Student Practice Schedule Cards

At the first lesson of the school year, all my students – whether they’re in the 1st grade or a senior – are asked to fill out a practice schedule card and return it to me the following week.

I tell them it’s an exercise in thinking through their day and the time they’ve been given to use wisely. It’s not that it has to be set in stone or that it can’t change, it’s simply good practice to go through the act of writing out their weekly schedule.

I was inspired by a similar card we were given in college that mapped out the day in 30-minute increments. I lived by that card and found it to be very beneficial so why not try it out with my piano students?

This free download includes both a blank version as well as an example page. The first year we did this, I was getting enough “how do you want me to fill this out?” questions I figured an example was in order for the next year. While they’re told to fill it out however they want – it’s for their benefit – they still seem to need a more concrete example.

If your printer can handle it, printing on card stock works well. Print the blank page on one side and the example on the other. Once the students turn them back in, I display a copy on the studio bulletin board. Of course, there are always one or two students who never turn it in. Some bring them back colorful and others quite sparse.

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I leave them up for about a month and plan to pull them back out in January to review them with students and talk through whether they need to re-think their practice time.

Click here to DOWNLOAD

Friday Finds #31: Halloween Activities and Creative Rote Teaching

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Hello to all the Piano Pantry readers from a local group of teachers in Terre Haute, Indiana I had the privilege of sharing with this week. What a delightful bunch!

Margy, one of my colleagues pictured above told everyone that they would make it onto my blog. Boy, does she know me or what?!

This week you’re going to want to check out…

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Some of my favorite Halloween-themed activities:

Candy Corn Note Names and Trick-or-Treat Pumpkin Rhythm Cards from Layton Music.

Jennifer Fink’s Build-A-Skeleton Interval Challenge and 12 Days of Halloween dictation cards.

True Bat Facts note name worksheet and Bats and Cats Rhythm Game from Susan Paradis.

Joy Morin’s Halloween Rhythm Dictation Slides and Classical Music to Attract or Scare your Trick-or-Treater’s.

Halloween Improv from Teach Piano Today.

 

2

An incredibly full and organized list of The Apps I Just Can’t Live Without.

 

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For all you Piano Safari users…

Thanks to a creative and generous teacher on the Piano Safari Facebook page, one of my students and I had a fun time learning the rote piece Rainbow Colors in a much more “colorful” way. This printable visual aid is PERFECT! It worked beautifully. This couldn’t have come at a better time as the student had forgotten her book at home the same day I was planning on teaching her this piece. Teaching rote pieces always seem to take longer to teach so the extra time this day couldn’t have been more perfect.

Teaching the rote piece African Safari using story-telling. Absolutely brilliant.

 

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Sheet pan suppers are all the rage. Last night I made Sausage, Potato, and Green Bean Foil Packets, except I spread all the ingredients out over two half sheet pans. I didn’t start dinner until 7:45 when I got home from teaching and we were eating by 8:30. Fast, easy, and delicious.

*Note: This one is a tiny bit spicy but you could easily adapt by substituting the andouille sausage for any kind of sausage like a simple Eckrich smoked sausage or Kielbasa and changing out the seasoning or simply just using salt and pepper. Also, I diced the potatoes really small so they would cook faster and roasted at 400 degrees for 20-30 minutes.

 

5

Set a goal to spend 15 minutes a day over the next week sprucing up your studio. Some ideas to get you started 10 Presentation Strategies for a Professional Studio and Icing Your Studio.

Tiny habits add up. Do you have a goal that seems impossible to accomplish? Commit yourself to just 15 minutes a day and be prepared to be amazed at where you’re at 3 months from now!

 

Inspiring Creativity with Student Art Books

Before I opened my studio, I always knew I wanted to have a student art book in the waiting room. Where the idea came from, I’m not sure, but I know it wasn’t my original idea. Thanks to whoever the blogger inspired me!

I bought a blank canvas sketchbook similar to this one at Michaels and had an artist friend decorate the cover. It would have been fun to hold a studio-wide contest, but since I was just building my studio at the time, that wasn’t an option.

Here’s what she came up with. Isn’t it amazing?

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This particular book has been full for a couple of years now. Before I show you what we’re using for our new studio art book, I wanted to share some of my favorite entries.

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Friday Finds #30: Resources and Millet

This Friday morning, just after this post goes up, I will be giving a presentation to one of our Indiana MTA Local Associations in Terre Haute. I’ll be giving this same session the first week of November at the Ohio MTA State Conference.

In the session, Taming the Jungle: Strategies for Pursuing Professional Development in the Information Age, I share 137 resources for professional development. More importantly, I walk through strategies for managing ourselves and the content that’s being thrown at us on a day-to-day basis.

I thought I might share some of those resources and tips with you all today.

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I’ve been experimenting with an add-on for Gmail called Inbox PauseI don’t think it’s something I’ll use on a regular basis but there will definitely be instances where it would be nice to have no incoming email for a short period of time.

 

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The next big thing in our online world – membership sites. There are two that I know of in P.T. world: The Curious Piano Teachers Community which I believe is seasonal, and Tim Topham’s Top Music Pro (formerly the Inner Circle).

 

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Recently I came across two new blogs – both of which I heard about in Tim Topham’s Inner Circle. I’ve been enjoying following Eliza Says and Colourful Keys.

 

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Three of my top YouTube channels include:

Anne Crosby Gaudet for her awesome theory videos I use during my student lab time.
Irin Gorin for her excellent examples on teaching healthy technique to beginners.
UIPianoPed for their plethora of quality videos of the beginning and intermediate repertoire.

 

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My life is made easier with two of the best tools out there for managing content: Evernote and Feedly RSS Reader

and in other news….

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Friday Finds #29: Diane Hidy and Solfege Cards

 

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Peek-a-boo windows worked peek-a-boowonders for this guy who was struggling to memorize. I encouraged him to peek at each section then play it by memory, peek-n-play, peek-n-play and “poof” the next week it was memorized! Hmm…there must be something to this, Diane Hidy! 🙂

 

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My Feedly was feeding Diane’s old site into my RSS reader so I just caught a lot of her posts from the last couple of months. I just decided I’m going to call this Diane Hidy week here on Friday Finds! Some favorites, new and old.

10 Tips for Interviewing a Prospective Student.

How I Create My Studio Calendar.

Colorful Memorization

10 Tips for Teaching Teens

I’m a sucker for any kind of “favorite things” posts like her Holiday Wish List 2015.

 

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Prima Music – my favorite online music retailer, has acquired Music Treasures. Wow, lots of acquisitions and mergers going on this year. First, it was Keys to Imagination with Music Educators Marketplace which I announced in another Friday Finds and now this. Who’s next?

 

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Friday Finds #28: Music out of the Unexpected

This past weekend I attended our Indiana MTA State Conference at Goshen College. I love our state association! With a membership of around 300, we have great attendance at our conference  – around 20-25%. We are small but mighty. Everyone knows everyone, and we have great camaraderie!

I was excited to share the best of our state with Ohio MTA member and friend Joy Morin of Color in My Piano and fellow Indiana MTA member Daniel Patterson of Grow Your Music Studio.

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Being a part of a state association is important in part because it connects you with those in closest proximity. We’re often so used to engaging with others online we forget to be where we are with colleagues nearest us.

Anyhoo…on to this week’s picks!

 

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Music made out of something unexpected. Incredible. Marshall Daniels plays the handpan.

 

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I just found out canned pumpkin isn’t pumpkin at all and my whole life is a lie.

 

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Take care of those knives – they’re the workhorses of your kitchen! This is what a dishwasher actually does to your knife. It only takes seconds to wash them by hand!

 

4

Add a little laughter to your life by following the Musical Humor Facebook page. One of my parents tagged me in a video and said this was how they felt trying to help their child practice. Too funny! It got me thinking that maybe I should consider offering a class for parents that might be interested in learning a little bit about music, mostly to not feel lost with their student’s studies!

I wonder, has anyone else ever done anything like this?

 


About Friday Finds

Each Friday on this blog, I share some of my favorite finds from the past week. You’ll find anything from directly piano-related resources, articles, podcasts, and music, to recipes, world-happenings, fun finds and more.

I look forward to helping you as busy teachers see what’s worth checking out and promise to try and keep it under 10 items each week!

Friday Finds #27: The Worlds Oldest Known Melody

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Some of my favorite weekend breakfast/brunch foods to make include quiche, muffins, and pancakes. My husband has been on me to buy a waffle maker after our first experience eating Gaufres de Liege styles waffles last December at Taste of Belgium in Cincinnati on a weekend getaway.

If you’ve never had this style waffle it’s like God’s gift to waffles. They’re dense yet light, crispy, amazing on their own with no butter or syrup, and unlike any kind of waffle I’ve ever had. In fact, we both said we will never make traditional Belgium waffles again – this is it.

Waffle IronHere’s my awesome new stovetop waffle maker. It comes apart to preheat faster, doesn’t squeeze down the batter and cleans up like a breeze. If you don’t plan on ever buying a waffle maker, then treat yourself to purchasing a pack of waffles directly from Taste of Belgium just once! Otherwise, find the recipe along with details on what makes these waffles so amazing here*Note, the batter was a little sticky when I separated it into balls so I just tossed a little flour on them at the end and it was fine. 

 

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Listen to the Worlds Oldest Known Melody.

 

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Rhythm, Post-It Notes, Elissa Milne, Motivation, Stickers.

 

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Parades: A Double-Marketing Whammy

Last week, my studio families and I walked in our fifth annual parade since I opened in 2011. A five-year anniversary is a perfect time for celebration, so I wanted to share a little more about it with you today.

You will see photos from the last five years, and I will also share how a simple community event like a parade can become a core marketing tool for growing your music studio.

2011 – Year 1

The year I started my studio, I was living off only 10-15 students and needed to go on the cheap. My logo had not yet been designed, so I just cut a simple sign out of a black poster board and borrowed my mother-in-law’s beautiful T-bird.

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I made the keyboards from foam-core poster board I bought at Wal-Mart.

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My hubby is a trooper. 🙂

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Friday Finds #26 Unlocking Creativity, Unfurling Jolene

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Last night a few of my students, parents, husband (yes the goofy one in the back), friends,  and I walked in a parade during our city’s September Street Fair. It’s become an annual event for my studio as a way to not only keep my name in the community but to foster a sense of community within my studio.

I’m going to share a bit more on this in an upcoming post!

But for now……

:  Lesson planning advice from The Curious Piano Teachers.

:  I love this: No one likes sitting alone.

:  America’s Test Kitchen’s former beloved host Christopher Kimball has a new venture. Milk Street will bring recipes of the world to home kitchens making them easier and more accessible. Their bow-tie logo is beautiful, simple, and genius. Perfect in my opinion.  Check out the site or Facebook page.

:  My love of organization is leading me to share Sara’s way of organizing music game folders and my way of organizing student files.

:  Bob’s Red Mill makes great products. However, I always hated that I either have to use chip clips to seal the bags or put their plastic bag into another Ziploc plastic bag. Bob’s is finally introducing resealable bags! Yahoo!

:  I completely missed National Guacamole day last week! Oh, man! One of my all-time favorite foods. Marcela Valladolid’s Game-Winning Guac’ is still my favorite.

:  Pentatonix + Dolly Parton in Jolene. Sweet.

:  A well spelled-out look on the best notation apps. 

: Short, clear, and to the point. That’s how Bradley Sowash writes on his blog and in his column for Clavier Companion. He captured me recently with “Dot Spots”. His partner-in-crime, Leila Viss wrote an article for Music Teachers Helps Blog highlighting an article on Non-Professional Books That Have Made Us Better Teachers. I’m looking forward to checking out their book suggestions.

This dynamic duo (Bradley and Leila that is), have a webinar coming up on Monday you might want to check out. I’m sure you won’t be disappointed!

Click here to register

Rhythm Webinar

*In the spirit of full-disclosure, this is an affiliate link which simply means I will get a small commission off any registrations.  Please know I wouldn’t recommend it if I didn’t think it was a great professional development opportunity!

 

I’m off now to my own piano lesson. Yep, that’s right, I’m still learning and always will be!

Happy Friday!

 

~Amy

 


About Friday Finds

Each Friday on this blog, I share some of my favorite finds from the past week. You’ll find anything from directly piano-related resources, articles, podcasts, and music, to recipes, world-happenings, fun finds and more.

I look forward to helping you as busy teachers see what’s worth checking out and promise to try and keep it under 10 items each week!

Announcing Piano Pantry’s First Big Resource!

Today, I’m excited to announce the blog’s first big resource!

One of the first posts I wrote on this blog in March 2016 was about my addiction to designing assignment sheets.

Since I’m a one-woman show here on Piano Pantry, it’s taken me until now to figure out the technical side of how to make this resource available to you in the best way possible. I like things to look clean, well laid out, and organized.

I spent last weekend setting up “Assignment Sheet Central” here on Piano Pantry.

There are 15 assignment sheets of all sizes, shapes, and colors (well, not exactly, but the phrase seemed to work here). 🙂

The best thing? There are MORE to come! I have at least another ten sheets ready to be added to the page on top of the 15 already there. It takes me about 20 minutes per sheet to get it onto the website, so I didn’t want to wait until I got all 25+ up to make it available to you!

Hopefully, 15 choices are enough to get you started!

Swapping up assignment sheets every 6-12 months is just one way I keep things fresh.

The resource page can be accessed from the main menu at the top or click here:

Assignment Sheet Central

Let me know what you think!

P.S. I would love to connect on social media! Follow me on Facebook @PianoPantry