For the first time, I did a student survey at the end of the school year. I really wanted to get some feedback from students on their thoughts and experiences as a part of our band program.
The responses were enlightening, but overall very positive. However, as in most things, I find myself hung up on the negatives. Not necessarily the extremes such as the kind young soul whose response to the question "What can your band teacher do to make band a better experience?" was "Leave." But there were some standouts to me:
- Too much talking from students, too much "yelling" from me. Classroom management has been something I've generally prided myself on. Things like fast pacing and building relationships with students have helped me keep things running pretty smoothly in the past. However, I had some struggles this year stemming from some a combination of class size and the personalities of some of the larger classes, and with their sizes my usual strategies didn't serve us as well. I had two classes of over 50 beginners this year and they could not have been more different from each other. In trying to keep things anonymous so that students felt they could speak freely, I did not ask which class period they were in as a part of the survey, but I really wish I knew where the "yelling" comments came from. Not that raising my voice or getting angry with students is helpful, but knowing if it was coming from all students or those in classes I struggled with more would tell me how to better target my approach for the fall. Part of my plan is to strengthen our class procedures at the beginning of the school year so that I can be more non verbal with instructions and expectations.
- I am not going to make everybody happy. Two (out of 233 responses) said my grading was "harsh." Others love it and appreciate the retake policy. Many said they loved doing assignments online. Some hate using the tech and just wish we did them as part of class. Too many assignments. Too few assignments (most of these indicated there should have been more homework making others practice). I was too nice. I was too mean and demanding. To be honest, I'm not sure what to do with this information. The people-pleaser in me wants to fix things so the outliers are more comfortable, but if I scare off 20 trying to fix things for two who am I really helping?
- Concerts and Genius Hour are the most popular activities we do. Many mentioned our field trips and Chamber Night, but those were the overwhelming favorites. Overall, I'm pretty happy with the number of performances we do per year for 7th and 8th Grade. 6th Grade has always had a pretty big gap though between their December and May concerts. I'm excited that we're adding another one for them in the winter as a part of our Pre Festival concerts. Even better is that they'll get to play on a concert with our 8th grade and a high school group which will hopefully get them thinking about where playing an instrument will go long term. That concert happens to be shortly before students select their schedules for the coming year as well.
- Scheduling is a problem. For those who indicated they're not continuing next year, many cited the desire to try other electives. Our current set up doesn't provide a lot of flexibility for students who take band with the rest of their electives and really forces kids to make long term decisions for their school career too early. There's not much I can do about this issue except to continue to try make band a place they want to be, but having some data showing that it's impacting retention will be helpful in the long run.
A big takeaway logistically is that I need to reformat my survey with a few more pre-set options as answers and fewer open ended ones. I'll still have some open ended ones because they gave interesting feedback, but having a few more multiple choice style questions will give me better data to work with.
August 1 is coming which means it's just about time to start prepping for the coming year in earnest taking steps to improve myself and my classes! Anybody else making changes based on survey feedback?
This sounds so familiar, it is very similar to feedback I received. Guess we all face the same issues :-)! As for those comments that are all over the place, where you hear both sides, I don't think that there is a ton you CAN do. You said it - you can't please everyone. I was really looking for trends and patterns in the surveys, not outliers, because those trends would direct me toward what needs to change the most (or stay the same).
ReplyDeleteOne question that a teacher added that I liked, for 8th graders, was, "What are you nervous about next year in high school?" While it sounds a bit negative, the kids really seemed to be able to admit some things, and it was probably good for them to have those fears acknowledged. Doesn't really help with future planning, but it was a cool idea.
Summer is flying by!