{"id":636,"date":"2010-12-12T16:54:33","date_gmt":"2010-12-12T06:54:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/denleymusic.com\/wordpress\/?p=636"},"modified":"2010-12-12T16:54:33","modified_gmt":"2010-12-12T06:54:33","slug":"booked-up-with-a-waiting-list","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.denleymusic.com\/musicblog\/booked-up-with-a-waiting-list\/","title":{"rendered":"Booked up with a waiting list"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Well, that’s it folks, I can’t take on any more students apart from those already on my waiting list, but I’m not sure how long they’ll be waiting for (hopefully not too much longer\u00a0– there are only a few on that list now).\u00a0 I have to wait until any of my current students move or decide not to continue.<\/p>\n

It’s not a decision I make lightly but it is a necessary one.<\/p>\n

So how DO teachers come to this decision?<\/p>\n

Family – v – teaching<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

For me, I had to allocate teaching time and family time.\u00a0 Once I set out the hours I was happy to teach, the rest of the time is dedicated to my family.\u00a0 Teaching is supposed to be a hobby for me so if it is interfering with my family, I don’t consider that a good thing.\u00a0 I needed to also make sure my children were getting ‘talk’ time with me each day, that I had time to be a housewife (prepare dinner, make sure the ironing was fairly up to date, breakfasts, lunches and dinners planned and prepared each day, the veggie\/herb garden maintained etc) and that I had time, even just a little, to think and plan ahead.<\/p>\n

A manageable number of students<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

I have reached the point where I feel I will start to forget things and possibly end up neglecting students if I take anymore on.\u00a0 I currently have just over 30- students plus my own children, and some of them are doing both violin and piano.\u00a0 You need to be able to project into the future.\u00a0 How much time per lesson will each student require in\u00a0a years time?\u00a0 How about 3 years time?\u00a0 How about 5 years time?\u00a0 Can I keep on top of each student’s progress and manage them well?\u00a0 Do I have the time required to spend outside those teaching hours for lesson preparation and putting together resources?<\/p>\n

Residential time limit<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Because I teach from my home (and obviously live in a residential area), I cannot teach past 7pm at night.\u00a0 in a way it’s a great excuse as I’m usually exhausted by then anyway, especially in Winter where it is dark by 5pm.\u00a0 I also have to be mindful of my neighbours and parking issues (thankfully I’m on a corner block and the people across the road have 5 teenagers all with their own cars so they are more of a nuisance than I am – phew).\u00a0 I’m lucky that I have very tidy students who don’t leave rubbish behind in the street and are considerate (no loud music blaring out of their cars).<\/p>\n

Maintaining teaching standards<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Do you have time to make sure you aren’t falling behind as a teacher?\u00a0 Is your playing up to scratch, and are you continually progressing as a teacher to ensure your students are not going to get to a certain point and you have to say “Sorry, I can’t teach you any more, that’s as high as I can go”.\u00a0 I KNOW that I have some work to go with my piano playing, and I have to maintain my violin, even keep progressing (it doesn’t ever stop!), but I think it’s cruel for students when a teacher suddenly informs them that they simply can’t teach them any more because the teacher themselves is under qualified.\u00a0 I have to add though that even though I did all the grades of violin, I didn’t do them all in piano HOWEVER, I am the daughter of a piano teacher and I DO work hard at my piano studies, even though I didn’t do all the exams.\u00a0 I am able to ask my mother questions\u00a0if I\u00a0have a particular problem and need some assistance.\u00a0 It really makes a difference.\u00a0 It also helps to be able to\u00a0bounce ideas off each other.\u00a0 Workshops and Seminars are very helpful for teachers to remain motivated and\u00a0focused on their job and to provide additional training and ideas.\u00a0 I don’t think I will EVER be able to master everything there is to know about music in my lifetime.\u00a0 The more I learn, the more I realise there is still so much I don’t know.\u00a0 It’s rather humbling!<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The fun factor<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Teaching should be enjoyable.\u00a0 I really do love it, and my students know that I am keenly interested in their studies.\u00a0 If I am not having fun, then I doubt my students are enjoying themselves either.\u00a0 Don’t make yourself\u00a0so busy that you can’t take time to smell the roses in each lesson.\u00a0 They ARE there, you just need to look for them.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Well, that’s it folks, I can’t take on any more students apart from those already on my waiting list, but I’m not sure how long they’ll be waiting for (hopefully not too much longer\u00a0– there are only a few on that list now).\u00a0 I have to wait until any of my current students move or […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[30],"tags":[95,97],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.denleymusic.com\/musicblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/636"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.denleymusic.com\/musicblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.denleymusic.com\/musicblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.denleymusic.com\/musicblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.denleymusic.com\/musicblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=636"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.denleymusic.com\/musicblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/636\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.denleymusic.com\/musicblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=636"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.denleymusic.com\/musicblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=636"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.denleymusic.com\/musicblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=636"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}