Category: Professional Development

improving as a teacher, Professional Development, Teaching Piano

My Assignment Notebook Method

Joy Morin

Last Thursday, we started a Forum Q&A discussion about assignment notebooks/pages for students.  Today, I thought I’d share my own method of tracking assignments — and, of course, also announce the winner of the giveaway!

The winner of the sheet music decorative balls is commenter #5… LaDona!  Congrats!!  (By the way, if you haven’t seen LaDona’s wonderful blog before, you can check it out here.)

My method of tracking assignments is very similar to what many of you do: I write in a journal-sized notebook.

I always start with the date and then I outline any warmup/technique exercises (5-finger patterns, arpeggios, scales, etc).  The photos in this post show a made-up but typical assignment page:  Continue reading “My Assignment Notebook Method” →

Giveaways, improving as a teacher, Professional Development, Questions

Forum Q&A: Assignment Notebook/Pages for Students

Joy Morin

Today’s post brings a new Forum Q&A topic, and another GIVEAWAY!

Our last Forum Q&A discussion was about perfectionism.  It’s never too late to add your thoughts to the comments, so feel free to hop over there and join in the conversation!  I plan to follow up with an article on perfectionism to discuss this topic further at some point, but haven’t gotten to it yet!  So many ideas, so little time…  🙂

Today’s new Q&A topic is about assignment notebooks.  I’m curious –

What is your method of writing down assignments for students?  Do you use a notebook (if so, any particular size/type?) or do you have a custom-made sheet you designed on the computer?  What kinds of things are usually included on a typical assignment? 

Today’s giveaway is a pair of decorative balls, decoupaged by hand with vintage sheet music: Continue reading “Forum Q&A: Assignment Notebook/Pages for Students” →

improving as a teacher, Professional Development, Questions

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

Joy Morin

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 like to make in your teaching this year!  I think it’s important as teachers to continually be making little changes and looking for ways to improve our teaching.  It not only makes us better teachers, but it also helps keep things fresh for our students as well as ourselves.  🙂

So, tell us:

  • As a piano teacher, what would you like to START doing this year?
  • What would you like to STOP doing this year?
  • What would you like to KEEP doing this year?

Comment away!

Professional Development, Studio Business

Semester Planning & Organization

Joy Morin

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 happy to have a music store in my area again.  In the town where we were living back in Michigan, there was no music store within an hour’s drive.  I won’t take it for granted again, and will do my best to purchase music books from them instead of ordering online!  Maybe I can help keep them in business.  😉

With the arrival of the new year, it’s also time to plan ahead for the student events that springtime inevitably brings!  I’ve been using my Studio Planning Calendar (pdf is available for download on the Printables > Studio Business page) to plan for upcoming festival and event dates held by the music associations in my area.  I’m excited about all the different opportunities there are for my students to participate in, and I’d like to send at least a couple of students to each event.  I also have a few students that I might enter in The Achievement Program for assessment in May, provided they are interested.

How is the New Year going for you?  🙂

improving as a teacher, Professional Development, Studio Business, Teaching Piano

Forum Q&A: Lesson Planning for Private Lessons

Joy Morin

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 received some well-thought responses, so thanks for that!  Click here to read them, and remember, it’s never too late to add your thoughts.

Here’s today’s discussion topic: Lesson planning!  Here’s a few questions to get you thinking:

Do you create lesson plans for the private piano lessons you teach?  Why or why not?  If you do create lesson plans, what is your process?  How much time do you spend lesson planning each week?  Is your method feasible for even if you full studio of say, 20+ students? 

Although I’ve been teaching privately for over 6 years now, I still don’t feel I have a good system for lesson planning.  Fortunately, I have a pretty good memory for knowing where in their books my students are at any given time.  However, I have a feeling that eventually if I get over 20 students to keep track of, this would be become much more difficult.  I need to keep better records so I can be more effective in preparing to introduce new concepts to my students before the method book does!  I’d love to hear any thoughts you have on this topic.  🙂

Photo Credit: Bright Meadow | CC 2.0

Early Childhood Music, improving as a teacher, Professional Development, Teaching Piano

9 Tips for Teaching Piano To Young Ages

Joy Morin

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 recently thinking about this challenge of being able to effectively teach various age levels and maturities, I decided to make a list of some of the things I’ve learned over the past few years about teaching young ages — I’m thinking, ages 6 and under.  I learned some of these things from an Early Childhood Music course I took during grad school and various piano pedagogy courses — but I learned many of these things purely from experience.  Here goes:

  1. Don’t ask questions that you don’t really want answers to.  Examples: “Did you like that?” or “Do you want to try it on your own now?”  Sometimes if given the option to opt out of something, children will say “no” simply because you’ve given them a choice.  🙂  It’s better to make statements.
  2. Give them time to think.  When you ask a question, wait for them to process and compose a response.  Sometimes we ask questions and then blow right on without getting an answer.  Young children need this think time.  If you don’t really want to wait for an answer, then don’t ask the question in the first place.  Continue reading “9 Tips for Teaching Piano To Young Ages” →
Conferences, improving as a teacher, Professional Development, Teaching Piano

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

Joy Morin

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 motivate our students in such a way that they can go on independently without us.  Our goal in effect is to teach ourselves out of a job.

A potential problem for some of us as teachers is that we may unintentionally emulate the teaching models we experienced, whether good or bad.  It’s a challenge, but if we perhaps experienced “toxic teaching” during our own studies, we need to find ways to ensure these teaching strategies don’t filter into our own teaching.  We need to transform any toxic teaching strategies into terrific teaching strategies.   Continue reading “OhioMTA Conference 2011 (2): Toxic or Terrific Teaching by Nicole Biggs” →

Professional Development, Questions, Studio Business, Teaching Piano

Forum Q&A | Safety Practices for Traveling Teachers

Joy Morin

Wow, last week’s Forum Q&A received some great responses about advertising!  Thank you, and be sure to read what everyone had to say by clicking here!  As always, it’s never to late to add  your thoughts to the discussion.

A few days ago, I received an email from a Color In My Piano reader with this question:

When traveling to a new students’ homes, how can you screen students before agreeing to teach them?  What kind of safety precautions can be taken before going to a stranger’s house (especially an adult student)?  If they sound questionable on the phone, is there a way to politely decline giving them lessons?

Please leave your advice in the comments below!

Photo Credit: CarlosLie | CC 2.0
Conferences, Professional Development

The Achievement Program Teacher Information Session

Joy Morin

Yesterday, I attend a Teacher Information Session for The Achievement Program (TAP) held in Ann Arbor, Michigan (about an hour-and-a-half north of where I live).  Ever since TAP was first announced in March at the 2011 MTNA Conference as a collaboration between the Royal Conservatory and Carnegie Hall, I’ve been interested in learning more about the program and what it has to offer.  The sessions I attended at the MTNA Conference and the NCKP were helpful, but I have to say that attending this 3-hour workshop provided much more insight into the program.  Today, I’m sharing my notes with everything I learned about TAP!

Dr. Andrew Hisey was our presentor.  He began the workshop by giving a brief look at the history of TAP and how this collaboration came about.  Then he talked about the goal of TAP: to connect people coast-to-coast with a common language and share the celebration of accomplishments.  TAP can help people (non-musical or not) recognize certain levels of achievement that our students have reached.  TAP in this way can also help unite independent music teachers across the nation.

The syllabuses for TAP are available as a free download on their website as pdfs.  The Piano Syllabus normally costs $20, but they gave away free hard copies at this session to all attendees.  The current syllabus was revised in 2006.  They revise the syllabus every 7 years to vary the repertoire (about 70% of it stays the same).   Continue reading “The Achievement Program Teacher Information Session” →

improving as a teacher, Performances, Professional Development

Tips for a Successful First Studio Recital

Joy Morin

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 have students play? 

I would suggest buying separate sheet music rather than the usual pieces in their method books.  There’s something special about having a separate sheet music for the recital.  I even like to write on the sheet music something like: “Johnny’s 1st Recital – May 1, 2011.”  It is an extra expense for students which I personally feel is worth it.  Continue reading “Tips for a Successful First Studio Recital” →

Conferences, Professional Development

NCKP 2011 | (2) Developing from Student to Professional (Panel Discussion)

Joy Morin

After attending the mass Keynote Address, I headed to the sessions for the pre-conference track called, “Students and Young Professionals.”  It began with a panel discussion moderated by Martha Hilley.

Developing from Student to Professional: A Practical Overview, moderated by Martha Hilley.

The were 4 contributors, who each spoke on a topic.

1. Practical Networking: I know why, when, and where — now tell me how, by Courtney Crappell.

Dr. Crappell discussed practical networking.  The key to successful networking is to be genuinely interested in other people!  We sometimes tend to be self-centered, especially in places with new people like conferences.

Another key to successful networking is in the preparation.  This requires some thought in advance: how do you want to market yourself?  Create an elevator pitch that talkes about your goal as a piano teacher.  It should be something short but intriguing that could start a conversation.  An elevator speech contains a problem, solution, and a personal role.

Presentation is also important, but perhaps even more so is the follow-through.  Make sure you have business cards with you at all times so you can easily exchange information with others.  As you meet new people, you can even write things on their business cards afterwards to help you remember who’s who.  And send people an email after you meet them.  You never know what kind of opportunities may arise in the future just from having some connections with other people.  Networking is important!  Continue reading “NCKP 2011 | (2) Developing from Student to Professional (Panel Discussion)” →

Conferences, Professional Development

NCKP 2011 | (1) Keynote: The Future of Pedagogy, by Pete Jutras

Joy Morin

The 2011 National Conference on Keyboard Pedagogy opened with a keynote speech during the Pre-Conference Seminar.  It was such an inspiring speech!

The Future of Pedagogy: Training the Teachers of Tomorrow, by Pete Jutras (W @ 2:30pm)

Pete Jutras began his speech with an diagram showing a pyramid that represented music makers.  The most educated and successful teachers/musicians are those at the top of the pyramid.  The amateur music makings are all those that create the wide base of the pyramid.

Problems:

  • Concert attendance is down.
  • Recording sales are down.
  • Acoustic piano sales are down.

We need to worry about these issues, because even those of us at the top of the pyramid will be affected.  The very value of music is at stake here.  And so, Dr. Jutras gave us a call to action: we need to think about how we can increase the value of music!  Continue reading “NCKP 2011 | (1) Keynote: The Future of Pedagogy, by Pete Jutras” →