Teachers Wasting Lesson Time... Options

[Hammerklavier]

I just wanted to rant about teachers who waste time during lessons!!!! Half an hour is short enough but can really fly when all the teacher does is chatter. I teach but have been progressing through my piano grades with another teacher. My specialism is singing. Anyway, she has a cat and we literally spend most of the lesson with me listening to her talk about what the cat has been through this week! At my last half an hour lesson, i did not touch one note on the piano until 20 past the hour which left me with 10 minutes worth of lesson time!! lol.
How can i resolve this as it really is ridiculous. I don't engage in the conversation as much as i used to but i feel really rude if i don't show an interest in what she is saying about the cat. I personally am not a cat person and the cat often jumps onto the piano stool whilst i'm sitting on it! where she'll spend another 5 minute talking baby talk to it! lol. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/huh.gif)
It really bothers me as being a teacher myself, i work the full length of the session with my students and it annoys that there are teachers out there who waste peoples time and money!
i know this has gone on for years and i just wanted to say to parents, beware of teachers who waste time. Make sure that you ask your child what they have done in their music lessons!!

What's stopping you from simply addressing the issue square-on? If you are paying her for her time then you have both entered into a contract and if she is chit-chatting about the cat for twenty minutes then I am afraid that doesn't form part of the contract. You don't have to be horrible about it but you might try something like 'I've noticed that I don't get to spend much time at the piano when I am with you because you talk about your cat so much and I'd really like my time to be about my piano lesson' or whatever.

I guess a lot of us are a bit frightened of saying what the truth is but if you don't then I suspect you will become frustrated.Also, perhaps she needs to know in case she doesn't realise how much she rambles about the cat. Also, what would happen if one of your pupils did that? I'm sure you would have no problem telling them. Perhaps you feel your teacher is more powerful than you but she isn't really. You're the one with the money!!

[Christian]

Please say something. If you just let it go, it could very well build inside of you until it really does affect your relationship with her, and then you'll wish you had just nipped it in the bud to begin with. Maybe, your teacher thinks you like to "unwind" before a lesson begins and actually thinks she's doing you a favor! I think you really should clear this up. There's been some nice suggestions on how to do it without being offensive. Even saying, "Since we didn't get to my pieces last lesson, I was thinking we should start with those right off the bat today before I forget what I wanted to ask you about them," or something like that. You can come up with a slightly different approach each week until she gets the point, and you wouldn't even need to attack the issue head on then.

[crazy cow]

Depending on the time of day, I may answer the phone in a lesson, but will normally let it go to answerphone. However if I think it could be my husband telling me that he can't pick up the kids, then I do answer it. I keep time on the phone to a minimum, and if its someone who can ring back later, they are told i'm teaching this is not a good time" and if necessary I'll put the phone down.

My teacher's phone is always going... we had one lesson where he answered a call (in the same room - so I couldn't even practice my pieces during it), finally put the phone down, then just as I was starting to play, the phone goes again... (IMG:style_emoticons/default/unsure.gif) It's a bit irritating, as is the woman who comes after my lesson with her son and always appears early, lets herself in and then loudly announces her arrival, said teacher disappears to make sure she's ok, got a drink and the TV/paper etc (er, hello? I've still got 15 mins of my lesson left...?!)
In my other lessons, I'm the naughty one who talks all the time - my flute teacher basically now has to shut me up so we can actually play something!! (IMG:style_emoticons/default/wink.gif)

[chocolatedog]

I have an adult pupil and we do spend a fair bit of time on chatting - BUT I give her nearly an hour of my time, and only charge her for 30 minutes, as I make sure I do 30 minutes proper teaching at least, and regard the rest of the time as friend to friend chat.
It's not only teachers either - a number of the younger pupils always want to tell me what they've done over the weekend, what they're doing this next weekend, what their rabbit got up to etc etc etc ........ and it's sometimes very difficult to get them to stop chattering and start working!!!! (IMG:style_emoticons/default/laugh.gif)

[pianist_1210]

Yes, my ex-piano teacher wasted so many of my lesson. She's always looking for the spelling of a word or whatever....and like spend 5 or 10 minutes searching for that word.... (IMG:style_emoticons/default/laugh.gif)

[La_Chopiniste_]

my previous teacher was a disaster... (IMG:style_emoticons/default/ph34r.gif)

He used to sit at the piano and play his compositons...
It was like "ok great .. may i now play my pieces?!"
plus chatting about his fiancee and the pair of shoes he brought to her and she didn't like them...
(IMG:style_emoticons/default/unsure.gif)

[Edwardo]

I just wanted to rant about teachers who waste time during lessons!!!! Half an hour is short enough but can really fly when all the teacher does is chatter. I teach but have been progressing through my piano grades with another teacher. My specialism is singing. Anyway, she has a cat and we literally spend most of the lesson with me listening to her talk about what the cat has been through this week! At my last half an hour lesson, i did not touch one note on the piano until 20 past the hour which left me with 10 minutes worth of lesson time!! lol.
How can i resolve this as it really is ridiculous. I don't engage in the conversation as much as i used to but i feel really rude if i don't show an interest in what she is saying about the cat. I personally am not a cat person and the cat often jumps onto the piano stool whilst i'm sitting on it! where she'll spend another 5 minute talking baby talk to it! lol. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/huh.gif)
It really bothers me as being a teacher myself, i work the full length of the session with my students and it annoys that there are teachers out there who waste peoples time and money!
i know this has gone on for years and i just wanted to say to parents, beware of teachers who waste time. Make sure that you ask your child what they have done in their music lessons!!

As a bird lover and founder member of the Cats Are Vermin Society (IMG:style_emoticons/default/tongue.gif) , I'd say that this person needs help! I mean, what do cats do that's so interesting? Sleep, eat, catch birds, make a noise if their food's run out. That's it, apart from some other actions unmentionable on a polite forum.

I'd look for a new teacher. My old teacher's cat used to come into the room during my lesson, but the teacher used to do the decent thing and "shoo" it out straightaway.

Edward

[jod]

Letting the cat in during a lesson, or answering the phone for 30 seconds can be kept under control. Some lessons, repertoire planning sessions and exam post mortems depend on conversation, just aslong as during the rest of the lesson you're focused on your pupils playing/singing.

Also the way I tend to teach theory means that pupils work on excercises between lessons. I have to talk about ehat they are both about to do, and how they can improove... but that's not quite the same as what was on Eastenders!

I did have a pupil distracted by the headline of the newspaper sitting on the table. It turned out she knew the youngman killed in the road-accident featured in the Headline. Still had a good singing lesson.

[Susie]

Just a suggestion Sparkle - could you develop an "allergy" to the cat, you know scratch, scratch, sneeze, sneeze - make up a bit of a story to go with it, and ask very politely, and rather regretfully!!! if the cat could remain outside the room during your lessons!

It's a perfectly possible scenario, - my piano teacher had to remove a bowl of flowers which were on top of her piano when I had a piano lesson once because I had really bad hayfever and just could not stop sneezing. She always remembered to clear out the flowers before I started my lesson after that. And my daughter has asthma and wheezes a bit when her violin teacher's dog gets a bit close.

It's quite hard to assert your rights when you've known someone for a long time and a situation has developed, but I do think you have a right to at least 27 minutes proper tuition out of every half hour.

[petrat]

I would yell her very politely that you don't feel that you are working as hard as you would like to during your lessons with her. Ask if you could bring a recording machine to the following lesson as you feel that it will help you to racall all that she tells you, and them do so. This may be enough of a wake-up call for her. Just noticed that I wrote "yell" and not "tell"! I prefer the mistake!

[JudithJ]

Ask if you could bring a recording machine to the following lesson as you feel that it will help you to racall all that she tells you, and them do so. This may be enough of a wake-up call for her.

This is a great idea. My voice teacher records her lessons for all her students. I certainly wouldn't talk once the recorder has been turned on, I don't want to hear my idle chatter when I get home.

[notmusimum]

Ask if you could bring a recording machine to the following lesson as you feel that it will help you to racall all that she tells you, and them do so. This may be enough of a wake-up call for her.

This is a great idea. My voice teacher records her lessons for all her students. I certainly wouldn't talk once the recorder has been turned on, I don't want to hear my idle chatter when I get home.

Wonder if youngests Flute Teacher would fall for this? Not that she wastes time. She just keeps reminidng my girl about things that she's never told her about in the first place! Being a respectful 11 year old she looks confused and keeps her mouth shut. Doubt it will last when she gets to High School.

[jpiano]

I have an adult pupil and we do spend a fair bit of time on chatting - BUT I give her nearly an hour of my time, and only charge her for 30 minutes, as I make sure I do 30 minutes proper teaching at least, and regard the rest of the time as friend to friend chat.
It's not only teachers either - a number of the younger pupils always want to tell me what they've done over the weekend, what they're doing this next weekend, what their rabbit got up to etc etc etc ........ and it's sometimes very difficult to get them to stop chattering and start working!!!! (IMG:style_emoticons/default/laugh.gif)

I can think of 2 or 3 pupils like this- one of my adult pupils and I do spend some of the time chatting-but they are the last lesson of the evening, and always end up with at least an hour, so do get well over 30 minutes teaching time and are only charged for 30 minutes. I also have a teenage student who leads a very frantic social life and is very keen to tell me what has happened during the week-I have to tactfully but firmly bring her back to playing her pieces!

[George Burrell]

Half an hour a week is little enough.. I don't know how that is sufficient contact to sustain a week of practice!

The student needs time to THINK and time to PLAY. Discussion and digression need to be managed. Questions need to be deferred.

[jpiano]

All except one of my private students have half an hour a week-with the exception of one adult who has half an hour a fortnight due to work committments. And in state schools, half an hour is actually an unusually long lesson time-20 minutes or even 15 is the norm in some places!
It should be enough to set up effective practicing during the week-if they're practicing properly which is another topic in itself.
Coming back to the discussion during lessons issue-I find students do value the one to one teaching, and you do get times when they want to 'get something off their chest' -I think the relationship in individual teaching is so vital to their progress-but obviously the original situation where the progress of the cat takes preference over the progress of the music is going much too far!