The Role of Community: Building a Support System for Music Educator Moms
1. Connect with Fellow Music Educator Moms:
2. Create a Collaborative Learning Environment:
3. Organize Supportive Playgroups for Children:
4. Attend Professional Development Workshops Together:
5. Establish a Virtual Support Network:
How to Set Boundaries and Avoid Burnout in Your Freelance Teaching Journey
1. Define Your Priorities:
2. Establish Clear Work Hours:
3. Delegate and Seek Support:
4. Prioritize Self-Care:
5. Set Up Systems for Success:
- Are you referring to having no music degree or to having any undergraduate degree?
- What setting are you wanting to teach in?
- What kind of music are you wanting to teach?
- What time of day are you wanting to teach?
- What type of students are you wanting to teach?
- What background knowledge to do already have as credentials?
Every music teacher out there asks, 'How can I make extra income during the summer and/or during the school year?' We don't get paid enough, or maybe we're even bored during the summer not making any music (is this possible?!?). Or we just want to make some extra spending money to do fun things with the kids (raises hand -- I just went strawberry picking with my 8mo and it was a blast!).
But maybe you don't like teaching lessons or you don't want to deal with the schedules around vacations and hassle of that, etc...
So, here are 3 income streams (you can start today!) that are NOT teaching private lessons:
#1 Affiliate Marketing -- you can share about stuff that you like and use (teaching related or not!) with your friends and make income from it. Your friends aren't charged more for it; the companies who use affiliate marketing are spending their marketing budget on this instead of on billboards and ads because it WORKS. I learned how to do it well without feeling salesy from my business mentor, you can check out her course all about it here! And it doesn't take much time, you can work it around naptime or other busy schedules of life.
#2 Baby Music Classes! There are SO many moms out there who are looking for cheap & fun things to do with their littles, especially first time moms (haha, that was/is me!) who are looking to meet people. Find a park and teach a baby music class for moms and their littles! Need help with marketing? Happy to help, I've coached people through this process so they get more turn-out for their classes without having to go through community education and plan WAY in advance or charge a LOT because they have fees. Tip? As long as your parks don't have rules around renting space in the summer, you can just find a local park to teach your class and have a rain date if needed!
#3 Coaching/Consulting -- are you an expert in a certain topic (could be music or otherwise) that you could help people with? Maybe you have a hobby that you'd love to teach people how to do. You can walk them through that step by step with a coaching program (live or evergreen or a combo)! This is just a tiny sliver, tip-of-the-iceberg tip from the massive signature program that is HBR (Home Based Revolution), the multiple income stream course & coaching program by my own business mentor. Check it out here (& reach out for a massive discount code if you're interested!).
Considering becoming self-employed but you're a planner and want to look at how budgeting and the money side of things might look? I made a tips list that was stuff I wish I'd known before diving into the self-employed world, things I learned myself work best. Check it out here!
4. Give yourself grace.
5. Create a “stage persona” for stressful situations.
6. When things get tough, lean on your support system.
Why Highly Sensitive People are Drawn to Caring Professions Like Teaching
1. Learn to let go when your lessons don’t go as planned.
2. Give yourself permission to say no.
3. Your empathy is the superpower your students need.
That was the emotion I thought I felt. I know, I know.... exhaustion doesn't sound like an emotion word, but I felt it in my bones, I lived it day by day and hour by hour.
That weight of never being done practicing or lesson planning. The long hours under fluorescent lights, trying to study through the pain or finish up cleaning recorders before running home to teach lessons and finally collapsing in bed after scrambling to put a semblance of a meal together. The loneliness of working non-stop, rushing from class to class without true connection with another adult.
The lack of deep friendship and understanding. The never feeling good enough. The push push push without relief, without let-up. The feeling like "classroom" teachers aka grade level teachers (I never liked that term, don't I teach in a classroom too?!) were superior just because we provided their prep time during the day to have a full, uninterrupted hour to plan while we were left with the scraps of 10/20/30 minute chunks to try to get something meaningful accomplished before running out to do bus duty.
This was the biggest thing, though, that I felt when in the rat-race of the typical college education degree and subsequent years of teaching in public education: Exhaustion.
This is why burn-out happens so quickly and easily, especially with the younger generation. Why?
Because we've pulled back the curtain, we've seen that it doesn't and shouldn't have to be this way.
In particular I have created a space where I no longer have to feel caught in the middle to provide for my family.
I can have BOTH. I can experience the joy of teaching AND make a good income (a lot more than I did as a young public school teacher). I can experience rest AND meaningful work. I can lesson plan AND have time to use the restroom whenever I want. I can enjoy kids and their smiles and laughter in large or small group settings AND go home at a reasonable time of day to make dinner for my family and enjoy the sunshine and snuggling my dog. I can get all I need to done and more AND have my weekend to myself now!
There's more to this life than work. But I wanted my work to be fulfilling and meaningful and have IMPACT.
I can choose how to run my schedule now. I choose my hours. And I don't have to teach private music lessons unless I want to (which I do, but it's my choice, not my duty to make a few extra $).
And you can too. It's not rocket science. :) But there are practical steps and considerations to make. Come learn with me how.