Category: Announcements

Announcements, Technology

Presentation on iPad Apps for ToledoPTA

Joy Morin

This morning, I gave a presentation for our Toledo Piano Teachers Association meeting.  TPTA is a small, very friendly group of teachers who are interested in learning new things.  We meet once a month and generally we take turns giving the programs — although occasionally we bring in outside guest speakers.

My topic was “iPad Apps for Piano Teachers.”  I began with some important introductory comments about responsible incorporation of technology into education, and then I launched into some of my favorite apps and what roles they play in the education process.  Most of the apps I talked about are ones that I have reviewed before here on my blog.

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It was a fun morning!  I always look forward to our monthly TPTA meetings.

Tech specs, for those interested: I used a $13 piece of software called Reflector to turn my MacBook into an AirPlay receiver.  My MacBook was connected to my projector using HDMI. (There are simpler ways to connect an iPad to a projector, but this was the cheapest/easiest way for me at the moment.)  Using AirPlay from my iPad means that I could walk around wirelessly with my iPad, which was nice.  AirPlay/Reflector requires that both the Macbook and the iPad be connected to the same network and I didn’t have internet access at the church, so I brought along my AirPort Express to create a non-Wifi network.  This kind of network is actually much more reliable than a Wifi network is, so that was a bonus.  I had to haul along a lot of stuff with me to make this all happen, but fortunately it worked pretty smoothly!

I’ve added this iPad presentation to my list of workshops on my personal website.  My next scheduled presentation will be during the Young Professionals Track on Pedagogy Saturday of the 2015 MTNA National Conference in Las Vegas next month.  My topic: “Harnessing the Power of the Internet: Blogging and Social Media for the Musician.” Maybe I’ll see some of you there!

Announcements

A Few Updates

Joy Morin

Don’t forget — today is the last day to enter the giveaway for hardcopies of my Holiday Parade elementary level solo with teacher duet!  Click here.

I also wanted to let you know that I’ve been gradually adding more recommendations to my list of piano duets for sight-reading.  Check out this popular post from last year here.

Another old post I’ve been updating is from 2010: Over 20 Musical Spins on Favorite Games.  There are links to Diatonic Dominoes, a new version of Musical Sorry, and more.

Announcements

Winter Course Offering: Intro to Piano Teaching

Joy Morin

PIANO TEACHER INSTITUTE - join email list

I just sent out an email today to my mailing list for the Piano Teacher Institute online courses.  Below are the details to announce that I am preparing another session of the “Intro To Piano Teaching” course.  The dates for this online course will be January 5 through February 16.

This 6-week course is intended for piano teachers seeking to learn more about business topics, piano methods, pedagogy, and much more.  The ideal registrant is an individual with the willingness to spend at least 4-5 hours each week reading/studying the weekly topics and interacting with other registrants in forums and videochat discussions.  This highly intensive course is the perfect crash course for the new piano teacher or a great refresher for the experienced piano teacher.

Here are the weekly topics covered during the course:

  1. Business Sense — business structures, bookkeeping, taxes, marketing, and more. 
  2. On Teaching and Learning — teaching objectives, learning styles, and developmental stages. 
  3. Developing Music Literacy in Students — music literacy, music education philosophies, a history and overview of current piano methods. 
  4. Piano Technique for Beginners — developing posture, hand shape, fingering, pedaling, and more. 
  5. Finding and Choosing Repertoire — leveling, publishers, anthologies, editions and more. 
  6. Lesson/Curriculum Planning — leading the lesson, making assignment sheets, effective practicing, and planning long-term for students.

You can learn more about the course and read testimonials by visiting institute.joymorin.com.

Registration will open on Monday, December 15 at 9am Eastern time, one week from today.  Registration will automatically close after the first ten teachers have registered.  Registration usually fills within 24 hours, so if you are determined to take the course I would advise that you mark your calendar and be timely about watching the registration page.

After the Winter 2015 offering, I anticipate that the next course offering will occur Summer 2015.

Thanks for your interest, friends!

Announcements

Studio Project: Musical Christmas Paper Chain

Joy Morin

I love Christmastime for many reasons.

As a piano teacher, I love that it gives students the opportunity to play a variety of familiar tunes.  Playing tunes that are already in their ears really helps build their music reading skills.

I keep a lending library of Christmas books and loan them out to students each year.  I give students a book that is at or slightly below their current playing level so that they can quickly and easily learn a few selections from their book.

This year, I added a new tradition: When students complete a piece, they get to sign their autograph and write “2014” in the Christmas book.  It will be fun for students to see the names of students who learned the pieces in previous years.

Last year, we started a different tradition: a studio-wide project to build a paper chain to decorate the studio.  The idea is that when a student learns a Christmas piece, they get to add a paper strip to the chain.  It is a fun collaborative, inclusive project that allows the entire studio to participate.

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[Credit: I gained both of these ideas from a Facebook forum for piano teachers.]

This year, I created this simple PDF sign to explain the project.

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Feel free to download this PDF on the Printables > Other Resources page (near the M’s as “Musical Christmas Chain project.”), or here:

  Musical Christmas Chain Project (155.5 KiB, 4,822 hits)

Learning all those Christmas pieces during December will be useful for the January Piano Party, when students will each perform a holiday piece.  As students perform for each other, we will play “Name That Tune.”  Students keep track of their guesses on this worksheet and mark the stars for each correct answer at the end.

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Click here to read more about the January Piano Party from 2013.

You can download the Name-That-Tune worksheet by visiting the Printables > Games page and scrolling down to “Name-That-Tune – Christmas Edition”, or here:

  Name-That-Tune - Christmas Edition (45.6 KiB, 6,351 hits)

I hope you and your students are enjoying the holiday season!

Announcements

Visit to the Cleveland Piano Teachers Organization

Joy Morin

On Friday, I drove to the Cleveland area to speak for a meeting of the Cleveland Piano Teachers Organization.  It was just an hour-and-a-half drive and the roads were clear of any snow until I neared Cleveland.  I presented my “Albums for the Young: A History and Overview of the Genre” program, sharing the history of children’s music and some well-known and lesser-known teaching gems.

IMG_2016 Continue reading “Visit to the Cleveland Piano Teachers Organization” →

Announcements

Thrifty Find: Piano-side Table

Joy Morin

Since moving in June, I’ve been gradually getting my studio organized and arranged to my liking.  It is a process!

I love having a tabletop surface nearby when I am teaching.  I’ve been using a TV tray table for this purpose temporarily, with the hope that I would eventually find something that better suits the rest of the room:

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I finally found that special “something”…!

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It is an old typewriter stand.  I found it at a furniture consignment shop for $60.   Continue reading “Thrifty Find: Piano-side Table” →

Announcements, Conferences

Upcoming Programs in Ohio and Beyond

Joy Morin

ohio mta logoSome months back, I submitted a proposal to speak at the Ohio Music Teachers Association (affiliated with MTNA) 2014 state conference.  I was thrill to learn it was accepted!  

If you live in Ohio, you may want to consider attending this conference even if you are not a member of OhioMTA / MTNA.  This year, it is being held in Wilmington College on October 16-18, 2014.  The main speakers will be Louis Nagel and Julie Jaffee Nagel.  It’s going to be a great conference!  Learn more here. 

Here is the info about my session:

Albums for the Young: A History & Overview of the Genre

Influenced by the emergence of children’s literature in the 18th century, Robert Schumann composed the groundbreaking Album for the Young Op. 68, a set of piano pieces intended for children to play. This presentation will discuss the circumstances that influenced Schumann to publish his Album for the Young and the extent of his influence on later composers who composed in this new genre. Attendees will hear samples from well-known and little-known collections of music for children and will receive a handout with a list of Albums for the Young by various composers.

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On November 14, I will be giving the same session for the Cleveland Piano Teachers’ Organization.  CPTO is an independent association that sponsors monthly meetings and other events for the benefit of the member teachers and their students.

CPTO has let me know that they welcome non-member teachers to attend their meetings as guests if desired — they only ask for a $10 donation to help defray the cost of sponsoring the meetings.  If you want to learn more about attending as a guest, please contact me and I will connect you with the folks behind CPTO.  I would be thrilled to see you there!

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One more piece of news: I was recently asked to give a presentation during the the 2015 MTNA National Conference in Las Vegas!   The conference runs March 21-25.  My session is part of the “Young Professionals Track” on Pedagogy Saturday (which is the best day of the conference, IMO, albeit optional).  Here is the title and 35-word description of my session:

Harnessing the Power of the Internet: Blogging and Social Media for the Musician

Joy Morin shares her story about starting a blog at ColorInMyPiano.com. Learn how you can harness the power of the internet to promote connection, interaction, and engagement for your cause.

I would be thrilled to see you at any of these events!  Please let me know if you will be there because I would love to meet you afterwards.

Looking for programs for your local association?  Learn more about my workshops on my personal website here.

Announcements

New Studio Room Set-Up

Joy Morin

As promised, I have a few photos to share of my studio room with the piano moved in!  (Previous post: Piano Studio Room Transformation)

But first, here are a few scary photos of my piano being moved.  🙂

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Moving the piano out of the old house was a relatively simple process, but getting it into the new house was interesting.  The piano movers decided the piano would not make it around the bend in the front entryway of the house, so we went around to the back of the house.  The piano BARELY fit under the deck’s gutter system, but it made it!

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I still need to shop for curtains, as well as a rug and chairs for the waiting room area (in front of the fireplace).  I’m using the chairs you see below until I have the time to shop for something else.

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I bought my rug from Menard’s and the desk and bookcases are from IKEA.  I LOVE how everything looks so far!  This room turned out far better than I expected.  It is amazing what a little paint and elbow grease can do.

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We still have plenty of boxes to unpack in the garage, but at least my studio looks put-together!  🙂

Announcements

Piano Studio Room Transformation

Joy Morin

The last two weeks have been such a blur!  My husband and I are fully moved into our new home and have begun the process of unpacking and getting settled.  Last weekend, our priority was getting the piano studio room painted because my piano was scheduled to get professionally moved yesterday.  Here are some photos of the room’s transformation!

In my last blog post, I shared a couple of photos of the room, but here are a few more BEFORE shots for comparison. When you enter the front door, you can take the stairway downstairs that leads straight to the piano studio room.

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Announcements, Studio Business

Moving Adventures

Joy Morin

My husband and I have been happily renting this house for the past three years:

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This Spring, we decided we were interested in buying our own house.  We were pre-approved for a mortgage and started shopping.

Finding a house with a good space for my studio was a priority.  We found a great house in Perrysburg, Ohio, which is 20 minutes north of where we currently live.  It is not as charming on the outside as the rental house, but we hope to be able to increase the curb appeal.

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Continue reading “Moving Adventures” →

Announcements, Professional Development

Piano Teacher Institute Update

Joy Morin

2Since last week’s announcement, I have been spending every spare moment of my time writing the course material to be able to offer a six-week course this summer.  It is challenging work, but I’m having a blast.  I’m happy to announce that the Week 1 coursework is complete and Week 2 is nearly complete.

As I’ve been writing, I have also been revising the schedule of topics somewhat.  It is bound to change again as I continue writing, but here is how it currently looks:

  1. Business Sense — business structures, bookkeeping, taxes, marketing, and more.
  2. On Teaching and Learning — teaching objectives, learning styles, and developmental stages.
  3. Developing Music Literacy in Students — music literacy, music education philosophies, a history and overview of current piano methods.
  4. Piano Technique for Beginners — developing posture, hand shape, fingering, pedaling, and more.
  5. Finding and Choosing Repertoire — leveling, publishers, anthologies, editions and more.
  6. Lesson/Curriculum Planning — leading the lesson, making assignment sheets, effective practicing, and planning long-term for students.

I have received a lot of interest and feedback (thanks so much!), and the email list is still growing.  Allow me to answer a couple of questions that I have received:

> > > Why is registration limited to 10 people?  

As much as possible, I want this course to feel like an in-person group class — except better.  I know that I could certainly utilize a webinar format for the course, which would allow me to reach many more people at once.  However, I’m not interested in big.  I want to keep things small.  I want to be able to get-to-know each person who takes the course and work closely with them as they make their way through the material.  I want to be able to give detailed feedback on the assignments/projects and be able to have great small-group discussions.  Visit the institute.joymorin.com to learn more about the class format.

So, the first offering of this course will be open to the first 10 teachers who register.  I definitely plan to offer the course again in the Fall, and I will definitely re-evaluate at that time to decide whether 10 is still a good number.  (Registration will open sometime in May.  The cost has not yet been set.)

> > > Would you consider offering separate, per-topic courses?  

I am writing the course in such a way that the six weekly topics are co-dependent and flow into each other.  I do not plan to break-up these six topics, although that certainly does not mean that there will not be certain topics in the future that I could potentially offer as a stand-alone course.  We will see how things progress from here!

Thanks for your support, friends, during this new project!  Let me know if you have other questions I can answer.