Unanswerable question, perhaps.

[ingagroznaya]

What do you do when you get sick? How do you realistically cancel whole day of lessons when you already feeling seriously "yaki" ? One hour on the phone, trying to get a hold of everyone sometimes seems like "too of a heroic" step to take. Going through a first lesson seems easier to do than to collect all confirmations.
So I walked up today in a condition where I'm incapable of teaching. Never ending procession began soon. How do you stop it when you're already weak?

Did you ever turn a student around? Did you ever say: " Hold on,  I need a moment to re-group?"

At times I find it overwhelming and I feel completely out of control. How do you handle it?

One would think with all those cell phones it should not be an issue, yet not everyone is mobile, some are not answering. Just a thought of needing to contact so many people ... makes me want to avoid ...deny how really ill I feel. Sometimes denial makes me feel a little better and I can get through the day, but other times - it fails. If you teach a lot of students, how do you manage?

[pianowolfi]

I only get sick during vacation. Like all decent teachers should . No seriously, there were days it was even impossible for me to call them and my wife had to do it for me. Because as soon as i tried to get up i startet to vomit. Fortunately I or my wife have always reached them all. So nobody came and saw me in that horrible condition.

[ada]

Getting sick is always difficult when you're self-employed.

If I were you I'd try and contact as many students as possible and then stick a note on the door saying all lessons cancelled due to sickness, apologies for the inconvenience.

[Bob]

Put it in the lesson policy that you too can cancel lessons if you're sick.  That's reasonable.

Request contact info for them -- just in case you ever do have to cancel lessons. 

Leave a message if you can.  If not, then hey, they didn't leave enough info for you to get ahold of them -- They find out at the lesson.  Leave a sign on the door and don't answer.

With the rescheduling nightmare, I wouldn't even try to reschedule.  Just skip it for the week.  Except that means you may be out of lesson fees. 

[arensky]

Getting sick is always difficult when you're self-employed.

If I were you I'd try and contact as many students as possible and then stick a note on the door saying all lessons cancelled due to sickness, apologies for the inconvenience.

Had to do this last week. It's all you can do.

[ptmidwest]

Another option may be that any lesson which YOU must miss will be made up.

Good policy, Bob.  (How are you doing, bty?)  They really should be leaving good contact information with you, anyway, and you can only do what you can do.

[tiasjoy]

Sometimes, if I just have a cold, or feeling under the weather, I go through that whole - 'oh it's more bother than it's worth' and just get through the afternoon lessons and then hit bed again.

I have had to cancel days of lessons before - and it's tricky, because I get students to pay up front for the entire term.  I used to refund.  That was a nightmare.  Now I just reschedule "when I can".  I have a really good bunch at the moment, and haven't had any problems.

If I can 'soldier on' with codral, I do. 

[Bob]

Good policy, Bob. (How are you doing, bty?) They really should be leaving good contact information with you, anyway, and you can only do what you can do.

I'm fine.  Blahs, doldrums.  We'll see.  Waiting around as always.  Always waiting...

Other options -- Buildin some weeks off for yourself anyway.  Buffers.  Do two months of teaching, then take a week off.  Because...

If you teach by the semester, you could fairly easily slip makeup lessons in at the end of the term.  You one this week, but make it up in December if you have a little break.  Or at the end of the schoolyear if they take the summer off a bit.

Or give them two lessons in a week to make it up.  Or a longer lesson.

I've given longer lessons accidentally with several students.  When I mess up, they don't mind -- I paid in advance in a way.

[ptmidwest]

Good idea, Bob.  It's so much easier to put any required make-up lessons onto one or two days, designated in advance. 

If you do longer lessons, be more careful than I am...I tend to give a lot of extra time, anyway, and even the best parents "get used" to long lessons, and are surprised  when you go only the regular number of minutes.  Sometimes I almost think they feel cheated somehow...

At any rate, be clear in your policy.

Bob!  Go out! 

[Bob]

Not enough time.  Bah humbug!

[leucippus]

I only get sick during vacation. Like all decent teachers should .

I never taught music, but I have taught other subjects, and I was very lucky indeed. I always got sick on my days off.  I missed very few classes in my entire teaching career.  I think there's truly something to be said for a job that you genuinely love.   

I don't think I ever had a bad day teaching.  Of course, I always taught college students who were eager to learn.  I have no idea what it might be like trying to teach high-school students who don't even want to be there.  I don't think I'd be interested in even trying to do that.

Although, I would think that teaching piano students would in general be students who are interested in the subject at hand.  I mean that would be better than trying to shove something like English down the throats of students who don't want to learn it.

I was lucky, I taught math, physics, and other technologies, and the students were always eager to learn.

[chocolatedog]

I once had a day when I started teaching but 5 minutes into the lesson I started to feel really queasy - I was trying to breathe shallowly and move as little as possible and talk as little as possible for the next 25 minutes......as soon as that lesson had finished I immediately rang round homes and mobile phones to cancel the remainder and went straight to bed......good job I did - I was horribly ill for the next 12 hours and in bed for 2 days with a gastric bug.........

[pianowelsh]

Piano teachers dont get ill - WE ARE IMMORTAL!!!