FaceTime Lesson

Around 11:45 today, I received a call from the mother of my 1:00 student. She wanted to check with me as “M” had been complaining of a sore throat and said she was feeling a little achy. Although she didn’t have a temperature or seem sick otherwise, the mother wanted to see what I wanted to do. Thank you! I was grateful to her for being considerate of my health. She knew I would be traveling for the next week and wanted to be especially cautious.

At first, I suggested I would do a video lesson for her; I have been trying this for the first time this year and have had good feedback from parents. (I still need to figure out a better way to record videos other than with my iPhone but that’s another conversation). It then dawned on me that I had not yet replenished my Piano Adventures 3A studio copy. It makes it hard to do a video lesson without the music they are working on!

Then I remembered I updated my policy this year to read:

Students who are ill should not come to piano lessons. I reserve the right to send a student home if they arrive sick. If students are only mildly ill, please contact me and we can do a FaceTime lesson or I can record a short video assignment for them during their regularly schedule lesson time.

I had yet to try FaceTime with a student so we decided to go for it and I’m so glad we did – we all agreed it was a great success! The mom held the phone and was able to maneuver around as I needed. We were able to cover all the material we normally do during her 45-minute lesson. Mom dropped by the studio about 30 minutes later on her way to Walmart to pick up new sight-reading cards, a fresh assignment sheet and a few other things.

Yea for technology keeping me healthy!

facetime-collage

7 Comments

  • Thanks for writing this. I tried my first video class, and it was a success. The same student wants to try Skype classes, cos he’s on a long holiday, but has a piano to practise on. Hoping the Skype class goes as good.

    • Hi Anita! Let me know how it goes. Curious if you like Facetime over Skype or vice versa!

  • Hi, Amy! I do FaceTime lessons occasionally during the winter when the roads are bad. It’s amazing how much you can accomplish once you become comfortable with it- and learn how to plan your activities!!! How did you capture the screen shot-I’d like to do a quick ” screen grab” to put on my website so that other parents who are afraid to give it a try will get a little peek at the process. Thanks!

    • Hi, Kerry, with an iPhone, if you press the home button at the bottom while simultaneously pressing the top power button, it will take a photo of your screen. I’m unsure about androids – I hope this helps!

      • Ok-thanks! I do that all the time!! I thought maybe you had an app or program on you Mac that records your FaceTime session.

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