Wednesday morning of the conference, I attended a session called “it’s More Than Just Being Nice” by Kathy Strickland, the Washington State Ethics Chair with help from Amy Grinsteiner. Kathy covered a variety of topics about our responsibility as teachers. Here’s some of her points: Treat students with respect. Don’t accept just the talented students. [...]
I’ve had a few requests lately from readers regarding more info about what kind of activities I do with my Homeschool Music Classes and Piano Readiness classes, so I thought it might first be a good idea to first give you a peek into how I lesson plan for group classes. Although I don’t lesson [...]
As big of a fan as I am of Nancy & Randall Faber’s materials for piano students, somehow I’ve never had a chance to try out their “My First Piano Adventure” books — until now. After trying out this book with a new 5-year-old student last week, I am wondering why in the world didn’t [...]
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 [...]
Hello friends, Now that the NCKP Conference posts are all up, it’s time to return to regular posts! Today, we have a new Teacher Feature. Say hello to Irina! Name: Irina Gorin Studio: Gorin Piano Studio in Indiana. Facebook Page: Irina Gorin Piano Studio Please tell us about your piano and/or teaching background! I started piano [...]
As announced last Friday, today marks the beginning of the brand new “Teacher Feature” series, featuring interviews with ordinary teachers like you and I. I’m so excited to be sharing with you today an interview with piano and voice teacher Sara Kimbell from Pennsylvania. Read on! Name: Sara Kimbell Location: Pennsylvania Studio website: www.sarasmusicstudio.com Studio facebook page: Sara’s [...]
Last week’s Forum Q&A post was about saying “no” to potential students, and we received some great responses! Click here to check them out. Here’s today’s discussion topic: Advances in technology over the past few years have changed the way we live in many ways. Online video conferencing services, for example, allow us to chat [...]
Today I have a fun new printable to share!
Every once in a while, I receive emails from readers wondering if their tuition rates are appropriate. Setting rates is a difficult topic to talk about, because for one thing, rate depend largely on the area where you live. For that reason, I can’t advise exact numbers — but with this article I hope to offer some guidelines and suggestions regarding this topic nevertheless.
Reasons why you if you don’t have a written teaching philosophy, you should write one — and if you are using the one you wrote in college, you should consider updating it regularly.
For any fellow teachers in Michigan: The Michigan Music Teachers Association (MMTA) State Conference is to take place Sunday, October 17 – Tuesday, October 19 at the Detroit Novi Sheraton (21111 Haggerty Rd., Novi). Click here to for more information (including a link to the conference schedule), and click here to register. Martha Hilley is this [...]
Joy is a pianist and teacher in Ohio with great passion for helping students experience the wonders of music making!
