The Choir Year in Review: 16 Questions to Help You Evaluate Your Year
Have you ever done a year-in-review for your choir year? Have you taken time recently to evaluate yourself and your teaching?
Do you set goals for your choir at the beginning of the year, or keep a running list of things you'd like to accomplish?
Reflection and evaluation are worth making time for. They provide a useful framework for goal-setting, and they're also a vital part of the learning process: Taking the experiences of the past year, observing them from a new vantage point, and considering what you've learned and how it will shape your work going forward.
Before summer fills up with travel and slow afternoons, carve out a few hours to look back on your choir year. You might work through it in one sitting, or return to a question or two each day over the course of a week.
Here are 16 questions to get you started.
16 Reflective Questions for Choir Directors
1. What worked well this year?
Think about rehearsal structure, community-building, organizational processes, collaborating with colleagues or staff, concert and event planning, or seating arrangements.
2. What were some of your favorite moments?
Be specific. Write down anything that comes to mind: An interaction with a singer or audience member, a moment in rehearsal, a specific performance.
3. What did you learn from what worked well?
Write down at least 2-3 specific things.
4. What didn't work this year?
This might be related to rehearsals, organizational processes, concert and event planning, administrative responsibilities, or communication. Where is there room for improvement?
5. What were your biggest challenges?
What left you feeling drained or frustrated? What were the hardest moments of the year?
6. What did you learn from what didn't work?
Write down at least 2-3 specific things.
7. How did you grow as a musician and leader this year?
What did you learn? What made you a better director, musician, or leader? Did you pursue any professional development, work on a new skill, or try something outside your usual practice?
8. What do you want to change or do differently next year?
Big or small: A new rehearsal order, a refreshed weekly schedule, a new organizational system.
9. Was the level of music you chose appropriate for your choir?
If some repertoire felt out of reach, what would your singers need to learn to make it more attainable?
10. What kind of music would you like to introduce next year?
More variety, a new language, works by underrepresented composers, or repertoire that develops a specific musical skill.
Related posts:
Music by Black Composers: 108 Sacred Choral Anthems (SATB)
48 Anthems by Women Composers (3-part and SATB)
11. What supplies in your rehearsal space need to be replenished?
Pencils, folders, labels, whiteboard markers, and so on.
12. Is there anything you don't currently have that would be useful?
Whiteboard/SMARTboard/projector/screen, bulletin board, label maker, portable speaker, clock, etc.
13. Did you recruit any new singers this year? If so, which strategies were most effective?
Think back to how those connections started: a personal invitation, an announcement, a flyer, a social media post, a word-of-mouth referral.
14. What can you do to recruit and engage new singers next year?
Consider what worked well this year and how you might use those strategies again. Then identify one or two new approaches to try.
Related post: How to Recruit New Choir Members This Fall
15. How can you serve your choir members well?
What do they need? How can you connect with them in a personal and meaningful way?
16. What one musical skill do you want to focus on next year?
Consider your choir's current level. What's one thing you want to help them develop as musicians and singers?
I'd love to hear from you:
Do you do a year-end review? What does that process look like for you?
