About Business
New Teachers and Relationship Conversation
I’ve been having more attrition than I’m used to among students. Two, I think, are a temporary hiatus, and two others were over-committed in their lives and needed to rearrange something. I know I can’t take it personally when a student decides to leave, but…
Territory & Teaching Experience
I had an interesting conversation with a student today and I wonder if anyone has any thoughts. It started because I had a comment on an evaluation form that Simply Music lessons are overpriced. I realized that the student hadn’t attended an FIS and thus…
Help for First Workshop
I am thinking of running some workshops to grow my studio and wonder if anyone can share their experience. I noted in Simpedia that Mark M. had posted detailed 8-week lesson plan which is very useful. I wonder if anyone else ran their workshops over…
Supporting Family Learning
I have had experience with non-student siblings being present at lessons. I have had one family all sit in and draw in coloring books with mum supervising whilst the eldest had lessons. The siblings were 5 and a baby/toddler. We were very focused, and as…
30 Day Notice & Trends
I’m curious to know how many teachers require a 30 day notice in their policies if a student (parent) decides to stop lessons and also how many teachers require the last month’s payment up front before starting lessons? I’m thinking maybe I should begin doing…
What To Charge For Shared Lessons
I have struggled with this alot. Half of my students are in Private Lessons but paying Shared Lesson rates, as I don’t have someone to partner them with. What I need to do is cut down the lesson time by 5 minutes as I resent…
Parents, Participation and Part-time Attendance
I have a prime, after-school lesson time, and I’m considering filling it with a group of 8 and 9 year old girls who have been on my waiting list for a few months. I’m hoping for a Shared Lesson of at least 3, but it…
Evolving from Smaller to Larger Shared Lessons
I’m dying to move from Private Lessons and smaller, Shared Lessons, to the far more fun and efficient lesson-size of 6 to 10 students. Thus far, I have never been able to get enough people of the right type (kids/adults) to commit to being in…
Managing Poor Practice
I have been reading through the various chats and posts in Simpedia and am (finally) realizing I have been doing both my students and myself a great disservice by not taking a firm stance on practice. I am now wondering if anyone has a systematic…
Tardiness
How do you deal with lateness & tardiness ? I have a student who will show up 5, 10, sometimes even 15 minutes late. This last Friday he did a “no show”. So, I decided to write out a separate “policy” for this… due to…