11:30am – Finding & Keeping Students Led by Lee Galloway, Beth Gigante Klingenstein, and Scott McBride Smith. This session involved a lot of discussion as a group. Attendees raised their hands to share ideas for finding and keeping students. Here’s a few ideas that I jotted down: On your registration form, ask how the student heard [...]
10:30am – The Creative Curriculum Led by Lee Galloway, Beth Gigante Klingenstein, and Scott McBride Smith. Make a plan for yourself, to focus on (1) continual growth, (2) quality, and (3) innovation. As Peter Drucker once said, “We now accept the fact that learning is a lifelong process of keeping abreast of change. And the most [...]
Here begins my notes from the 2012 MTNA Conference in NYC! I had such a wonderful time, and I learned so much. Saturday is always an optional day at the MTNA Conference. For an extra $75, you can attend Pedagogy Saturday or choose the Professional Studio Institute track. I chose the latter, which was led [...]
Just wanted to show off a picture of my new laminator today… I bought it a couple of weeks ago for $15 at Aldi, believe it or not! At that price, I figured it was worth trying out. I’ve been so happy with it and have been laminating a lot of my games and flashcards. [...]
I recently had a current student refer a new student to me for piano lessons. The best kind of marketing is word-of-mouth, so I am always happy when parents/students are willing to tell others about my services! So I decided to give a little gift as a token of my appreciation: I created this T-shirt [...]
A reader asked if I could share a sample of a studio newsletter, so here’s a few screenshots! Click the thumbnails below to view each page larger: For most newsletters, I also include a list of music events going on in the community. I think it’s great for students and their families to hear [...]
I recently started to do some in-depth planning for the summer camps I plan to offer this summer! My studio policies provide students with two options for the summer months (June-August): Students ages 6-12 may participate in a camp each month plus take 5 lessons scheduled approximately every other week around family vacations, or… Students [...]
Here in Ohio, the winter snow is finally upon us! We were spoiled with an extraordinarily mild December, and only recently have have had a few inches of snow actually staying on the ground for more than a few days without melting. The snowy weather outside means, of course, that the air gets very dry indoors. The [...]
At our last Forum Q&A discussion, we talked about new year’s resolutions for piano teachers! Click here to view the responses. Over the weekend, I received an email from a reader who is preparing to move and must say “goodbye” to all her students. I’d love to start a discusion about piano teachers saying goodbye [...]
I’ve been doing a bit of cleaning and reorganizing in my studio, like putting all those music books that always seem to migrate to the piano top back in their proper place on their shelves. :) I also visited the music store today to pick up new books for some of my students. I’m so [...]
It’s been a while since we had a Forum Q&A! Sometimes I run out of ideas for discussion topics, so if you ever have a question you’d like to see addressed here to get other teachers’ input, please let me know. :) Last time, we discussed the role of the parent in private lessons. We [...]
Thanks to the wonderfully helpful ideas that YOU all submitted in reply to the Forum Q&A last month about advertising, this year for Halloween I am passing out candy that has a note with my studio name and information on it! I created these tags in Microsoft Word and printed them onto cardstock paper. I [...]
Joy is a pianist and teacher in Ohio with great passion for helping students experience the wonders of music making!
