Organizing Piano Games with Evernote

July 3, 2017
by Amy
2 Comments

This is a guest post by Missouri teacher, Anita Byers. After Anita commented on one of my posts here on Piano Pantry on how she organized her music games in Evernote, I quickly asked her to share. Many thanks to Anita!

 

As my collection of piano games has grown the past several years, I have needed to organize them in a way that I can find a game that reinforces a certain concept without physically searching through a huge stack!

My goal for this summer was to attack the game monster and make it easy to find and use games during lessons.

I use Evernote in my studio to keep track of weekly lesson plans for each student.  I am not sure why it took me so long to realize that Evernote could help organize my game inventory!  Continue reading

How One Teacher Uses Evernote to Track Repertoire

May 1, 2017
by Amy
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Natalie Weber over at Music Matters Blog just shared an in-depth post on how she started using Evernote to track repertoire. She’s included screenshots and lots of details on her tagging system –  check out her post:

Finally, a Way to Track Repertoire!

 

Yes, I would like to try Evernote!

Use this link to sign up or to upgrade the subscription you already have, and I will give you free access to a shared notebook in Evernote where I have compiled some note templates you may find useful as an independent music teacher including Student Information Forms, What to Include in Your Newsletter, Action Lists for Conferences and Board Meetings, a Grocery List, To-Do List, and the Student Evaluation Form.

Please note, access to the shared notebook will be sent via email within a few days.

Evernote Community Leader

April 29, 2017
by Amy
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By now many of you are aware that I am a huge Evernote fan. I can’t help it! Nothing else has been able to match this productivity workhorse in regards to the way I work and capture information.

I have been using it for 5 years and every year I continually improve and streamline how I use it on a daily basis not only in my professional life but in my personal life as well. The first time I shared with you how I use it as an independent teacher was in December 2016 in the post/video Evernote: An Independent Music Teacher’s Handbook.

That initial post was followed up with:

Evernote Part 2 [Web Clipper]
Evernote Part 3 [Account Features, Tagging, and More]
Using Evernote for Student Evaluations

I am super excited to announce that in January 2017, after completing a training course, I was accepted into the Evernote Community Leader (ECL) program! Continue reading

Using Evernote for Student Evaluations

April 28, 2017
by Amy
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Change. I need thrive on it. I love the seasons, re-arranging my studio annually, and re-doing my student schedule each summer and fall. The latter of course takes time but for me, the idea of never changing my lesson schedule is suffocating! LOL.

Clear start and endpoints to me, give a sense of relief and rest and in a way, a mental break. When I used to be a choral director I would frequently get sick the week following school being out as my body was letting go of the stress!

The end of the school year for many independent studios is the time take a step back and celebrate the culmination of student’s work and progress through recitals. Not only that, but it’s the perfect time to turn our heads and reflect on the last 30 to 40 lessons and 4,000 plus hours of practice. Did we use our time wisely? Did the student make progress? Did they participate in studio events? Does the student feel they put in their best effort? There are so many questions that can be pondered and progress assessed, that conducting student evaluations has become a part of my annual schedule.

My recital is always the Sunday before Memorial Day. It does get a little crazy having it that time of year, but I love the feeling of having that culminating event where the whole studio comes together to celebrate and make music. The week following the recital, students and parents come to the student’s normal lesson time, but there is no formal lesson. We sit down and hash out the past and the future of the student’s piano studies together. (The last week of May my studio is closed for a semester break then we return for summer lessons the first week of June).

My part of that meeting time is giving the student a formal evaluation and the parent and student’s part is filling out questionnaires I give to them ahead of time. Today we’re focusing on the former. In another post, I will share my parent and student questionnaires.

Many teachers, after seeing my extensive tutorial on how Evernote can help you organize your studio, got a peek at my evaluation form and have been asking if I would be willing to share. Not only am I going to share the form, but I’m going to explain in detail how I use Evernote to organize and track evaluations from year to year.

Seeing how far we’ve come is only possible if we remember where we started!

Continue reading

Evernote: An Independent Music Teacher’s Handbook 

Part 3 – Account Features, Tagging & More! [Video]

January 22, 2017
by Amy
2 Comments

I’m back for my third and final installment on how to implement Evernote into your daily life as an independent music teacher.

While I say this is the “final” video in the series, I’m sure there will be much more on Evernote to come here on Piano Pantry as it’s a program for which I’m quite passionate. Can you tell?

This 3-part video series together is less than 40 minutes. If you’re like me, you listen to single podcasts that are longer than that! Most of us likely spend 30-40 minutes each evening watching a show or video to chill-out. I wouldn’t be surprised if most of us also spend that much time daily reading blogs or posts on Facebook piano teacher groups.

I can promise that if you give those 30-40 minutes just one day to watching the series, it could potentially change the way you handle and organize your studio forever. A strong statement, I know, but I believe it with my whole heart and well, if you know me, you know that for the most part, I say what I feel!

Check out part ONE on using Evernote to organize your studio.

Check out part TWO a short 3-minute video here on the powerful web clipper.

 

Evernote Part 3:
Account Features, Tagging & More!

The following is a breakdown of what you will see in part 3.

Continue reading

Evernote: An Independent Music Teacher’s Handbook 

Part 2 – Web Clipper [Video]

January 4, 2017
by Amy
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Helloooooo, 2017!

There are three times each year that the seasons give me a chance to feel refreshed and invigorated.

  1. The last week of May after the school year lesson schedule comes to an end and I’m preparing for a lighter summer schedule.
  2. The middle of August gearing up for Fall lessons to resume (this is the time I feel most refreshed and in order).
  3. NOW. The turn of the year when I have a chance to reflect and re-consider goals, organization, and life in general.

Many of us, during at least one of these three points in the year, realize it’s time to refresh and reorganize our studios.

January is one of my slower months of the year. It’s cold; there are no holidays, conferences, festivals, or recitals.

It’s the perfect time to rethink how you work including organizing your studio physically and digitally.

Evernote is the perfect program to help independent music teacher in this area. Today I’m going to walk you through the perfect little tool that will be your best friend on the internet and your mobile device for capturing and organizing life – the Evernote Web-Clipper.

Before that…

Continue reading

Evernote: An Independent Music Teacher’s Handbook 

Part 1 – Studio Organization [Video]

December 21, 2016
by Amy
19 Comments

When I first started teaching piano as an independent music teacher, I learned quickly there was more to the profession than being a pianist and pedagogue. I was managing a business and, in a way, people. Tasks like tracking student information, lesson plans, overall student progress, music to be ordered, recital participation and repertoire lists, became a big part of the job.

Before Evernote…

I would find myself unable to recall materials I needed to purchase when I happened by the music store unplanned.

Oodles of information and ideas in which I intently made notes during sessions at local, state, or national conferences found themselves in paper stacks, with never a second glance.

Valuable and detailed advice regarding iPad to midi capabilities I read in a Facebook thread were later fuzzy in my mind when I needed it most. When I tried to find it, the conversation found itself lost in a sea of never-ending social-media posts.

If you’re like me, you long for anything that will streamline the business side of what you do. While today’s digital world offers many tools and applications to help us manage and organize the tasks we juggle on a daily basis, there’s one that stands out: Evernote.

Continue reading