Welcome!

Thank you for your interest in teaching positions with 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 students and teachers.

If you are interested in applying for a teaching position after reading this sheet or viewing our website please email your resume to jobs@seattlemusicanddance.com

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

Current Opening

Currently hiring part-time positions for the teaching year in all instruments and styles.

Always hiring substitute teachers for all instruments and dance styles.

School Background

The School of Music and Dance is a privately owned school that was founded in 2009. We have 2 locations one in Ballard, and one in Shoreline.

To see maps of our locations and a virtual tour, click here

We are one of Seattle’s largest music and dance teaching schools with approximately 1000 students attending weekly classes between our 2 locations. We cater mainly to children. About 90% of our students are between 3 and 16 years old. 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 musicians or dancers. We strive to provide a fun but educational environment with well organized administration and first rate equipment and facilities.

Why teach with us?

There are several places you can teach music or dance around the Vancouver area. Why should you consider teaching with us? Click on the position you would like further information on.

Music Teaching Positions

As music teacher you can either teach privately in your house or in students homes, or you can teach in a music store or school - both have upsides and downsides. If you teach in your home or students homes, the upside is you can keep all of the money you charge to the student. Since you have no expenses like rent, a receptionist or yellow pages advertising you do not have to pay out a percentage to overhead costs. There are also downsides of teaching in your home or your student’s 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 ads 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 student’s 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 your attendance and payment policies. No one likes being a 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 also 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’m not getting my lesson so why should pay?”

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

Now let’s look at teaching at a music school. The downside is 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 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 to teaching at our music school is that you do not have any collections hassles. You only have to focus on the teaching. Also our music school provides a professional educational environment that is stimulating to the students. It is also free from distractions found in a home such as ringing phones or doorbells, tvs and noisy family members

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

Here are reasons why music teachers choose to teach at our school over all other choices:

1. A constant flow of new students to keep schedules as full as possible.

Over the course of the year, students can move or quit. This can leave a teacher with gaps or holes in their schedule. Most student register and start lessons in September. Most music 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 teacher’s schedules as full as possible. Each year we spend tens of thousands of dollars on advertising in multiple media’s including online with google & facebook, traditional postcards and door hangers, valpak, community news papers and more to constantly attract new students. We are continually registering new students for our private music lessons even during typically slower registration months like May or June.

2. Extras are taken care of – your only responsibility is to teach.

At both of our locations we have full time front desk administrators to handle all of the “details” of teaching. From scheduling to collecting fees or arranging an accompanist for recitals, these details are handled by our administrators not the teacher. This means the teacher is free to focus on teaching and not get bogged down by administration.

3. Your time is respected and you are paid whether or not students show up.

Teachers are paid for lessons whether students attend or not. If a student misses classes for school trips or holidays, the teacher is still paid. And we don’t ask our teachers to do makeup lessons. Instead, we offer a monthly group theory lab to students who miss a private lesson.  If a student does not pay for their lessons or has an uncollectible debt, the teacher is still paid. Our priority for our teachers is to make sure that your time is not abused and your teaching day can be as productive as possible.

4. Your available teaching hours and profit are maximized.

Unlike in-home teaching services, students at our studios can be booked back to back with no driving time in between. In-home teaching means that it is almost impossible to be booked for more than 75-80% of the typical 6-hour teaching period because of the need to drive from home to home. That means a 20-25% decrease in pay. The high cost of fuel, traffic,driving in bad weather conditions and finding parking in high density areas can add to the frustration. When you go to a home as the teacher you are also the face of the company and the receptionist whether you signed up for that job or not.

Dance Teaching Positions

As a dance teacher you have several different studios you can choose to teach in. If you have freedom 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.

Here are reasons why dance teachers choose to teach at our schools:

1. Small class sizes.

We limit class sizes to make classes easier to control and monitor for teachers and to give more personalized attention to students. Our classes for ages 3-5 are limited to a maximum of 8 students per class. Our classes for ages 6 and up are limited to a maximum of 12 students per class.

2. Full time administrative support.

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

3. Floating Marley dance floors in all studios.

We use professional floating Marley dance floors in all of our studios. Our dance floors rest on a system of 700 high density foam blocks. This dance floor helps prevent injuries and 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.

4. Extras are taken care of.

We try to take care of all of the extra details throughout the year. Teachers are not required to collect any fees or do any costume measuring. We have a full time costume seamstress that measures and sews recital costumes to teachers’ specifications. We also take care of all the organization of yearly recitals. We try to have everything well organized so the teachers are free to concentrate on teaching and nothing else.

What Some Of Our Teachers & Guests Say

Amelia Albert - Woodwinds Instructor

“I love teaching at the academy of music and dance! They have friendly staff that takes care of everything including recitals! And I don’t even have to do makeups! 

Colt Valenti -Guitar Instructor

This is a great place to teach! The facilities are great, the desk staff takes care the details so all i have to do is teach. And all of the instructors are university trained, so its a great community professional artists!