Stop Answering the Same Parent Questions Every September

Every September, the questions begin.

What do I need to buy?
Which book should we get?
What size instrument do they need?
Can you recommend a music stand?
Where can I buy one?
What was the name of that app you mentioned?
Which one of these seventeen almost-identical things online is the right one?

These are perfectly reasonable questions.

The problem is that they’re often the same perfectly reasonable questions you answered last September. And the September before that.

So stop answering them individually.

Make one document.

The Living Information Sheet

Create a Google Doc containing all the information you regularly give to pupils and parents.

It doesn’t need to be complicated. In fact, it probably shouldn’t be.

It could include things like:

• equipment you recommend
• books and sheet music
• useful apps and websites
• places to buy things
• things you don’t recommend
• answers to common questions
• your preferred contact details

Then, the next time somebody asks which music stand to buy, you don’t need to find the link again.

Send them the document.

Even better, give the link to every new pupil when they start.

It’s a small change, but one that can save a surprising amount of time. As I discussed in The Lesson Doesn’t End When The Pupil Leaves The Room, communicating with parents and keeping everything organised are part of teaching, even when the pupil isn’t sitting in front of us.

I’ve Made an Example

To show you what I mean, I’ve made a fictional version.

It contains completely made-up products, prices, contact details and links, so don’t actually try to buy anything from it.

The point is to show how simple this can be.

Make your own copy, replace the examples with the things you genuinely recommend, delete anything you don’t need and you’ve got your own parent information sheet.

You could have the whole thing finished in half an hour.

Why a Google Doc?

Because you only have to maintain one version.

Suppose the music stand you’ve recommended for the last three years disappears.

Change the document.

A £25 accessory suddenly costs £60?

Change the document.

You discover a much better free app?

Change the document.

A book goes out of print?

Change the document.

The link stays the same.

That’s the important bit.

You don’t have to send everybody Equipment List FINAL.pdf, followed six months later by Equipment List FINAL NEW.pdf, followed eventually by the inevitable Equipment List FINAL NEW ACTUALLY USE THIS ONE.pdf.

There is one document.

And it is the current one.

What Should You Put In It?

Start with the questions you already answer repeatedly.

Don’t try to anticipate every conceivable thing a parent might ever ask.

If you regularly get asked which music stand to buy, put your music stand recommendation in there.

If parents constantly ask whether they need a metronome, answer it.

If there’s a particular beginner book you normally use, include its exact title and ISBN.

If you want parents to contact you before buying an instrument, say so.

You can always add something later.

In fact, that’s the whole point.

Make It Read-Only

Once your document is ready, you need parents to be able to read it without being able to edit it.

In Google Docs, click Share.

Under General access, change Restricted to Anyone with the link and make sure the permission is set to Viewer.

Then click Copy link.

One fairly important warning:

Don’t put private pupil information in this document.

Treat it as public information. A parent can forward the link to somebody else, and that’s absolutely fine because there shouldn’t be anything confidential in it anyway.

Equipment recommendations? Fine.

Your preferred tutor book? Fine.

A pupil’s attendance record? Absolutely not.

Test It

Before sending the link to anybody, open a private/incognito browser window and paste it in.

Can you see the document without signing into your Google account?

Can you read it?

Can you edit it?

The answers should be:

Yes. Yes. No.

Testing the link takes about 20 seconds and prevents a surprising amount of faffing later.

Now Get Rid of the Horrible Link

There is one problem.

A normal Google Docs sharing link is horrible.

It’s long, impossible to remember and not something you want to write inside a pupil’s book.

So let’s make a shorter one.

I’m using TinyURL here because it’s simple, there’s a free option and you can choose a memorable address rather than giving parents a string of random characters.

1. Copy Your Google Docs Link

Go back to your information document in Google Docs.

Click Share, then Copy link.

You should now have a rather enormous Google Docs address copied to your clipboard.

2. Open TinyURL

Go to tinyurl.com.

Find the box labelled Paste long URL here and paste your Google Docs link into it.

That’s the page you want people to end up on.

3. Give It a Sensible Name

TinyURL lets you choose a custom alias — essentially, the bit at the end of the new address.

This is the useful bit.

If you let TinyURL generate the address for you, you might end up with something like:

tinyurl.com/4h7x9k2p

It works perfectly well, but nobody is going to remember it.

Instead, try something meaningful.

Our fictional teacher Jane Jones might use:

jonesmusicinfo

which would give her:

tinyurl.com/jonesmusicinfo

Or she might try:

jonesmusichelp

joneslessoninfo

jonesresources

Your first choice might already have been taken. TinyURL is used worldwide, so there can only be one tinyurl.com/jonesmusicinfo.

If somebody else got there first, just try another variation.

Keep it short, obvious and easy to spell.

Remember: the whole point of doing this is that somebody should be able to type it without needing to copy and paste it.

4. Click Shorten URL

Once you’ve entered your Google Docs address and chosen your alias, click Shorten URL.

TinyURL will create the short address.

Copy it somewhere sensible.

And here’s one particularly useful thing about TinyURL for this job:

TinyURL says its shortened links don’t expire.

So you aren’t creating something that’s going to stop working in six months unless you pay to renew it.

You can put the address in pupil information, emails and other material knowing that the TinyURL itself isn’t on a countdown.

Obviously, the page at the other end still needs to exist. If you delete your Google Doc, TinyURL can’t magically bring it back.

But as long as your original Google Doc remains available, the TinyURL can continue pointing people towards it.

5. Test It Again

Don’t immediately send it to 47 parents.

Open another private/incognito browser window and type your new short address into the address bar.

For example:

tinyurl.com/jonesmusicinfo

It should take you straight to your Google Doc.

Check again that:

You can open the document.
You don’t need to sign into your Google account.
You can’t edit it.

If all three are true, you’re done.

You now have one short address that you can put in emails, lesson information, welcome letters or even write inside a pupil’s book.

One Important Thing About Your TinyURL

The TinyURL is only a signpost.

Your Google Doc is still the thing at the other end of it.

This is actually what makes the whole system useful.

Next month, if you change your equipment recommendations, you don’t create another document.

Edit the existing Google Doc.

If a book goes out of print, edit the existing Google Doc.

If you find a better app, edit the existing Google Doc.

Because the Google Doc itself hasn’t changed address, your TinyURL doesn’t need to change either.

The same short address still takes everybody to the newly updated information.

One caution: if you use TinyURL’s free plan, don’t assume you can later change that short link to point somewhere completely different. TinyURL currently reserves editing the destination of an existing short link for paid plans.

For what we’re doing here, that doesn’t really matter.

Keep the same Google Doc and simply update its contents.

Or Use Your Own Website

If you already have a website, you can make this even nicer.

Create a simple redirect such as:

yourwebsite.com/equipment

or:

yourwebsite.com/info

and point it at the Google Doc.

Now, if you ever decide to replace the Google Doc with a web page, PDF or something else entirely, you can change where your own address points without changing the address you’ve given to your pupils.

But don’t build a website just for this.

A Google Doc and a short link will do the job perfectly well.

Put the Link Everywhere

Once you’ve made it, use it.

Put it in your welcome email.

Put it in your email signature.

Put it on your invoices if appropriate.

Add it to whatever information you give new pupils.

Write it inside their book.

TinyURL also generates a QR code for shortened links, so you can use that on printed information if you want to get slightly fancier.

The aim is that the answer to:

“Which one was the stand you recommended?”

becomes:

“Everything I recommend is at this address.”

Done.

Don’t Build a System You Won’t Maintain

This is exactly the sort of thing that can get out of hand.

You start with a Google Doc.

Then you decide it needs a website.

Then categories.

Then a searchable equipment database.

Then user accounts.

Then somehow you’ve spent three weekends developing an online resource-management platform because somebody asked which pencil to buy.

Don’t.

A slightly boring Google Doc that you update twice a year is considerably more useful than an elaborate system you abandon after three weeks.

Start with the questions you already answer.

Write the answers down.

Share the document.

Give it a memorable address.

And next September, when the same question arrives again, don’t type the answer for the hundredth time.

You already did the work when you answered it the first time. Stop doing it again.