I don’t have oodles of students. My aspiration is to gradually build my studio while leaving some time to work on other projects and goals. For now, it’s quite small. But these are a few things I’ve been thinking about as I start adding more lessons to my schedule.
- Know your energy as an efficient and effective teacher.
I have a few teacher friends who have warned against taking on too many students too soon. It sounds pretty nice – if enough people are interested – to me. But I can imagine how it could get tricky starting all at once with all those new names, parents and playing habits to get used to. So it depends on how you want to weave lessons into your existing schedule. There will always be other obligations: families, jobs and activities to fill the in-between spaces with. I know for myself, I can give about four lessons in an afternoon before I start feeling the need for a break. Learning to teach twenty students at once might be dizzying and overwhelming, or it could be an exhilarating and fast-paced, eye-opening experience that teaches you things you couldn’t learn any other way.
- Schedule ample time between students.
Nobody is on time, all the time. Even the most prompt parents have a “juice box explosion in the car” incident every now and again. Sometimes it takes a while to get your little one motivated to start her lesson. Maybe she is deliberately applying rosin at the absolute slowest speed or taking forever to tie a shoestring. It takes time to cultivate a healthy teacher-student relationship. Trust and openness to learning and instruction aren’t always given freely. Sometimes you may have to work harder than usual to earn it. So I try not to rush her when she’s telling a story about the new ducklings that just hatched at her neighbor’s house. It’s the most she’s ever talked about anything; I’m just excited to be hearing this many words flowing out of her mouth.
Coats need to be taken off, hair tied back, shoulder rests adjusted, siblings situated.. there’s a lot going on. This all takes a reasonable amount of time (a few minutes perhaps) before you can really get to teaching. What if parents have questions? What if they aren’t questions you have ready answers for and you have to spend time formulating a thoughtful response? What if they want to talk about something super important? You’d better be prepared to have the time then, a willing ear, and an email address if they prefer to jot it down instead.
Taking notes after each lesson is one of the best things to do in keeping track of what goes on with my students. I make comments about what they are doing well, what needs attention, the new skills we focused on, and any other observations I will want to remember. I take a minute or so to add to them after each lesson and review them from the previous week before students arrive.
- When possible, schedule lessons towards the middle of the week.
It is my opinion that weekend lessons don’t work out as well. It seems to take a lot more effort on both parts to make this timing work for everyone. People like to do things on the weekends, of course. Kids have girl scouts or little league or a thousand other activities they don’t get to fit in during the week. Parents are running errands and taking meetings, or relaxing or grabbing coffee and shuffling here and there. Even if you can carve out an hour, going to a lesson might seem less desirable than say, a fun family outing, on a Saturday afternoon.
Also, I try to avoid Mondays and Fridays for a few reasons. These are the most likely days to be bumped in case weekend trips and vacations carry over. I do all of my lessons during the after school to dinner hours, and I’ve noticed that sometimes people are a bit sluggish on Mondays and quite excited on Fridays. Of course you can’t avoid this forever. And paring down available lesson days from seven to only three seems ridiculous and a huge time constraint. But maybe for the younger kiddos and the ones just getting started, it would be helpful not to make their first and last days of the week overly drawn out. Older students (hopefully) have a much longer attention span for the day and can take their lessons whenever.
- Make a studio policy about cancellations and missed lessons.
This may seem like a bit of a no-brainer, but I’ve not had one myself until recently. When I taught when I was younger I simply wasn’t as organized and wasn’t concerned with things like last minute cancellations. Every family has emergencies, and I don’t believe people should have to pay for lessons they don’t attend. But if cancellations become a regular thing, it’s best to have a chat with the parent to find out why.
- Make efforts to reschedule.
I like to think there is always time to do the few things you make a priority in your life. Try to be flexible as possible to accommodate everyone’s activities – even your own. But if it just doesn’t work out, it’s ok. Give your student some extra practice homework and cover more ground the following week. Repetition and review are essential so make consistency a priority. If you have the ability to keep one day open and reserved only for make-up lessons – maybe a Monday or Friday – so parents know there is an opportunity to still get in a lesson even if something comes up unexpectedly.
Each week I’m learning more about how to communicate with parents, be an efficient teacher, and keep younger kids focused during lessons. I hope as I learn the art of teaching I can add to these ideas, and strive to achieve balance in time, energy, and creativity in all pursuits – music and otherwise. Happy music making! – Kera
That Violin Vibe 