Marcus's Monday, Two Ways

Marcus, a middle school orchestra teacher who also gives private cello lessons.

Monday at 7:20 a.m., Marcus has two beginner cellists who cannot keep a steady bow hold, a seventh grade orchestra warm-up to plan, and a parent email about missed practice. Before, he would improvise the warm-up during first period and answer the parent at night.

Now he opens Claude and uses the Lesson Planning Basics prompt: 'Create a 15 minute warm-up for seventh grade orchestra focused on D major and bow distribution, with two listening checks.' He changes one check to match the piece they are playing. For his private student who is stuck on the relative minor, he asks Gemini from Explaining Music Theory for a two sentence explanation and one ear training question.

After lunch, he uses the Practice Assignments prompt in ChatGPT for a student learning Minuet in G: 'Build a four day, 15 minute practice plan with open strings, one tricky measure, and a fun review.' Then he uses Parent Communication to write a short note about bringing the practice tracker to lessons. He reads it twice and adds a line about how proud he is of the student's bow control.

By 4:30, Marcus has plans, a theory example, a practice sheet, and a parent note ready. He uses the extra half hour to warm up on his own cello before his evening lessons instead of rushing from the copy room to the studio.