[Below is the text of a short article I wrote for the May issue of our local Music Teachers Association (MTA) newsletter. I just received it in my inbox from MTNA as their July Certification Moment. If you are not a Nationally Certified Teacher of Music (NCTM), I definitely encourage you to pursue becoming one!] […]
Personal
An Impromptu Group Class
Since I’ll be taking off of teaching next week to attend the MTNA Conference, I planned to stick to my regular teaching schedule this week, even though it was spring break for most of my students. I had consented to giving a few lessons Monday morning for several students that would be going out of […]
MTNA Conference – It’s Almost Here!
The countdown is nearing its end – the MTNA Conference will begin in only a couple of days! I opted not to participate in either of the special Saturday sessions this year, but I plan to attend the opening keynote address by Van Cliburn on Saturday evening. I copied the Daily Schedule from the MTNA […]
Dealing With Parental Misconceptions
One of the frustrations Independent Music Teachers often deal with is requests from parents that seem unreasonable and outside of what is allowed in our studio policy. The importance of communicating openly and clearly with parents became clear to me in a recent situation I encountered. A student showed up at my studio for her […]
Private Lesson No-No’s
Here are a few excerpts from this site where students communicate their thoughts about teachers and lessons: What this student wants from a teacher: “…be organized, consistent, give specific feedback that a student can work on, be prepared in the sense that if you are about to assign a new piece you are familiar with […]
A New Year!
What a whirlwind life has been since the middle of last month! I know you all can relate! As you’ve no doubt observed, I took off a number of weeks from this blog due to the many other responsibilities that required my attention. Now that the new year has begun, I hope to post more […]