Candy jar contests are sure to grab the interest of young and old alike. Let’s be honest here, when is the last time you turned down an opportunity to guess the number of items in a jar whether it be candy, pennies, or otherwise! 🙂
In my piano studio, I find the candy jar contest to be an easy way to build community. It may feel a little far-reaching, but since most music lessons are solo events, any time I can create an opportunity for all students to engage in the same thing (even if they’re not doing it together all at once), I consider that a win.
Getting sick. Ugh. The only good part of being sick is you can watch endless episodes of your favorite show while wallowing in your misery on the couch at home.
Otherwise, it’s the nemesis of every teacher. Why? Because it’s more of a pain to catch up on life than it is to simply have a normal day.
The flu is running rampant this year. Twenty percent of my students canceled last week from either being sick or having a family member sick (in which case they didn’t want to spread it around-thank you!).
Yes, getting sick as a teacher is often the result of exposure to so many students every week. More so than that, though, I’m more likely to get sick when I’ve not been taking care of myself. That could be lack of sleep, stress, or getting out of the habit of physical activity and/or taking daily supplements.
Today I want to share a few ways we can be proactive in our studios and with our personal health – especially during the winter months when we’re on high “germ alert.”
*Disclaimer: All advice and opinions posted here are simply from my own experiences. I am not a health professional nor do I claim to be.
Clean Environment
Keep your studio and teaching area clean. Regularly clean areas touched by students including door handles, computer keyboard and mouse, and of course the bathroom.
Clean Piano
I’ve never had luck with remembering to enforce this, but having students wash their hands with soap and water before coming to the piano would be ideal.
Avoid hand sanitizer as it has proven less effective than good old soap. I’ve also been told (by my piano tuner) that hands covered in hand sanitizer could possibly cause cracks in the piano key surface. The same goes for antibacterial wipes.
Keep it simple. Stash a cloth nearby and regularly wipe down the piano keys. A lightly sprayed cotton cloth with a vinegar-water mixture would suffice, or try a cleaning cloth such as the Guardsman Dusting Cloth.
The Guardsman cloth is a wonderful, gentle cloth that won’t scratch your piano and has a very lightly tacky surface that is brilliant at collecting dust. Find them at your local hardware.
You could even consider using the Norwex Antimicrobial Window Polishing Cloth for the keys, but I would not recommend using it or any of the other Norwex rags on the body of the piano as I would be afraid their material might scratch the surface.
Curious about what Music Learning Theory (MLT) really is?Did you know that “MLT” differs from “music learning theory?” My friend Joy Morin has just posted an eloquently-written article over at ColorInMyPiano.com explaining just that.
When I first discovered podcasts years ago, I went bananas. Every free moment I was listening to one – working out, driving, making the bed, cooking dinner, laminating and cutting out teaching aids – you name it. I couldn’t get enough.
It almost got to the point where it felt like a to-do list. I didn’t want to miss an episode of any of the podcasts I was following (the list was much shorter then).
Then one day it hit me. I’m burnt out. I simply have not had the motivation to listen to any-more, especially those that are more than 30 minutes.
Keep in mind I’m talking about on a weekly basis. There are those times on long drives or when I’m mowing the yard in the summer when I’m happy to plug in and listen to a long show, but in general, I am now reaching only for those that are 30 minutes or less and even more frequently 20 minutes or less.
So, today I wanted to share with you my favorite podcasts under 20 minutes.
Andy Stanley Leadership Podcast
Host: Andy Stanley (Also known for: Pastor at Atlanta-based North Point Ministries)
Description: “A conversation designed to help leaders go further.”
Episodes worth mentioning: 03.02.2017 Creating a Culture of Continual Improvement 05.05.2017 Doing What Only You Can Do 07.07.2017 How to Lead When You’re Not In Charge
How do children learn music? And how can music teachers help children to become independent and self-sufficient musical thinkers? Author Eric Bluestine sheds light on these issues in music education.
How to Think Music by Harriet SeymourOriginally published in 1915 but shockingly applicable to the conversation around how we learn when we learn music.
This remarkable, free pamphlet is a perfect introduction to Dr. Gordon’s groundbreaking ideas that have enormously impacted the music education profession over the past four decades.
Covering questions like: How do young children learn differently from adults? What is audiation, and why is it important? What are the stages and types of music learning? How should music learning be sequenced? How does music learning parallel language learning?
Quick and Easy Introductions is a perfect starting point for exploring the profound and remarkable ideas destined to shape our understanding of music learning—and, therefore, how best to teach music—for decades to come.
Music Moves for Piano is currently the only piano method based 100% on Music Learning Theory. Written in cooperation with Dr. Edwin E. Gordon, author Marilyn Lowe has a series of 24 method and supplemental books, including Christmas books and books for preschoolers (Keyboard Games A and B).
Music Play by Valerio, Reynolds, Bolton, Taggart, and Gordon. An early childhood curriculum book that contains many activities that are good for any age student.
Welcome to the first Friday Finds for 2018! This is the 79th Friday Finds since Piano Pantry kicked off in 2016. Yowsuh – that’s a lot of finds! Here’s the very first one if you’re curious.
I’m using the first one as part of the 12 Days of Inspiration series you may have seen going around the piano blogosphere world.
This is day 11 of the series and thus you’ll find 11 great finds for the new year. Links to days 1 – 10 of the series can be found at the end of the post.
1 – Security
It’s important now more than ever to have strong passwords on the internet. A reader recently shared with me a website she uses and really likes for generating passwords by VPN Mentor. Check out this password generator.You can also use a program such as LastPass like I do to generate strong passwords.
2 – Games First
Tracy Selle has a really good idea that I’m going to try for awhile – starting lessons with an activity/game rather than ending with one. This would certainly be a good way to shake things up as you start back to lessons.
OK, OK, I’m a total copycat! I admit it. This is not an original idea. Last year, Leila Viss wrote a post called 40 Trendsetting Piano Teaching Resources that she compiled along with her friend Marie Lee (which included Friday Finds B.T.W. 🙂 and I absolutely loved it.
So, I started making a list of items that impacted me this past year and the list just started flowing. As the list evolved, it started to include not just specific events, items, and products that impacted me, or that I “discovered,” but items and happenings that I would consider “big news” in piano teacher world.
There’s lots going on at The Frances Clark Center for Keyboard Pedagogy! Not only did they hire a new Full-Time Executive Director in October 2017 (Dr. Jennifer Snow), but in December 2017 they appointed Ryan Greene as the new Director of NCKP (National Conference on Keyboard Pedagogy).
After attending NCKP this summer and seeing all the wonderful teaching demonstrations, Irish piano teacher Nicola Canton began posting short clips of her own teaching on her blog Colourfulkeys.ie.
In this post, I’m sharing some recommended reads from my 2017 list—first, a little story.
Although I am an avid reader—as I’m sure you can relate—I’ve gone through a couple of periods in life recently that have not allowed that luxury.
One was grad school (you know what kind of reading happened then), and the other was the first few years of opening my piano studio. During that period, I read a lot on business, teaching, and productivity.
Even though it was all by choice, I still found myself continually saying how much I missed reading for pleasure. A few years ago I finally determined to allow myself better balance.
I started setting goals for how many books I wanted to read and worked to increase it by 1-2 books per year. In 2017, the goal was 20, and I hit it spot on. Next year, the goal will be 21.
If you see yourself struggling to read as much as you would like, set a small goal and only increase the goal in easily manageable steps. Before I know it, I’ll be reading 30 books a year – who knows, maybe even 50!
Sports-themed Iwako Erasers. You name it, they make it in a Japanese Eraser. Thank you, Iwako for helping piano teachers make lessons fun.
