LOCATION AND SCHEDULE: If you are a part-time teaching artist faculty member, please be in contact with the Department Academic Assistant (jennifer.bennington@simpson.edu or 515-961-1637) by no later than the Tuesday before classes begin to inform her when you will be on campus to teach. The Academic Assistant will schedule your teaching studio location, and she needs time to do so before you arrive during the first week of classes to teach.
As a general guideline to accommodate many part-time teaching artists in the most comfortable and well-equipped teaching studios, the number of hours you request in your teaching studio should not exceed what is reasonable for the number of students you teach (or anticipate teaching) in any given semester. In other words, blocking off entire parts of days for make-up lessons (in case they might occur) should not be included in your request for studio time. Rather, make-up lessons should be scheduled around other faculty members’ regular teaching OR be the activity that goes to a practice room or other available space (Madsen, Duncan, Harris Hall, etc.) when a conflict in schedule occurs. The Academic Assistant can help to schedule a location for make-up lessons if the need arises.
SCHEDULING LESSONS WITH STUDENTS: Music at Simpson expects that ALL Applied Music lessons should be scheduled and begin by 8 a.m. on the first day of classes each term.
Simpson College has a REGISTRATION DAY prior to classes beginning – the Monday before the first day of classes each term. New students are informed that their applied teachers will be in contact with them prior to Registration Day in the fall semester via an email message from the music department. Most faculty contact their students via email to arrange a lesson schedule. Others find asking students to stop in for a studio meeting works well. You are free to do whatever works best for you. It may be helpful to see the schedule for new students – orientation week schedule.
Many faculty members find that scheduling returning students for lessons is most easily managed at the end of the previous semester – obtaining the students’ schedules in late November, for instance, in order to schedule lessons in the spring term or at the end of the spring term to schedule the following fall.
Special note to PIANO and VOICE faculty: First-year students are assigned to piano and voice studios only after they have arrived on campus and taken part in the “New Music Majors Meeting” on Sunday prior to the beginning of classes. At that meeting, students have the opportunity to make requests for applied teachers in piano and voice (which we make every effort within our policy to honor). As such, you will receive notification of new piano and voice students assigned to your studio on Sunday before 4 p.m. Because of the shortness of time between Sunday and the beginning of classes on Tuesday, you will need to be on the look-out and exceptionally proactive about scheduling lessons with your new students. Students will receive a message from the Music Office informing them of their studio assignments on Monday and letting them know to contact you. However, faculty should also contact them.
Thank you for being proactive about contacting your students BEFORE classes being! All of their contact information should be accessible on your roster through SC Connect as soon as they are moved to your section (likely not until Monday). Alternately, contact the department administrative assistant for contact information for new students. We collect cell numbers and alternate email addresses at the music major meeting on Sunday morning.