First, although I tend to have an easier time figuring things out on my own rather than following instructions, I did learn a few new things from watching the videos that MTH has produced. You can view them here.
Second, the support options MTH offers are wonderful. You can check search FAQS or the Knowledge Base. You can get ideas from other teachers by participating in the Community Forum. And of course, there are ways to contact MTH directly, by email or phone number to get help with your specific issues. I've called a couple of times when I had a time sensitive question. Most of the time I email and receive a helpful answer often within an hour, and if not that soon, within the same day. Following their blog is another way to learn more about how to make MTH work for you.
Third, MTH is willing to listen if you have problems with the way the system currently works or suggestions for improvements. Go here to suggest an idea, vote on someone else's suggestion, or comment on suggestions.
As I mentioned before, I'm still incorporating some features into how I use the system. This year, I started using make up credits. There are some improvements I've commented on and hope they consider, but even with it's flaws, I've found it very helpful.
Make up credits
When reconciling a missed or cancelled lesson, I just click the option to issue a make up lesson credit. Then when the student does reschedule, I just select the make-up credit that I want to use for that lesson and the credit is closed. You can search closed and pending credits by date and by student to see how you or your students are doing with keeping up with make up lessons. By using this feature this year, I learned that I am far too lenient with offering make up lessons, and the students only made up about half of the lessons that I offered credits for. The suggestion that I'm really hoping to see incorporated is to have an automatic expiration date for these so I don't have to close them individually. That suggestion is currently under review.Lending Library
Another great feature of the system is the Lending Library. It was time consuming to enter all the books and sheet music that I have available to loan out, but now that the date has been entered, I can check things out with just a few simple clicks. I like the fact that I can select a due date and have an automatic reminder send to the student.Repertoire Tracker
I would love to use the Repertoire Tracker more, but I find it's current setup too time consuming. If anyone has any great suggestions, please let me know. I would love to keep track of scores and ratings for MMTA contests and exams, as well as school events like Solo and Ensemble Contests, and have it all in one handy place.Practice Log
Another feature I haven't really pushed with the students is the Practice Log. Have any of you found this helpful? How do you encourage kids to use it?Calendar
The calendar is probably the most important item. Here are some tricks I've recently learned:- Have students register for studio classes, recitals, and other events.
- To allows students to sign up for their own lesson times, post events as "Open", require registration, and then limit the number of registrants to 1. I'm trying this out over the summer.
- I love click and drag (and wish I could do it for more than one entry at a time).
- I used to delete the events individually or have to delete the whole day and then add back in the few students that I was teaching. Now, if I need to delete part of a day, but not every lesson, I drag the entries I want to delete to a Sunday (when I don't teach), and then click delete all events for that day. I used to delete the events individually or have to delete the whole day and then add back in the few students that I was teaching.
- You can change how your calendar is set up by clicking settings, and then going to the calendar tab. I've always just used the month view, because the day and week views were hard to read because my lessons during the school year don't start on the hour. A few quick clicks and now all the views are easier for me to use. I wish I had known about this earlier.
- When you click and drag within the week view, it changes the time too. When you do this on the month view, you have to go in and edit the time.
- I'm now using the MTH calendar as my everything calendar. The tai chi studio I work with is listed as one of my students and classes that I am assisting in are one color and classes I'm subbing for are another. I also added myself as a student (with my own special color) so I can add personal items such as doctor visits, etc.
- I learned how to sync my MTH and iCal calendars. (Again, click settings and then the calendar tab after you click settings).
Online payments
I just signed up for PayPal and enabled online payments on my website. I'm going to try it out for the summer to see how often it is used and how much it actually ends up costing me. I'll let you know how that goes.
Affiliate Program
I also just signed up for the Affiliate Program so I can earn money when a friend or colleague opens a new account. (I wish I'd had it earlier. I was among the first of my colleagues to get in to this system.)
I'm currently offering 10% off your first month. Click here or on the banner you see in the sidebar if you are not yet using MTH and would like to give it a try.
Please comment to share how you use Music Teacher's Helper, and check back next week for a report on what we discussed at the convention.
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