Teacher Guide

Quick Overview

As a teacher, Coaching Booth is your lesson companion. Here's what you can do:

• See your schedule - View today's lessons and your upcoming week at a glance
• Manage your students - Access profiles, track goals, and see their complete history
• Record audio - Capture performances during lessons with one click
• Assign homework - Set practice focus with clear instructions and due dates
• Track progress - Compare recordings over time and celebrate improvements
• Add lesson notes - Document what you covered and what to work on next

For Solo Studio Owners

If you're both the owner and the only teacher in your studio, you have access to both administrative and teaching features. This section helps you understand how to use both effectively.

Teaching Mode vs Studio Mode

Look for the mode toggle in your navigation bar. This lets you switch between two different experiences:

• Teaching Mode - This is your focused teaching view. The dashboard shows today's lessons prominently, your student list is front and center, and administrative details are hidden. Use this during lesson hours when you want to concentrate on teaching.
• Studio Mode - This shows the full administrative dashboard with studio metrics, billing status, and management tools. Use this when you're doing administrative work like adding students or managing your subscription.

Many solo teachers stay in Teaching Mode during the day and only switch to Studio Mode when they need to handle business tasks. Find what works best for your workflow.

Your Dashboard

Your teacher dashboard is designed to answer one question immediately: "What do I need to focus on today?" Everything is organized to minimize clicks and keep you in the flow of teaching.

Today's Lessons

The most prominent feature of your dashboard is Today's Lessons. This shows every lesson you have scheduled for the current day, displayed as cards with:

• Student name - Click to go directly to their profile
• Lesson time - When the lesson starts and ends
• Status indicator - Shows if it's upcoming, in progress, or completed
• Quick actions - Buttons to open the lesson, view the student, or add notes

As lessons happen throughout the day, their status updates automatically. Completed lessons move to the bottom of the list so you can easily see what's still ahead.

My Teaching Week

Below your daily view, you'll see a week-at-a-glance calendar. This shows:

• All your lessons for the current week
• Color-coded blocks for easy scanning
• Click any lesson to jump to its details

This helps you plan ahead and spot any scheduling issues before they become problems.

My Students

Your student list shows everyone assigned to you. Each student card displays:

• Their name and profile photo (if they've added one)
• When their next lesson is scheduled
• Quick indicators for recent activity or pending homework

Click any student to open their full profile where you can see their goals, songs, recordings, and complete lesson history.

Teacher Tasks

The tasks section shows items that need your attention:

• Students without practice focus - After a lesson, did you assign homework?
• Incomplete lesson notes - Lessons that haven't been documented yet
• Goals needing updates - Students whose goals haven't been reviewed recently

Working through these tasks helps you stay organized and ensures no student falls through the cracks.

Working with Student Profiles

Each student has a comprehensive profile that serves as their "home base" in the system. Click any student name to open their profile. You'll see several tabs that organize different aspects of their learning journey.

Overview Tab

This is the quick reference page showing:

• Contact information (email, phone, parent contacts for minors)
• Next scheduled lesson
• Recent activity (lessons, homework submissions, new recordings)
• Any notes you've added about the student

Goals Tab

Goals are learning objectives you set together with your student. They provide direction and help track progress over time. Good goals might include:

• "Develop consistent breath support through entire phrases"
• "Learn 3 songs for the spring recital"
• "Extend upper range by a minor third"
• "Build confidence performing in front of others"

To add a goal, click the Add Goal button. Give it a clear description and optionally set a target date. As you work toward the goal, you can add progress notes and eventually mark it as achieved.

Achieved goals don't disappear - they move to a "Completed" section where you can see everything the student has accomplished. This is great for motivation and for tracking long-term development.

Songs Tab

The Songs tab is your student's repertoire library. For each song, you can track:

• Basic info - Title, artist, key, tempo, and any notes about style or interpretation
• Status - Where they are with the song:
  • Learning - Still working on it
  • Performance Ready - Could perform it confidently
  • Mastered - Fully internalized, go-to piece
• Recordings - Audio captures from lessons, organized chronologically so you can hear improvement over time

To add a song, click Add Song and fill in the details. Start with just the title and artist - you can add more details later as you work on the piece.

Practice Focus Tab

Practice Focus is your homework assignment system. After each lesson, you'll typically assign one or more items for the student to work on before the next lesson.

Good practice focus items are specific and actionable:

• ❌ "Practice more" (too vague)
• ✓ "Practice measures 24-32 of 'Amazing Grace' slowly, focusing on breath marks" (specific)
• ❌ "Work on technique" (what technique?)
• ✓ "Do lip trills on a 5-note scale, 3 times up and down, each morning" (clear instructions)

Students can see their practice focus in their portal and mark items as complete. You'll see their completion status, making it easy to know what to follow up on during the next lesson.

Recording Audio

One of Coaching Booth's most powerful features is built-in audio recording. Capturing your students' performances creates a progress archive that's valuable for both of you.

Why Record?

• Track improvement - Compare recordings from month to month to hear growth
• Student self-assessment - Students often can't hear themselves clearly while performing
• Document milestone moments - Capture that first time they nail a difficult passage
• Practice reference - Give students a "model" recording to practice against

How to Record

1. Navigate to the song or lesson - Open the student's profile and go to their Songs tab, or open the current lesson detail page.
2. Click the Record button - The recorder will appear on screen. Your device's microphone will be used (you may need to grant permission the first time).
3. Press Start - The recording begins immediately. A timer shows how long you've been recording.
4. Press Stop when done - The recording stops and you'll see a preview with playback controls.
5. Review and save - Listen back to make sure it captured correctly. Add a title or note (optional), then click Save. The recording is now attached to that song and visible to the student.

Managing Recordings

Recordings are stored securely in the cloud and linked to the relevant song. You can:

• Play back anytime - Click the play button to listen
• Compare versions - Play recordings from different dates side by side
• Add notes - Annotate recordings with comments about what you hear
• Delete if needed - Remove recordings that didn't capture well

Calendar & Scheduling

The Calendar shows all your scheduled lessons. Click it in the navigation to see your full teaching schedule.

Viewing Your Calendar

The calendar offers three views:

• Day view - Hour-by-hour breakdown of a single day
• Week view - See the whole week at a glance (default)
• Month view - Overview of the entire month

Use the arrows at the top to navigate forward and backward in time. Click any lesson block to open its details.

Creating a Lesson

1. Click Add Lesson or click on an empty time slot
2. Select the student from the dropdown
3. Set the date, start time, and duration
4. For weekly recurring lessons, check Recurring and choose the pattern
5. Add any lesson notes (what you plan to cover)
6. Click Create

Recurring lessons will automatically generate future appointments. This saves time for students who come at the same time each week.

Rescheduling or Canceling

Life happens. When you need to move or cancel a lesson:

1. Click the lesson on the calendar to open its details
2. Click Reschedule or Cancel
3. For rescheduling, select the new time
4. For recurring lessons, choose whether to change just this instance or all future lessons
5. Optionally add a note explaining the change
6. Confirm - the student will be notified if notifications are enabled

Running a Lesson: Step by Step

Here's a complete walkthrough of how to use Coaching Booth before, during, and after a typical lesson.

Before the Lesson

Take 2-3 minutes to prepare:

1. Check your dashboard - Open Coaching Booth and look at Today's Lessons. Click the lesson that's coming up to open its detail page.
2. Review previous notes - The lesson page shows your notes from the last session. What did you work on? What did you plan to continue?
3. Check practice focus completion - Did they complete their homework? This tells you what to follow up on.
4. Glance at their goals - Keep the bigger picture in mind. How does today's lesson fit into their overall progress?

During the Lesson

Have the lesson detail page open on your tablet or computer:

• Reference previous material - Click through to their songs to see what you've been working on.
• Record when appropriate - If they're performing something you want to capture, hit Record. Don't feel like you need to record everything - be selective.
• Update song status - If they've made progress on a song, update its status from "Learning" to "Performance Ready" or similar.
• Add new songs - Starting something new? Add it to their repertoire so you have a place to attach future recordings.

After the Lesson

This is the most important part. Take 3-5 minutes right after the student leaves:

1. Write lesson notes - Open the lesson detail page and add notes about what you covered. Include:
   • What you worked on
   • How they did (strengths and areas for improvement)
   • What to continue next time
   • Any concerns or observations
2. Assign practice focus - Go to the student's Practice Focus tab and add one or more homework items. Be specific about what to practice and how.
3. Update goals if needed - Did they make progress toward a goal? Add a note. Did they achieve one? Mark it complete.
4. Send notification (optional) - If you want the student to be notified about their new practice focus, enable the notification toggle.

Tips for Success

Teachers who get the most out of Coaching Booth share these habits:

• Document immediately - Add lesson notes and practice focus right after the lesson, not at the end of the day.
• Assign practice focus every lesson - Students practice more when they have clear, specific homework. Make it a habit.
• Record regularly - Even imperfect recordings are valuable. The archive of progress is motivating for students and informative for you.
• Review before each lesson - Spend 2 minutes reading previous notes. Walk into every lesson knowing exactly where you left off.
• Use goals meaningfully - Don't just set goals and forget them. Reference them in lessons and celebrate when they're achieved.
• Keep your dashboard clean - Work through your task list regularly. Address incomplete notes and missing practice focus promptly.

Related Guides

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