There are so many ways these resources are NOT being used by studios. The time saving and collaboration benefits cannot be beat. These ideas are just the tip of the efficiency iceberg, and it’s time to get chilly!
Google Docs
- Class Level Requirements – Create a doc for each genre’ of dance and list the levels of class you offer. Invite teachers to collaborate on your shared doc, and have them include skills they believe should be mastered before moving to the next level.
- Staff Meeting Agendas – Create a doc of upcoming agenda, and ask teachers/staff to add anything they would like to discuss at the meeting. By including them, you are opening up the lines of communication, and decreasing your workload at the same time. Double win!
- Performance Line Ups – Share with your teachers and staff to look for schedule conflicts, and when you have the perfect show plan, share with parents & students to look super organized and professional!
- Contracts – Staff contracts, parents contracts, student contracts, competition member contracts, oh my! All of your contracts can be created and shared for signatures.
- Staff Performance Evaluations – Studio owner and personal evaluations shared with each other prior to a meeting to discuss. This is also a good way to track progress, and set goals.
- Choreography Collaboration – If you are asked to help with a number that is not your own, you can create a list of things seen during a cleaning session, added/changed in the routine, and then share with the main teacher. This allows for an ongoing discussion with the group and also records when and how things have been changed.
- Theme Ideas – Create a master list of songs and how they fit into themes for upcoming shows. As a way to reduce your studio owner workload, encourage your staff to share their ideas!
Google Sheets
- Scheduling – Create sheet for each teacher to input their availability for seasonal teaching. Use tabs for each section of your year, i.e: Fall, Session 1, Summer, etc. Include options to add any specific days needed off, and if looking for replacement.
- Contact – Shared with staff including contact details, class schedules, emergency contact, birthdays, and anything else that would be helpful to share about each other.
- Song and costume planning – Create a sheet with all of your classes, and then share the document with your recital staff. Next, ask teachers to enter their songs, and costumes ideas or choices for their routines for each class
- Competition Team Needs – Sheets with multiple tabs for team members with birthdays, a parent contact sheet to share, song name/style/group size/group members for registration, open studio time scheduling, small group practice schedules, etc
Google Slides
- Meetings – Create bullet points in the form of slides for your parent, staff, and training meetings. By doing this, you will keep yourself on task, and always have a visual reminder of the things you wanted to cover in your meetings. As a bonus, you can share the slides with your staff, and dance families, to follow along with during your meeting. BOOM! All of a sudden you are super high tech, and eco-friendly!
- Digital Lobby – Make weekly, bi-weekly, or monthly slide shows to play on your digital bulletin board in your studio lobby. Don’t know what to put on your digital bulletin board? Check out our next blog post!