One thing that I highly value is organization. I don’t function very well when things are cluttered, so I am always looking for better and more efficient systems that will help maintain order with minimal effort. An area where I have not developed a good system is with the variety of flashcards and small paper […]
Business
Re-igniting Enthusiasm – Strategize and Systematize
Most of us teach because we love playing music, we love working with students, and/or we just love teaching. Few of us run studios because we just love doing recordkeeping, filing taxes, and handling other aspects on the business-side of things. I will confess, however, that I love the challenge of strategizing and coming up […]
Monday Mailbag – Billing and Payments
How do you deal with payments? I’ve been billing my students on the last week of the month, for the next month. Seems quite backwards, but I’m not sure how to do this! Do you do postdated cheques? Some teachers find that works well, but what if the student misses a lesson? Please just give […]
Monday Mailbag – What to Wear?
I am 23 years old and have been teaching piano/theory since I was about 17. Back then the students I had were all students I knew for a while, because my mom passed them on to me, but recently I’ve gotten a lot more students that I dont know, and I’m just wondering how I […]
Monday Mailbag – Best Age Student for a Beginning Teacher
What age range do you think might be best for a beginning teacher? Or maybe I should rephrase that as, “Are there certain ages which you find significantly more challenging to instruct than other ages?” This one really made me think! There is a common misconception that it is less critical to have a good/professional/experienced, […]
Establishing Clear-Cut Studio Procedures
Even though I’ve had a studio policy in place for years, it never occurred to me until this fall to put together a list for myself of studio procedures. In particular, I put together a list of procedures for enrolling a new student, and a list of what needs to be done at the beginning […]
