Category Archives: improving as a teacher

Forum Q&A | New Year’s Resolutions for Piano Teachers

By joy (admin) | Published: 3 January 2012

I’ve already blogged a bit about my New Year’s Resolution.  Now it’s your turn! Our previous Q&A Forum brought about a great discussion about whether or not to lesson plan for piano lessons (and if so, how to feasibly do so even if you have a large studio).  Today, let’s start a discussion about what change you’d [...]

Also posted in Forum Q&A's, inspiration, professional development, series | Tagged , , | 8 Comments

Thoughts for the New Year

By joy (admin) | Published: 23 December 2011

The new year always brings about a time of reflection for me.  I find myself thinking back over the past year and looking forward to the future, wondering what the new year might bring. This year was a time of great change for my husband and me.  In May, I graduated with my Master of [...]

Also posted in musings, what I'm up to | Tagged , , , | 9 Comments

Forum Q&A: Lesson Planning for Private Lessons

By joy (admin) | Published: 8 November 2011

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 [...]

Also posted in private lessons, professional development, settings:, studio business | Tagged , , | 12 Comments

9 Tips for Teaching Piano To Young Ages

By joy (admin) | Published: 7 November 2011

As piano teachers, we wear many hats.  School teachers often teach only one age group, or a few age groups.  Piano teachers are usually expected to be able to teach from age 5 to 95!  But as we all know, teaching a 5-year-old is much different from teaching a 15-year-old, or a 55-year-old.  :) In [...]

Also posted in beginners / elementary Level, by student's level, early childhood music, motivation, musings, private lessons, professional development | Tagged , , , | 7 Comments

2011 OhioMTA Conference (4): Piano Pedagogy 101, by Marvin Blickenstaff

By joy (admin) | Published: 18 October 2011

Here’s another session given by the well-loved pedagogue Marvin Blickenstaff from the 2011 OhioMTA Conference: Piano Pedagogy 101: Reviewing the Basics Mr. Blickenstaff introduced this session by commenting that at conferences and workshops, we often hear ideas for teaching intermediate and advanced students, but we don’t very often hear ideas for teaching beginners during that [...]

Also posted in 2011 OhioMTA Conference, beginners / elementary Level, group keyboard classes, studio class / group lessons | Tagged , , , , , | 3 Comments

OhioMTA Conference 2011 (2): Toxic or Terrific Teaching by Nicole Biggs

By joy (admin) | Published: 14 October 2011

The next session at the OhioMTA Conference was given by Dr. Nicole Biggs, the new piano professor at Bowling Green State University in my town: Toxic or Terrific Teaching: Exploring the Strategies that Bring out the Best in our Students Dr. Biggs began by pointing out that our goal as teachers is to inspire and [...]

Also posted in 2011 OhioMTA Conference, private lessons, professional development | Tagged , | 1 Comment

Forum Q&A | The Role of the Parent

By joy (admin) | Published: 4 October 2011

I apologize for being a bit MIA around the blog lately.  I have a couple of projects that I am working on right now for my local MTNA association.  One of them is designing a website.  It’s about half-way done and if you’re interested in taking a sneak peek, you can click here to see [...]

Also posted in private lessons, studio business | Tagged , , | 7 Comments

Tips for a Successful First Studio Recital

By joy (admin) | Published: 25 August 2011

A couple of weeks ago, I received an email from a reader asking advice regarding planning a studio recital for the first time.  For the sake of others who might be in the same situation, I decided to create a whole post about this topic — read on. Q: How do I decide what kind of music to [...]

Also posted in professional development, recitals / performances, settings: | Tagged , , , | 4 Comments

NCKP 2011 | (13) Student-Centered Teaching, by Randall Faber

By joy (admin) | Published: 13 August 2011

I don’t normally post on Saturdays, but I’m so close to having all my conference notes posted that I decided to finish up today with the last one rather than wait until Monday!  Whew, thanks for bearing with me through the long haul!  Lucky for us, the last one is a good one.  :) I’ve [...]

Also posted in 2011 NCKP, conferences, motivation | Tagged , , , | 2 Comments

Studio Marketing: The Studio Newsletter

By joy (admin) | Published: 19 July 2011

You may not immediately see a connection between your studio’s monthly newsletter and marketing…but there is one, I assure you!  Marketing means promoting your studio, which includes keeping current customers of your service satisfied.  One of the keys to keeping customers satisfied is over-delivering: giving more than expected.  Newsletters are one great way to over-deliver.  And so, [...]

Also posted in professional development | Tagged , , , , | 7 Comments
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