the search engine (at the next lesson) to determine what I ordered the previous week. If I deliver partial or full order (at the next lesson), I enter that information. The final result may read:
Delivered complete 3/3. Ordered 2/11 Order Oked 2/11 PA 2A Books Lesson @ 6.95 + Theory 6.50 + Technique and Artistry 6.50 + Performance 6.50 = Book total 26.45 + shipping @ $1 = Total 27.45
Thanks Ronnie!