Teacher manual

1. Get into the correct account

Open https://craftmusic.teachworks.com/ and use your Teachworks invitation and account. Your website credentials may be different. If the invitation is missing, expired, or attached to the wrong email, ask admin for help. Do not create another teacher record to solve a login issue.

Check that the account shows the correct teacher name and assigned students. Confirm your contact information with admin and review your upcoming lessons. Available menus and editing rights can differ by role. If a control described here is missing, ask admin rather than using another person’s login.

2. Read the calendar before changing it

Open the lesson and verify the date, start and end time, duration, teacher, student or participants, service, location, and current status. Check nearby bookings and travel time. When you are coordinating across regions, explicitly confirm the time zone with the family and admin.

Before creating a new event, search for an existing lesson at that time and check whether it belongs to a recurring series. A trial is not automatically a confirmed recurring appointment. A family’s interest in a different time is not a completed reschedule.

3. Confirm or arrange a first lesson

1. Confirm the student’s needs and agreed duration with admin.
2. Confirm the exact day, date, start time, time zone, and location with the family.
3. Verify that the correct family and student record already exist. Ask admin to create or correct missing records and home locations.
4. Have the lesson entered in the authoritative calendar using the admin-approved service and participants.
5. Reopen the saved event and verify all details. Check for duplicates and conflicts.
6. Send or request the joint scheduling confirmation. Include only the logistical information relevant to those recipients; discuss money separately.

For siblings, a longer lesson, or combined bookings, do not guess the service code or rate. Ask admin to confirm the service and each child’s time allocation before changing the record.

4. Reschedule safely

1. Read the most recent correspondence before following up. Confirm the new time with the family and let admin know.
2. Open the existing event and use its edit controls. If your calendar allows drag-and-drop, verify the resulting details just as carefully.
3. Check the scope: this occurrence, this and future occurrences, or the whole series. Change only the agreed scope. Do not alter past lessons when the request is going forward.
4. Preserve the student, teacher, location, service, and financial settings unless admin has approved a related change.
5. Save, reopen, and inspect both the old and new dates. Confirm that the old slot is no longer scheduled when it should not be, and that there is only one intended lesson at the new time.
6. Confirm the final details with the family and admin. If the change is incomplete or a conflict remains, say so clearly.

Do not delete a lesson simply to conceal a cancellation or replace a financial record. If the lesson is already invoiced, paid, or locked, ask admin how to correct it.

5. Cancellations, illness, and no-shows

Communicate as soon as a change is known. For in-home lessons, the standard is 24 hours’ notice for both teachers and students, with flexibility and exceptions at the discretion of admin in coordination with the teacher. For online lessons, the standard notice window is 12 hours. Give admin the original lesson details, who requested the change, when notice was received, the reason if volunteered, and whether a new time was actually agreed.

The teacher may talk with the client and agree on an alternative lesson time, including for a short-notice request. Keep admin informed and follow the rescheduling steps above; a mutually agreed new time does not itself decide a fee waiver or teacher compensation.

• Student cancels: record the facts and notify admin. Do not promise a fee waiver or decide compensation from the calendar label alone.
• Teacher cancels: notify the family and admin promptly, apologize briefly, and offer realistic alternatives. Do not represent a teacher cancellation as a student no-show.
• Student does not arrive or answer: attempt the appropriate contact, document the attempt, and follow admin’s agreed wait/escalation instructions. Do not invent a universal wait period or trial-payment rule.
• Illness: ask for advance notice. If a student is visibly ill on arrival, contact admin and the family; an in-person lesson may need to stop to protect others. Explore a mutually agreed reschedule or approved online alternative if suitable. Do not diagnose the illness or promise its billing outcome.
• Holiday or extended absence: confirm whether the family is taking the lesson. Notify admin well ahead of travel or tours so a substitute or approved alternative can be explored. A proposed substitute is not confirmed until cleared and accepted.

6. Complete the lesson accurately

After the lesson, open the event and use the available completion/status controls. Review the participants if there is more than one student. Choose the truthful outcome:

• Attended: the lesson took place.
• Cancelled: the lesson was cancelled; preserve who cancelled and the notice details in the appropriate record.
• Missed: use for the applicable no-show outcome under admin’s instructions, not as a substitute for any cancellation.
• Scheduled: upcoming or unresolved; do not leave past lessons here indefinitely.

Check that the saved status and actual duration are correct. Record brief useful lesson notes where appropriate: what was covered, a practice target, and a question for next time. Keep private administrative or sensitive information out of student-visible notes. If you do not know who can see a field, ask before using it. If something went wrong, describe it factually and contact admin. Do not change lesson duration, service, or attendance to force a particular wage or charge.

7. Month-end review and sign-off

1. Read the reminder and use the correct month and date range.
2. Review every assigned lesson, including cancelled, missed, rescheduled, and unresolved scheduled events.
3. Verify statuses, duration, participants, duplicate events, and notes supporting exceptions.
4. Compare the earnings or lesson summary with your records. Report discrepancies with exact dates, not only a total.
5. Complete the sign-off using the provided workflow only when the records are accurate. If something is unresolved, tell admin which entries need correction.
6. Confirm Melio payment setup if admin has invited you, using the secure Melio invitation/link. Keep payment setup separate from attendance sign-off.
7. After sign-off, watch for Melio links from admin. Teachers receive Melio/ACH payments the following month, within the first seven days of that month.

Do not mark yourself paid or create a duplicate payment request because funds are not yet visible. Admin reconciles lesson records with Melio payment status. A completion checkmark or an emailed payment notice is not by itself proof that the bank has received the money.

8. Common problems

• Missing student or home address: ask admin to verify the existing family, student, and location records; do not guess an address or create a duplicate.
• Wrong service for a combined lesson: stop and confirm with admin before saving any rate-sensitive change.
• Edit control missing: your permissions or the record state may prevent the edit. Send admin the lesson details and requested change.
• Calendar and family disagree: preserve the original record, read the correspondence, and resolve the exact date/time before changing it.
• Month-end total looks wrong: check the date range, lesson statuses, durations, and duplicate/rescheduled events; send the specific discrepancies to admin.

Reference: Teachworks product tutorials at https://www.teachworks.com/tutorials/all. Treat older interface or policy details in older videos as historical where they differ from this reviewed guidance.

Before your first lesson with a student

• Correct teacher account and assigned student verified.
• Instrument, experience, goals, and any lesson-relevant needs understood.
• Exact day, date, time zone, duration, location or lesson room confirmed.
• Correct booking system identified; no duplicate lesson created.
• Family knows what to prepare and how to contact us if something goes wrong.
• Travel and setup time checked; suitable test of online equipment completed if applicable.
• Scheduling confirmation contains no money matters when teacher and family are copied together.
• Any school/program-specific clearance has been confirmed by admin before teaching.

Before every lesson

• Review previous work and plan one clear learning goal.
• Check messages for changes, but do not assume silence means cancellation.
• Verify the current calendar and location or room.
• Have the necessary teaching materials and permission to use them.
• Prepare a quiet environment and protect private information before screen sharing.

After every lesson

• Record the truthful outcome and correct duration promptly.
• Add a brief recap and manageable practice task where appropriate.
• Confirm the next scheduled lesson or state clearly what remains tentative.
• Notify admin of scheduling changes, unresolved issues, or a risk that the student will stop.
• Report technical problems with enough detail to reproduce them, without sensitive information.

Weekly schedule check

• Check upcoming absences and holiday expectations.
• Resolve tentative arrangements rather than allowing them to become assumed bookings.
• Keep available times and in-person coverage realistic.
• Tell admin if a recurring slot is becoming difficult, so we can consider a sustainable alternative.
• Check whether a planned makeup actually occurred; do not count an offered makeup as completed.

At month-end

• Use the correct month and date range.
• Resolve old Scheduled entries and verify Attended, Cancelled, and Missed records.
• Check sibling/combined lessons, duration changes, duplicates, and reschedules carefully.
• Report exact discrepancies before sign-off.
• Complete requested sign-off only after checking the records.
• Confirm secure payment setup if requested; track setup, submission, and receipt as separate stages.