Teacher Appreciation Week :)

I don't know if this is just something that is celebrated in the US or not, but this week was Teacher Appreciation Week. While it's mostly for school teachers, some of my students always extend their appreciation to me as well with small gifts and tokens to show their thanks.

To me, it's always about more than the gift that's given, it's about the fact that my students took the time to think about thanking me for being their teacher, giving recognition to the time and effort that I put into making sure that I am the best teacher possible.

And on weeks like this, I'm always reminded of the fact that I need to be more vocal in expressing my appreciation for others. One little kind word or action can go a long way in brightening someone's day!

Did any of you have students who gave you special gifts for Teacher Appreciation Week? Or have any of your students done anything extra nice for you recently?

I Know I'm Late...

Students and parents come up with some pretty interesting excuses for not being on time to their lessons. I'm sure we all have our share of stories! :) But what happened at one of my lessons last night was just too cute not to share.

A mother and daughter showed up about 10 minutes late for their lesson. Their excuse? The mom says:

"I couldn't get her to stop practicing!"

You can't be too upset with that kind of excuse, can you?! And especially since this was coming from a student who had been a real complainer about practicing until we tried something new this term. She's improved tremendously in both attitude and practice this term, and I'm so proud of her!

What interesting excuses have your students come up with recently to excuse late arrivals? ;)

Question of the Week: April 30, 2012 - Preparing Parents for Recital Events

Good morning! My studio recital is coming up in just about three weeks, and I know that many other teachers have May recitals as well.

Last Friday, I posted about my frustration over getting parents onto the recital bandwagon. I wanted to continue the discussion this week by opening up the floor for other teachers to share what they do in the weeks prior to a recital to make sure that parents know what's going on. After reading some of the comments from my last post, I am doing some specific things this week to make sure that parents and students are prepared and have the best recital experience possible.

I'll share those ideas at the end of the week, but for now, I want to hear from you!  

What do you do to help make communication more effective? How do you prepare both parents and students for the upcoming recital date?  

I'd love to hear feedback from seasoned teachers who may have some tried and true methods to share!

Disconnect

As a teacher, I am constantly amazed at how infrequently my students' parents actually pay attention. I struggle with this in my studio particularly where dates are concerned. It seems that no matter what I do, there is some kind of a disconnect between the information I provide and what parents remember.

At the beginning of each term, I send out registration forms. The form has the entire term's calendar at the bottom, with a note to KEEP the calendar and make note of the dates. Ninety-five percent of my parents return the entire form.

In the first newsletter of each term, I also include the entire term's calendar and ask the parents again to make note of pertinent dates.

In spite of these attempts to get everyone on the same page, every term I have to remind families again and again of the upcoming important dates. And even now, with the recital just 3 weeks away, I'm still getting parents asking me about the recital date.

I'm curious. Do other teachers out there struggle with communicating dates to parents? Do you also feel like there is often a disconnect between what you communicate and what parents actually assimilate? Have you found any effective measures to overcome the disconnect? If so, I'd LOVE your advice!

Finger Number Flashcards for the Beginning Student

I started 2 new students this past week, which inspired me to make these flashcards to help them learn their finger numbers. It seems like every student has their own personal challenges and I try to cater to those specific needs and help them overcome those challenges. These particular students were having a bit of trouble remembering their finger numbers.

The cards are very simple and can be used for a matching game, or just to drill finger numbers during lesson time. There are 2 types of cards, with a set for RH and LH. One set that shows a hand with a finger number in the middle:

and another set with an arrow pointing to the different fingers:

These flashcards are available on my printables page under the flashcard section. Please feel free to print them and use them with your own students!

Friday Happy Dance

It's been a great week in my studio! I am so blessed with the students God has given me to teach, and while there are definitely good weeks and bad weeks, I can say without a doubt that I feel blessed to be a teacher. :)

Here are some of the reasons I'm doing a little happy dance this Friday afternoon:

1. I started 2 new students this week, and I can already tell that they are going to be wonderful additions to my studio!

2. I saw a positive response to a "you need to buckle down" conversation I had with a student last week. She came back this week and the difference was obvious- I was so proud of her for putting in the effort!

3. A student who's always been wishy-washy about practice is experiencing a practice revolution and exhibiting a much better attitude toward practice over the week.

4. Several students who are being diligent in memory work and asking about the upcoming recital because they're excited about performing!

5. Hearing about a performance given by one of my students at a Good Friday service at church (a student who is normally very shy about performing and has never been super enthusiastic about music/lessons in general).

6. Several encouraging messages from parents.

This was just what I needed to get back into the swing of things after our studio spring break! Have you felt especially blessed by certain students/parents recently?

Easter Group Lesson Fun

Yesterday afternoon I held an Easter-themed group lesson for my early elementary piano students. Even though this is my break week from normal lessons, I'd had several students inquire about group lessons, so a few weeks back I decided to schedule a special group class for the younger ones.

I had a blast, and I hope they did too. Unfortunately, I kind of forgot to take pictures once we got past the first activity...but here's the one picture I did take!

As the students arrived, we did some fun Easter worksheets from Susan Paradis' blog. I also had paper goodie bags that each student decorated. They were much more excited about decorating their goodie bags! ;)

Once everyone had arrived and had mostly finished their worksheets, we divided into 2 teams (The Dolphins and The Chocolate Bunnies) and headed outside for our first game: an Easter Egg Scavenger Hunt. I used this wonderful game from The Plucky Pianista. I gave each team the scavenger hunt sheet, and they had to search the yard for hidden eggs and find the terms. Not all of the eggs had terms inside. Some of the eggs were empty, and some had just candy. Both teams came very close to winning- but when the time was up The Chocolate Bunnies won by 1 term!

Our next game involved the rhythm eggs I posted about last week. We played a relay race. Each team had 10 eggs to sort into either a 3/4 or a 4/4 basket on the opposite side of the yard. They had to take an egg and hop like bunnies across the yard to place the egg in the correct basket. The Dolphins won this game.

Back inside, we took a break from all the games and had our performance time. I had the students write the names of their songs on index cards and place them in an Easter basket. I chose the first card, and then the student that played chose the next card and so on. While each student played, the student who had their card wrote 1 nice thing about their performance on the back of the card.

Then it was time for our final game: Pass the Easter Basket. My students did a great job defining the terms- though they found out that sometimes it's not as easy to figure out how to describe a theory term as one would think! ;) We ended up with a tie in this game.

Our final activity was a listening activity using Handel's Hallelujah Chorus. As we listened, the students drew pictures. It was fun to see the different interpretations. Some drew pictures of instruments, and one student drew a concert hall complete with singers, an orchestra, dancers, and a chandelier!

All in all, it was a fun and successful afternoon! Have you been planning any special Easter group activities with your students?

Pass the Easter Basket: Group Lesson Terminology Game

This is another game I'll be playing with my beginner group lesson next week. It's just like hot potato, except you pass around a basket filled with cards. When the music stops, the student holding the basket has to choose and define a term.

For more instructions and the free printable, just look under the games section of the printables tab.

Easter Egg Rhythm Sorting Game

I'm planning a special group lesson over Easter Break week for my beginning students and in preparation I'm coming up with a few easy games that will help them review basic concepts.

This simple game helps students recognize and distinguish between 3/4 and 4/4/ time.

There are 4 pages of 'rhythm eggs', plus a blank page if you want to make up some more of your own. Simply print and cut out the eggs. Then get 2 baskets and designate 1 basket for the 3/4 eggs and 1 for the 4/4 eggs. The student must look at the card and decide which basket to place the egg into. You can do this activity individually in lessons, or as a fun group activity with 2 teams competing to see which team can get all their eggs sorted first.

You can view and print the game by going to the printables tab under "Games". Hope you enjoy this game with your students!

Celebrating a Breakthrough!

Teaching can be a frustrating business. Sometimes it seems that no matter what we do as teachers, a student reaches a point where they give up. I've had my share of experiences like that over the years, but I've also experienced some real successes with students, and I try to dwell on those positive experiences more than the negative.

I have a student who has been taking for about 2 years. When she first started lessons she was super enthusiastic and practiced with diligence every week. She was a fast learner and ate up her music.

Then something happened last fall. We really started having problems. She started hating practice, was having trouble remembering even the most basic music concepts, and was considering quitting piano. Thankfully, her mom was not willing to let her give up so easily, so we came up with a plan that I implemented this spring.

We scaled WAY back in lesson material, moving back to My First Piano Adventures to re-learn notes and review interval reading. I was a little worried that this would not go over well, but it's been a fabulous decision! The student LOVES the book and the songs, and her mom is playing along with her each week using the duet parts. I've seen a dramatic increase in her reading skills.

To help keep things interesting, we're also working on several pieces that are a bit more at her level so that she feels like she's working on something besides just the basics. But every week I try to apply what we're working on in the MFPA to the other pieces, and she's making the connections.

The biggest surprise was yesterday when she showed up for her lesson with 5 days of practice and over 100 minutes logged for the week! That hasn't happened in probably about a year- we'd gotten to the point where getting her to practice was like pulling teeth. But this new approach has made all the difference in the world. She has started enjoying practice again and looks forward to her lessons.

Have you ever experienced a breakthrough like this, where a student is just about ready to give up but you're able to develop a plan that helps them re-discover their love for music? It takes a little bit of extra effort, but it's SO worth it when you see their passion for music rekindled!

Growing as a Church Musician

I am reminded of this pretty much every week: if you want to succeed as a church musician without completely losing your sanity you have to learn to be flexible! It's really not about perfection, but about how well you are able to roll with the punches and deal with whatever is thrown your way.

Every year, our church collaborates with another local church for 2 consecutive Sundays. The first Sunday, our adult and bell choirs travel to their church to join them, while the following Sunday they join us at our church. It's always a wonderful experience as we get 2 Sundays packed full of music!

This year, as a member of the bell choir, I was secretly looking forward to a 'morning off' from my responsibilities as church pianist as we were traveling to the sister church where their church pianist would be taking care of accompanying the choirs and performing all the service music. I was also excited about the opportunity about actually singing with the choir instead of accompanying them!

Think again.

When we arrived, I was approached by the church pianist, who asked me if I'd be willing to finish up the service as he needed to leave early that day. I was still able to play bells and sing with the choir, but I also played all the music for the latter half of the service. So instead of a morning off, I ended up doing more than my usual weekly musical responsibilities.

But you know what the neatest thing was? The fact that I didn't mind being asked to take on those extra responsibilities! And the fact that I wasn't nervous about them either! A year or 2 ago, if I had been asked to fill in in that capacity, I would have felt extremely nervous about the last minute preparations, and it probably would have ruined my entire morning. But as I grow as a musician and especially in my experience as a church musician, I'm learning to keep my cool and be available and flexible in whatever task I'm asked to perform.

It's exciting to look back and see how I've matured in my almost 5 years as a church musician! If you are a church musician, what are some of the ways that you have grown over the years?

I get such a kick out of the way my students 're-define' musical terms from time to time!

Yesterday, I was working with a student on a piece that ended with a repeated pattern ascending by octaves each measure. As we looked at the section and he played through it, I asked him if he could help me describe the movement from one measure to the next. After a few seconds of intense thought, he turned and with a huge smile blurted out:

"A cocktail!"

After I explained that the term was actually octave, not cocktail, we went on with the lesson, but every time an octave appeared from then on, he'd get a mischievous look in his eyes and mention the "cocktail."

What's the silliest thing your students have come up with lately?!

Called to Authenticity

I was inspired by this quote in a book I'm currently reading:

"In what ways are you allowing the next generation to see authenticity in your life?...Do you realize that your walk with God could affect many future generations?" ~Beth Moore, "Breaking Free"

As a Christian, I see my role as teacher as so much more than that! I'm a teacher, yes, but I'm also an ambassador of the Gospel, and a witness to Christ in every lesson that I teach.

Does God come up in every lesson I teach? Of course not, but my actions can speak just as loudly as my words! I want my students to see the attitude and actions of Christ in my life in the way that I relate them on a weekly basis.

I've been challenged by these words to take my call to authenticity more seriously as I plan for my lessons, and look for ways to witness to my students every day! By being faithful and planting the seeds, who knows what kind of a harvest God will reap in the lives of my students?

Shamrock Interval Builder Cards

We still have 1 week left to our February Valentine Note Challenge, but I'm already planning ahead for the month of March when we'll be working on emphasizing intervals.

I've got several ideas for some fun activities to help my students become better interval readers, and here's a look at the first one. I designed some basic interval drill cards that we'll be playing with over the next few weeks. The cards drill basic intervals of steps and skips, then 2nds all the way up to 7ths.

I'll be printing these out and building intervals with my student using my note gemstones. Here's how I plan to use the cards:

Step 1: Decide which intervals to drill depending on the students' level and/or intervals that might need a little extra work(beginners might just use the step and skip cards).

Step 2: Start by having the student pick a stone and place it on the left leaf.

Step 3: Have the student quickly 'complete' the clover by choosing the correct gemstone for the interval specified

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The cards are available on my Printables page under "Flashcards". Any other ideas on how these cards could be used? What fun St. Patrick's Day activities are you planning in your studio?

Valentine Note Challenge Update

My beginning students are halfway through the monthly Valentine note challenge, and they are all loving it! This week, every student earned more hearts than the last, and several students came into their lessons asking when they were going to play the "note game"!

Here's a look at our chart so far:

As you can see, it's going to be a close race! I'm really excited about how seriously all my beginner students (even those who aren't my best practicers) are taking the challenge.

Have you been using any special themed incentives for the month of February? How's it going so far?

Words That Warm the Heart

I don't think that many of my students realize it: the power they have to make or break my day. I try not to let them have that kind of power over me, but as a teacher, I want so desperately to be an effective, inspiring, excellent teacher and I often let the reactions and comments of my students determine whether I've succeeded at that or not. Can any other teachers identify?

How do you feel when you ask a student to play through a certain passage again, only to sense their resistance to your suggestion through body language or even a spoken comment. Does your sense of worth sink when a student asks "How much time do we have left?" in that hopeful tone that suggests they'd rather be anywhere than on the bench, or react to the end of the lesson with a comment like, "Oh, good!" or "Yay!"

I've experienced these, and many more scenarios that, if I allow them, make me feel like an ineffective, uninspiring teacher. Words can hurt. Children often lack that sense of tactfulness that makes those of us who are more 'mature' think before we speak. The results, as I'm sure you know, can be some pretty honest comments! ;)

But if that's true for the negatives, it's also true for the positives. There's nothing like the smile that breaks over a student's face when they finally experience success over a tricky passage in their music. It's hard to beat the excitement and enthusiasm of an especially hard worker who comes to a lesson barely able to contain the excitement to share what he's learned that week. The little smiles and giggles that break out when we're goofing off a bit during lessons bring a sense of warmth and joy to my heart that make all the negative comments easier to bear. Like yesterday evening, when a student commented in the middle of the lesson, "You're fun!" After a long afternoon/evening of lessons, that comment had the power to give me the extra boost of energy I needed to finish out on a positive note.

There will be days of disappointment in any job, but, in my mind, the rewards of being a teacher and hearing those little words that warm the heart make it all so worthwhile!

Have you experienced encouragement from your students recently?

Are You a Martha Stewart Fan?

I have to admit...I am :) I receive Martha Stewart Living and Whole Living and love all the ideas on organizing, decorating and space management (I'm kind of obsessed with organizing- just ask my husband ;) ).

Anyway, the facts that I like Martha Stewart AND organizing made me really excited when I received an email from Staples about their new line: Martha Stewart Home Office! I was there in an instant, taking a look at all the great products available. If you're interested, you can follow this link for more information.

Something else the email from Staples contained was notification of a Martha Stewart Daily Giveaway for February: one different item each day from her new line! I've been entering every day in hopes that I might win something. Follow this link if you're interested in entering.

While we're on the topic of organization, is there anything you've done in your studio for 2012 that's worth sharing about!?

Latest Addition to the Home Studio

Look what's been going on in my studio this week:

I finally got a Piano Life Saver System installed on my piano! I've been wanting to do this ever since I purchased my new piano over a year ago, but the piano purchase was enough of an expense that I needed to wait for a time to save up for the system.

Finally, with the help of a little Christmas money, I was able to schedule an install of this system. I am thrilled that it's finally installed and running. There were a few hiccups in getting the system set up, involving drilling holes in my piano so that the tubing could fit:

but I know that this will really help extend the life of my instrument. Maryland is famous for it's hot, humid summers, and we don't run our air-conditioning system all that often, so I really wanted to be as proactive as possible in protecting my piano.

Have you taken steps to get a similar system on your instrument? Do you think that this is a good investment? I'd love to hear your opinions!

Loving Those Studio Surprises!

I absolutely LOVE it when my students surprise me with little tidbits from their week. Sometimes it will be a song they composed, other times they'll share about something they learned in music class at school, other times it will be a project that they undertook just to surprise me- their teacher!

I had one such surprise yesterday evening when a student proudly showed me this transcription of a song I'd taught him by rote.

While practicing the song over the week, he decided to try and see if he could write it out! I'll confess that it took me a bit to decipher his transcription, but I was really pleased to see that even though all the rhythms weren't correct, he had all the notes in the correct places. He had even gone one step further in the creative process and added a special ending onto the piece!

What 'surprises' have your students brought to their lessons recently?!

February Activity: Valentine Note Challenge

I'm starting lessons off this month with a fun note challenge! Over the month of February, students will be seeing how many hearts they can earn.

I'm using Susan Paradis's cute Valentine Notes worksheet as well as her Steal a Heart cards for the challenge. Each student is timed for one minute. As I show them one of the heart cards they have to:

1. Name the note
2. Play the note
3. Place a candy piece on the correct note on the Valentine Note sheet

After the minute is up, we count up how many candies they've earned, and they draw the correct number of hearts on this simple chart I created. They also get to keep the candy!

As you can see on the chart, we'll be tracking all through February, and the student who gets the most hearts will get a special prize. Not to mention candy every week!

What kinds of fun seasonal activities are you doing for February?!