Practice Logs are a touchy subject, it seems. While it is so important for kids to be accountable for their practice and getting into the healthy habit of logging that time, sometimes practice logs can become just an exercise and occasionally, even a detriment to kids grades who just don’t turn it in for whatever reason. Here is a no-nonsense solution to that problem: online practice record with Google Docs!

As with anything required and online, always have a backup plan for students who do not have access to the internet at home – my backup plan is that they can use the school library or a band hall computer or iPad at designated times to take care of this assignment – I just love no excuses!

The best part of this practice log? Depending on your questions, it will export all of the form responses to a spreadsheet that you have access to! That certainly makes grading easy!

Step 1 is to be logged in to your google docs page and click “new” then “Google Forms”

Step 2: You can edit the form settings. My district has a google account for every student and teacher, so students could log in with these credentials to view the form. We will have to test that out and see how it works though 🙂 **It is just as easy to have them enter their name though! No need to complicate things if that isn’t necessary!**

Step 3: you can change the title just by clicking on it – EASY! Same with the question elements. For question type, you have lots of choices – this question is “what is your name” so text is the best option.

Step 4: this may not always be necessary, but I went ahead and clicked on “required question” for all of these in the practice log just so no one misses anything in this graded assignment. To add a question, you simply click on “add item” at the bottom of the page.

Step 5: this next question will allow me to easily grade these logs -students have a multiple choice answer about what class period they are in. This way, when I look at the created spreadsheet, everything is organized by the way that my district has me enter grades. Do whatever works best for you here!

You can have lots of choices for a multiple choice question.

Step 6: change the theme if you want to! Just click on “Change theme” at the top of the editing window and there are some fun pre-made choices for you. I like these colorful pennants – they make practicing seem so fun!

Step 7: finally you can choose where to send the responses – do a new spreadsheet each week or a new sheet in an existing spreadsheet- tailor it to what works best for you! …and let Google do the organizing work!

Now with an easy to find link on your website, or a reminder email with the link in it (or both) students should be able to easily and efficiently submit their practice minutes! Obviously a weekly deadline is going to be a good and helpful thing, and completely do-able even if the student is absent! When you are ready for your form to close, just click on “responses” and “accepting responses”. This will change to “not accepting responses” and give you the option of a message stating why or directing students elsewhere. You could also just make all of these forms at the beginning of the year and only turn on one week at a time to save you a little legwork! **Google has a great “make a copy” feature!**

What else do you do with Google Forms? There are so many possibilities!