In this series of articles, we’re highlighting the different options found in the SproutBeat Navigation Sidebar. Part 3 covers the third icon: Employee Teachers. (If you missed our in-depth article on the SproutBeat Library, click here to read Part 1.)
If you run a multi-teacher music school and want to integrate SproutBeat into your teaching methods, we’ve got you covered. For every 10 student accounts, you’ll be able to create an employee teacher account.
Here’s how it works:
Studio 10: Includes 10 student accounts, one admin account (that’s you!), and 1 employee teacher.
Studio 20: Consists of 20 student accounts, one admin account, and 2 employee teachers.
Studio 30: Features 30 student accounts, one admin account, and 3 employee teachers, and so on.
What can the administrator do?
As the admin, you have the power to handle all the administrative tasks, such as creating student and teacher accounts, organizing groups, managing student and teacher accounts, and updating plan/payment information. Plus, you have full access to the SproutBeat library, making it a comprehensive tool for both teaching and administration.
What can employee teachers do in SproutBeat?
Employee teachers, while not having access to account management functions, get to enjoy the SproutBeat library and have access to their connected students. This setup equips them with all they need to be effective teachers in your music school.
Getting Started
Creating a teacher account is a straightforward process, similar to setting up a student account. Once the account is ready, you can easily connect students to the respective teacher. For a step-by-step guide, be sure to watch this tutorial video.
Happy teaching and managing your multi-teacher music school with SproutBeat!
In this series of articles, we’re highlighting the different options found in the SproutBeat Navigation Sidebar. Part 2 covers the second icon: the List of Students. (If you missed our in-depth article on the SproutBeat Library, click here to read Part 1.)
Have you ever wished you had psychic powers? Well, with SproutBeat, you can! Imagine having the ability to see exactly how much homework your students have completed and how well they did on each assignment before they even show up for their lessons. Sounds amazing, right?
That’s where this student tab comes in – it’s your gateway to your students’ homework stats. Here you can effortlessly track how much homework is being completed and get a clear view of the average scores achieved by your students.
But that’s not all! This is also the place where you can create new student accounts, manage their online homework activities, and handle various other student-related tasks. It’s like your control center for everything related to your students’ progress and engagement.
1. Create a new student account
Creating a new student account in SproutBeat is a breeze! Just look for the “+” sign, give it a click, and enter your student’s first and last name. If you’re the teacher, no need to worry about the “Teacher” field – leave it as “None.” If you run a multi-teacher studio, this is where you can connect students to those teachers who work for you. That way, each teacher can efficiently manage their respective students.
Once the student account is set up, consider changing the password to something more memorable. We all know how important it is to have an easy-to-remember password!
You’ll discover a wealth of information about each student when you click on their name. The “Homework and Points” area has five buttons to choose from:
Assigned: This is where you can see which assignments your student hasn’t completed yet. You can also manage and delete assignments here, ensuring everything is organized and up to date.
Turned In: When a student completes their worksheets, they will appear here so you can look over their work and give them any feedback.
Completed: Here you’ll find a detailed list of assignments that are finished. It provides you with essential information such as the date of completion, the grade, and the points earned. (Make sure to customize the date range at the top so it displays the stats you are interested in.)
Total Points: Clicking on this button takes you to the leaderboard, where you can see how many points each student has earned. You have the flexibility to set up the calendar for monthly or semesterly studio contests, adding an element of friendly competition to your teaching studio.
Point Balance: If you have a reward system in place, this button helps you keep track of the points redeemed by your students. It’s a handy feature to manage incentives and encourage student engagement.
3. Manage student accounts
In addition to managing assignments, SproutBeat provides convenient options for handling various aspects of student accounts.
Groups: You can create specific groups to organize your students based on their level, age, or any other category that suits your teaching approach. (This can also save a lot of time when you’re deciding which assignments to send to your students.)
Password Reset: If a student forgets their password or needs it reset for any reason, you can easily initiate a password reset from here.
Student Details: This option allows you to edit crucial student information, fix spelling mistakes, or change their username and email address.
Drop or Delete: If a student needs to take a break from lessons, you can pause their account temporarily. Alternatively, if a student is leaving your studio permanently, you have the option to delete their account completely. These features give you control over your student roster, adapting it to your studio’s changing needs.
With these editing options, managing student accounts becomes straightforward, allowing you to tailor each student’s experience and provide a personalized learning journey for every student.
In this series of articles, we’re highlighting the different options found in the SproutBeat Navigation Sidebar. Part 1 is all about the first icon: the SproutBeat Library.
When you first visit the SproutBeat Library, you’ll see thumbnails of our most recent games and worksheets. We want to keep things fresh and exciting yet not overwhelming, so we limit it to no more than 30 resources at a time. If something catches your eye, we highly recommend organizing it into your very own “My Library” (see below). Trust us, it’s a game-changer!
2. Categories
Along the top menu bar above the SproutBeat Library, you’ll see four options to help filter through our 3,000+ resources. The first is “Categories,” which divides all our content into roughly 50 different topics like chords, ear training, certain holidays, music history, etc. Each resource is assigned to several relevant categories so you can quickly find what you need.
For instance, maybe you’re looking for ear training games that help your students identify the four basic chord qualities. You’ll find it not only under “Ear Training” but also in “Chords.” We like to cover all the bases. But wait, there’s more! Once you’ve chosen a category, you can further filter the results by selecting any number of detailed tags that appear near the top. Toggle on and off these tags as you drill down to find specific types of chord qualities you want your students to review.
The SproutBeat library is absolutely massive, boasting over 3,000 interactive music theory games and worksheets. It’s like a treasure trove for teaching! We get it, though – such a vast collection can be overwhelming, especially if you’re new to the app. That’s why we created the “Methods” option.
In this section, we’ve pre-organized our resources to align with popular piano methods used by teachers all over the world. Just select the method you’re using with your students, pick the appropriate level and unit, and voilà! You’ll have a tailored list of games and worksheets that perfectly complement your lessons.
Of course, while the “Methods” section is a fantastic starting point, we still encourage you to create your very own library (keep reading…almost there!). Personalize it, make it yours – that way, you can truly cater the teaching experience to your unique style and individual students’ needs.
4. Curricula
The “Curricula” section is specifically created to accommodate various theory exam boards. Each game and worksheet is meticulously chosen to align with the syllabus of different organizations, making it super easy for students to review during the week and be ready on exam day.
And here’s the best part: even if your students aren’t planning to participate in exams, these resources are incredibly valuable for your studio. They’re thoughtfully sequenced to enhance learning and provide valuable insights that can benefit every student, testing or not.
5. My Library
You made it! While all those other options can save you time, this is the section that can really unlock the power of SproutBeat in your music studio. Organizing your own folders inside “My Library” allows you to craft a unique system tailored to your teaching style and specific needs. Here are some ideas:
Interview Packet: This section could house games specifically designed to assess potential students’ music aptitude and focus during introductory sessions. Games can reveal a lot about a student – do they think critically or guess? How do they handle mistakes? Can they self-correct? This insight is invaluable when understanding a student’s learning style and abilities.
Everyday-Use Resources: Include materials that you frequently use in your lessons. This might consist of staff paper for note writing, evaluation charts for assessing student performance, or “Let’s Discover” sheets to analyze music before playing. These resources become your teaching essentials, always at your fingertips.
End-of-Level Checkoffs: Create a section for mini quizzes or assessments to ensure your students are fully prepared to progress to the next level. These checkoffs can help you gauge your student’s understanding and mastery of the material before moving forward.
Remember, your teaching library is entirely yours to design. It becomes a powerful, personalized tool that not only saves you time and effort but also enhances your teaching effectiveness. By curating resources that align with your teaching methods, you’re creating a valuable resource that can be used with current and future students.
So, go ahead, design your teaching library, and make your teaching journey even more enriching and efficient!
Do you have beginning students using Piano Safari?
Visit the SproutBeat Library and check out the “Methods” section to see a curated list of games and worksheets that correspond directly with Piano Safari Book 1, including the Intro Unit.
Book 1, Intro Unit
Just head to the main screen of the web app, click “Methods,” and then select “Piano Safari” from the drop-down list. From there you can choose which book and which unit within that book.
To supplement the Intro Unit, we’ve created customized games and worksheets specific to Piano Safari. Have fun with the rhythm words for Charlie Chipmunk, Kangaroo, and Zechariah Zebra. Explore the different rhythm patterns from the sight reading cards. Build auditory awareness through simple ear training samples that correlate directly with this method. Review basic music terminology, like measures and bar lines, in ways that make sense to new beginners.
Supplementing with SproutBeat during the week can really solidify students’ learning and help them progress faster, setting them up for even more success later.
Need ideas for a music practice incentive program?
Leah Drake is a SproutBeat power user!
Since her music studio is made up of mostly group classes, you might think it’s hard to incorporate SproutBeat‘s online theory into lesson time. Not so! Through parent education and fun music practice incentives, she has her students trained to regularly complete their assignments during the week.
To do this, Leah creates individual student accounts inside her SproutBeat student section. She then helps students (and parents, if needed) learn how to access the website. On their own time, students visit the SproutBeat app site to play any of the theory games or fill out the digital worksheets that show up in their Assigned section. They love that the games are short and fun, and they can choose to play them as many times as they want.
Leah says:
I love how [SproutBeat] lets me personalize assignments and award points to each student. I have an incentive program that allows students to exchange their SproutBeat points for prizes. I also occasionally print out worksheets to use for assessment throughout the year.
Check out this fun music practice incentive program her studio participated in during the first semester of 2023:
About Leah
Leah Drake is an independent studio owner in San Jose, California. She teachers primarily in groups with both same level and multi-level formats and loves to incorporate technology into her teaching and business admin.
We often hear that introducing concepts using multiple sensory modes (sight, sound, touch, etc.) can help cement long-term learning. When you pair games that work on ear training with worksheets that involve writing things out and identifying what they see, students really get a chance to build comprehension.
These games and worksheets can help you music students really understand major and minor triads.
Game IDs #3263G and #2570G - Major and Minor Triads
Once students have learned the definitions of major and minor, these games help music students connect the terms to what they sound like.
How are these games played?
Game #3263G – Students click on one of seven play buttons to listen to a major or minor melodic chord, followed by the harmonic chord. Then they drag that circle to the cute animals at the bottom labeled “minor” and “major”.
Game #2570G – This game looks different, using a honeycomb and honeybee theme, but functions almost the same. When clicking on one of the honeycomb, students hear the blocked version first, then the triad broken apart, and then drag it to the honeypot labeled “minor” or “major”.
Who is this game a good fit for?
It is helpful if students can read so they can tell which choice at the bottom is major or minor. But teachers and parents can easily explain to readers who struggle.
These games align very well to method levels that cover melodic and harmonic major and minor triads, such as Piano Adventures 2A and 2B.
How do I find these games?
To find these games and assign them to your students, use the search icon in the top left of the app site and search for either 3263G or 2570G.
Worksheet IDs #3256W , #1621W, #1622W
In these worksheets, students break down major and minor root-position chords into their individual parts.
What concepts are covered?
In Worksheet #3256W, students compare several piano keyboard positions and identify if the marked keys comprise a major or minor triad.
In Worksheets #1621W and #1622W, only the notation for the chord is provided, and students then identify if the notes shown represent a major or minor triad.
What do students need to know before using these worksheets?
The first worksheet (3256W) is great for students who are playing the triads by ear, since no reading on the staff is required.
The second and third worksheets, however, do require students to be able to read root position triads in melodic form on the Treble Staff (1621W) and Bass Staff (1622W).
How do I find these worksheets?
As with the games, just type in the Worksheet ID# into the search bar on the top-right corner of the web app.
