On Saturday, my local MTNA/OhioMTA chapter — the Northwest District OhioMTA — sponsored a piano pedagogy seminar with composer and teacher Carolyn Miller!
It was an honor to have her present for us. Her first session was entitled: “Matching Music to Inspire and Challenge Students.” She shared with us some helpful thoughts about choosing repertoire to suit students and demonstrated for us a variety of her compositions for students. Carolyn’s compositions are published with Willis Music, F.J.H., and others.
Next, Carolyn led group discussion on “Why We Teach Music.” This session was particularly encouraging and rejuvenating to us as teachers!
My friend, Susan West, and I helped Carolyn demonstrate a number of her piano duet compositions.
Partway through the day, we went to a local restaurant and enjoyed fellowship and conversation over lunch. Here is our group photo with Carolyn before lunch.
During the third session, we learned about Carolyn’s series of books called: “Sportacular Warmups“. The Sportacular Warmups books were created after the example of the A Dozen A Day books (also published by Willis Music), but have a sports theme integrated throughout the exercises in a clever way.
We wrapped up the day with a masterclass. Four student participants performed pieces written by Carolyn.
It was a wonderful day. Carolyn was a gracious and engaging speaker. Teachers who attended remarked that they enjoyed the sessions, the information, and the fellowship with other teachers.
Thanks goes to Carolyn Miller and my fellow members of the Northwest District OhioMTA for a successful day!
Have you seen the latest issue of 
The last Forum Q&A post was about assignment notebooks/pages for students. It was wonderful to read all the great responses! 
Yesterday, I attend a Teacher Information Session for 
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.