On Your Marks, Get Set......
I want to start by first wishing you all a Happy New Year. My hope for you all is that is a prosperous and less stressful year than 2023 and that you have peace and prosperity in all your goals. We are not yet at the "go" but we are very close, waiting for that gun to go off and start our adventure. Schools start in little less than a week and we start with tutoring again on Monday. I want to share with you some cool new changes I have implemented that I hope you will find useful and easier than the previous years.
Website Update
I have updated the website to be a bit more functional. I will be posting newsletters here in the blog section from now on to keep everything grouped together. You will still get a link to the latest post each time via messaging. This is all part of the long scheme of things to come. This will also make it easier to reference to communications history if needed. The website now has some new features as well which will be active in a couple of weeks from now. This includes an Online Group Session section where I will be doing group sessions from time to time on Math, Science and Music. When the first modules are ready, I will give you all more information regarding this. I will also be testing the platform first and it will be free during the testing phase as I want to gain feedback in order to refine this.
There is also a FAQ section on the website. I will frequently update this with interesting and important questions I come across either from your weekly feedback or from circumstances that occur. I will refer most of you to this in the future should there be any general questions that need to be resolved.
All student showcases will be added to the blog as well in the future so please bookmark the website for easy access. I want to create a centralised hub that will form the basis of what is to come in the future.
Scheduling our First Lesson(s)
It is always mayhem at the beginning of the year when we have to start playing schedule Tetris. Remember, we will be running the schedule from last year for at least the first week or two until the new schedule can be locked in. I cannot say at the moment which days will be online or in person. This will be decided by the information you all send me. I will be as flexible as I can possibly be but do ask that you all be patience and also a bit flexible on times and dates. Please send your scheduling requests or information to me as soon as possible to avoid disappointment in available placement options.
Januworry Payments
I know January can be tough with payments especially since there is additional fees in the first month like the registration fee, book fee etc. This is also a big shock if you have more than one subject or student enrolled. Paying on time will ensure that I can start managing and running things efficiently from day one. I thank you all in advanced for prioritising your tutoring payments during this "year long" month. Please ensure you make payments no later than Friday, 12 January 2023 if you want good placement. The fees need to reflect in my account before our first lesson. If not, you will not start in week one and will also not be prioritised for optimal placement as I will be starting the placements first thing Monday morning, 15 January 2024.
Also note, this is a short month and invoices for February will already go out again on 23 January 2024 for February lesson fees.
Terms and Conditions
Please make sure you sign your Terms and Conditions when you send payment as this is crucial for me to at least know that you have read and understand on how things will work and how I will operate for the year. Nothing has changed much apart from how lesson billing will work. I will not attend lessons if this is not signed irrespective whether you made payment or not.
Year Schedule and Planner
The yearly planner has been uploaded to the FAQ section of the website. Please go download it there if you want to see how the terms will work and what kind of work will be done throughout the year as well as when exams will take place and other opportunities. All students will receive the planner in their classrooms as well for easy access.
Google Classroom Changes
During the next few days, I will organize the google classrooms a bit again to ready up for lessons. There will be one big change though. Google is discontinuing Jamboard at the end of 2024, the app we used during lessons for note taking. I will be transitioning over to Apple Freeform at the beginning of this year already. If you do lessons on an Apple device making use of an Apple Pencil, I will be able to still share the boards live with you. If you do not, the notes will be available to view in PDF form only going forward. Google is partnering with three other note taking companies for the future but will require that each user have an account that costs money which in my opinion is unfair will drive lessons costs up. So by doing it via Freeform and PDF format, we will avoid extra costs while loosing a minor functionality that barely anyone has used in any case. In short, your work will still be available and viewable with no loss in functionality. I will assist you all in accessing these if you run into problems. Just ask if you need assistance.
Marketing
I am actively marketing for this year as I want to run a full studio again. Please reference me on your community groups again for the year to remind people that might have been interested last year of my services. It would be greatly appreciated.
See you all again very soon and good luck with getting all your stationary and school things ready.
Best Wishes,
Werner
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