Admin handed you an elective full of kids who landed there because they needed somewhere to be, not because they asked for it. Guitar, music appreciation, piano lab…whatever filled the period. Some of the students have an attitude about it. And here’s the kicker: you might be teaching an instrument you’ve never formally trained on yourself.

Welcome to the bonus class. Every music teacher gets one eventually. Here’s how to not just survive it, but quietly turn it into one of your favorite periods.

First: you don’t have to be the expert on everything

You’re a trained musician and a trained educator. That transfers. What you need isn’t mastery of guitar pedagogy by Monday; it’s good materials and a structure that doesn’t depend on you personally demonstrating everything.

Video Lessons built into MakeMusic Cloud bring expert-led instruction into your room for exactly this situation. The specialist teaches technique on screen; you do what you’re actually great at — managing the room, encouraging, connecting. There’s no shame in the move. It’s the same reason ensemble directors bring in clinicians.

Get yourself a head start

Here’s a secret weapon: use the practice tools yourself. Pull up fingering charts, work through beginner material in the catalog, and get Real-Time Assessment feedback on your own playing. After a couple of weeks of ten-minute sessions, you’ll be comfortably ahead of a beginner class on an instrument you’ve never taught. Your students never need to know the platform taught you first.

Structure beats charisma

An elective full of involuntary enrollees needs routine more than inspiration. A reliable weekly shape works wonders:

• Skill day — video lesson + guided practice with real-time feedback
• Repertoire day — students pick from the catalog at their level (choice is your best behavior-management tool)
• Knowledge day — Multiple Choice Assessments for music history, theory, or listening content, graded automatically

That last one matters: not every class needs to be performance-assessed. Multiple-choice assessment lets you run a legitimate content-focused class — and gives students who’ll never love the instrument another way to succeed.

Let the platform handle the differentiation

The kid who’s secretly been playing guitar for three years and the kid who’s never held one are in the same room. Assign by level from the catalog, let Real-Time Assessment give each student individual feedback, and check the Gradebook to see who needs what. One class, many lanes.

The bonus class will never be your ensemble. But with the right structure, it might be the period where a kid who never planned to touch music discovers they like it. That’s kind of the whole job.

Try it free — set up your elective in an afternoon.