One of my goals as a teacher is for my students to discover how to express themselves through their music. Whether this means improvising their own music, or bringing their own interpretation to a piece I’ve assigned them, as long as they are engaged with the music rather than the clock I usually feel the lesson has been a success. Of course the trick is to squeeze all of the finger technique, sightreading, rhythm studies and music theory into the 1/2 hour session and still leave time for musicmaking.
In this video, Australian pianist, teacher and blogger, Elissa Milne, describes the piece, Quick as a Flash, by Jane Sebba, from the Piano Magic Tutor Books, and has gotten me all jazzed up for teaching this week. I love the idea of taking a piece, rearranging the measures, switching tempo and meter, and coming up with an “original” composition. This same type of pianistic creativity is taught through the P Plate Piano Series.
In the meantime you can find more information about the P Plate Piano series and Elissa Milne’s teaching strategies here and here.
AllPiano 
Yes, squeezing everything in for that half hour session is hard. I think an hour is best, but with most teachers billing by half hour increments I think a lot of parents will take the half hour thinking they can learn as much as they would in an hour.