I’ve had the extreme fortune of working with the same violin studio, with the same Suzuki school (Ithaca Talent Education), and the same students and parents since 2019.

Four years in and I’m starting to benefit from the careful, deliberate decisions we made in 2019. Processes, decisions, and standards are becoming second nature. I can’t overstate the potency of developing consistent routines at the daily, monthly, and yearly scale.

I’ve noticed that…

• parents now anticipate my processes
• I can complete my work in a quarter of the time
• I generate more ideas because I have more brain-space and the future isn’t fuzzy (we can plan for February because we know what will happen in February)
• students are more comfortable because communication between parent and teacher is strong
• students thrive because I can reverse plan from recitals, graduations, concerts, and auditions months in advance

There is no need to reinvent the wheel every year.

The following is my general process for launching the new school year in Fall.

*One caveat!* I’ll be the first to admit that I am in the luxurious position of working for an established school. ITE has two, wonderful administrative staff, as well as a book keeper and accountant, who manage many of the financial sides of the business. The office also does the work of scheduling and securing the group class times and locations. That takes a lot of work off of my plate! But let’s talk through the processes I’ve put in place so that the rest of the shallow, administrative work takes as little time as possible.

SCHEDULING

I still use the scheduling process I wrote about here.

I send an email out late July that the school year sign up will be posted on August 1st. I send an email on August 1st with a link to the online sign up. I ask those with tight schedules to jump on right away to find a time. I ask families with loser schedules to hold back and wait a few days to secure a lesson. Importantly, I give a deadline of two weeks for them to sign up.

I do need to send a reminder email and then some specific nudges to get everyone on board.

By the second week of August I have everyone’s lesson time chosen.

A few notes…

• Our studio has grown very quickly (from 4 students to 32 students in three full years) and I’ve always made more time available than what I need. There has always been wiggle room. Now I’m teaching Monday to Friday 2:30-8:00, so there is little wiggle room to offer. I anticipate that in the next few years I’ll need to invest more time getting everyone placed perfectly because I have less availability.
• I try to reduce as many emails as possible. Rather than going back and forth about days and times on email I simply send them the link to our lesson schedule.
• It is important that I always say, “We will find a time for your lesson. Please reach out to me directly if you are not able to find a time that works for you.” This assurance goes a long way.

One quick idea I’d like the throw out is that I included a 30 minute dinner break in my schedule this year to regulate my meals and aid earlier sleep. I simply blocked the time off of the sign up schedule. I’m four days into the fall semester and absolutely love the 30 minute space half way through the teaching day. I’ve also found it much easier to fall asleep between 9 and 10, even though I’m teaching until 8.

Boring Computer Workflow

Once the schedule is set and I have the calendar from the office I go ahead and lay out all of our lessons and events for the year.

1. I input every lesson onto Google within the student calendars. For example, Kestrel’s lessons go in Kestrel’s calendar which is shared with her parent.
2. I input every event and school closure into our shared ‘ITE Events’ Google calendar.
3. I input the same lessons into My Music Staff– our school’s program for keeping track of lesson schedules, attendance, and billing.
4. I update our Notion database with the students new lesson day, current book, and current group class.

This is the most tedious aspect of administrative prep. I like to put on Vulfpeck or Beyonce while I work. Of course, the more students you have the longer this takes. A wonderful ‘problem’ to have.

This is the trudge of administrative prep you might avoid, but I personally feel so secure and ready for the semester once I’ve done this step. Go ahead and timeblock 2 hours of this work 2 weeks before the semester starts. You will be so grateful you did.

Update Studio Documents

I go ahead and update our Studio Handbook with any new processes or expectations for the semester. I usually keep a task in my to-do system with ideas for what to change. This year I added an explanation of our graduation recital process and ‘practice lessons’ (opportunities to sign up for additional lessons each week).

I also double check and add new contacts to our studio contact list. This resource is important for any family who needs to do a lesson swap. I really believe in providing this information so there is as little friction as possible for students to develop violin friendships with each other.

Semester Welcome Email

This is the easy part. I simply send an email with links to the work I just did.

• Finalized Lesson Schedule (just a link to the one they signed up on, this will continue to shift throughout the semester as students need to inevitably change their lesson time; I much prefer a living document over a static PDF that I need to send out again and again).
• ITE School Events Google Calendar
• Digital Studio Handbook (so they can click on all the hyperlinks)
• Digital Studio Contact Sheet

I also, of course, remind everyone that lessons start next week! It’s worth over-communicating to families exactly when lessons start.

Back to School Bags

I did this for the first time this year, but will include it in my fall routine from now on. I provided a paper gift bag for every family with a printed version of the documents above, a direct letter to the studio re-communicating the basics (“practice only on the days you eat!”), and some fun treats for the students. This year I included an apple, stickers, a word search, #2 HB pencils, and two repetition coloring pages.

This is a fun, easy way to get materials to families, demarcate the start of something new, and reinforce our culture of trust, abundance, and generosity.

I’ll write a post about these soon!

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And that’s it! The more reps I get of this (at the year level!) the simpler it becomes. The more families are used to my consistent style, the easier it becomes for them, too.

Happy fall, everyone.