Thank you for your interest in teaching positions at our school. This page will give you an idea of our philosophy of teaching and our ideas on how our school can best meet the needs of our studemts and teachers.

 

If you are interested in applying for a teaching position after reading this sheet or viewing our website please mail your resume to:

 

Dance Tech

910 Lincolnway

La Porte, IN 46350

Attention: Teaching Positions

 

No Phone Calls Please. Only suitable applicants will be contacted for an interview.

 

 

Dance Tech is a privately owned school that was founded in 2006. We are located in downtown La Porte, Indiana.

 

We are NW Indiana's largest dance, cheer and music school with approximately 200 students and growing. We cater mainly to children. About 90% of our students are between 3 and 16 years of age. We welcome adult students but our suburban market area has resulted in a student base of mainly children.  

 

We realize that most of our students will not become professional dancers or musicians. We strive to provide a fun but educational environment with well organized administration and quality equipment and facilities.

 

 

There are several places you can teach music or dance around the NW Indiana area. Why should you consider teaching with us?

 

 

As a dance teacher you have several different studios you can choose to teach in. If you're free to express your artistic style through your teaching, the main difference will be how the organization of the studio affects your satisfaction and ability to focus on your teaching.

 

 

 

We limit classes to make classes easier to control and monitor for teachers and to give more personalized attention to students. Our classes for ages 6 and up are limited to a maximum of 12 students per class. Our classes for ages 3 -5 are limited to 6 students per class.

 

 

In many studios there is no receptionist on duty. This means that the teachers are faced with administrative details when they should be concentrating on teaching. We have front desk staff during class times to handle routine questions and details when they arise.

 

 

Our dance floors are floating wood floors. This helps prevent injuries & fatigue. A good quality floor is a consideration if you are going to be teaching for a few hours each day. A supportive quality floor allows you to protect your most important assets - your body and your ability to teach.

 

 

We try to take care of all the extra details througout the year. Teachers are not required to collect any fees or do any costume measuring. We have a costume seamstress that measures and sews recitals costumes to teachers' specifications.   We also take care of year end performances. We try to have everything organized so the teachers are free to concentrate on teaching and nothing else.

 

 

 

 

As a music teacher you can either teach privately in your house or in your students' homes, or you can teach in a music store or school - both have upsides and downsides. If you teach in your home or your students' homes, the upside is you can keep all the money you charge to the student. Since you have no expenses like rent, a receptionist, yellow pages or advertising, you do not have to pay out a percentage of your costs. There are also downsides to teaching in your home or your students' homes. It can be hard to keep your schedule constantly full with new students. Getting a full schedule can be difficult and expensive if you have to run classified adds or small newspaper ads. Even if you are a good, well-liked teacher, it can take a long time for referrals and word of mouth to fill your schedule. If you are driving to the students' houses you also have to factor in the driving time between students which limits the amount of teaching you can actually do.

 

The other downside of teaching on your own can be the difficulty in enforcing attendance and payment policies. No one likes being he collection agent. It can be difficult to concentrate on your teaching while trying to keep track of who owes money and to make sure you are paid.  If you are teaching on your own, it can be difficult to enforce your teaching policies and have your time respected. For example, if a student tells you they are going to Disney World for the next two weeks, it can be difficult to still make them pay for their lesson time. Many students will refuse to pay for those missed lessons because they will think:" I am not getting my lessons so why should I pay?"

 

Chances are you can't book another student in that lessons time for just two weeks, so if you don't charge the student in the Disney World, you have just lost 2 weeks of pay. If that scenario happens a couple times per month it can gretly reduce your earnings.

 

Now let's look at teaching at a music school. The downside is that you don't get paid as much per student. Teaching rates that in-home teachers and music schools charge are usually pretty similar. So the pay per student to the teacher is lower because of rent, yellow pages, receptionists, advetising and other expenses. The upside can be having a consistently full schedule of students each day. Being paid a little less per student but having 10 or 11 students in a day will mean you earn more overall.

 

Another upside of teaching at our school is that you do not have those collection hassles. You only have to focus on the teaching. Also our school provides a professinal educational environment that is stimulating to the students.

 

Those are the general differences between teaching on your own and teaching in a school or store.

 

 

 

Over the course of a year, students can move or quit. This can leave a teacher with gaps or holes in their schedule. Most students register and start classes in September. Most schools only advertise in late August and September for new students.

 

At our school, we spend a lot of money on advertising and marketing year round to keep our teachers' schedules as full as possible. Each year we advertise in newspapers, yellow pages, direct mail, community publications and other media to constantly attract new students. We are continually registering new students for our private music lessons even during typically slower registration months like May and June.

 

 

Our studio has administrative staff to handle all the "details" of teaching. From scheduling to collecting fees or making arrangement for the year end show, these details are handled by our administration not the teaching staff.  This means the teacher is free to focus on teaching and not get bogged down by administration.

 

 

Teachers are paid for scheduled lessons whether the students attend or not. If a student misses classes for holidays or school trips, the teacher is still paid. The only time a student is given an extra make up lesson is if they are sick and they can only have 3 make up classes per year for sickness. Our priority for our teachers is to make sure that their time is not abused and your teaching day can be as productive as possible.