App-Land Madness: How I Organize My Devices

April 9, 2018
by Amy
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App-land madness.

Yeah, you know what I’m talking about!

As teacher especially we deal with twice the amount of apps because we have not only our personal apps, but endless apps on rhythm, sight reading, note-naming, and on and on and on. It’s likely most of us don’t even use half the apps on our screen on a regular basis.

While our smartphones and tablets are incredible devices that have given us the ability to access all kinds of useful (and some not so useful) tools that can enhance the way we work, teach, and go about our daily lives, they’ve also become another item that we have to figure out how to manage.

You guessed it. Today we’re talking about device organization.

If you’re anything like me, since the day you’ve owned a smartphone and/or tablet, you’ve played around with and rearranged the layout of your devices again and again.

Over the past year, I’ve finally settled on a layout I like and have stuck with. As a bonus, the layout is almost exactly the same on both my iPhone and iPad.

Today I have a video for you on how I organize my devices.

Care to have a peek?

If you prefer to watch it on YouTube, just click on the word “YouTube” on the bottom right-hand corner of the video. In order to see the video as clearly as possible, I would recommend expanding the video to full screen by clicking on the broken box-shape clear to the right of the screen at the bottom.

Do you have any tips that work for you when it comes to device organization? Share below!

Friday Finds #90: Spring Food, Spotify, and Staying in Touch

April 6, 2018
by Amy
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1 – Spring Food

The most incredibly beautiful and Spring-filled spread of food ever. Seriously, who eats like this?

 

2 – Online Value

Valuing online friends and connections. I couldn’t agree more, Fran.

 

3 – Spotify Lessons

I’ve had a Spotify account for years. This past year, when I started my Ukulele class, I started using it a lot more. The more I use it, the more I like it. For quite a while now, I’ve had on my to-do list of “non-important and non-time sensitive items,” to spend a little time researching Spotify to make sure I’m utilizing its features. When I finally did, I came across this article which I found useful.

 

4 – I Love Her

My new favorite artist is Jess Ray. My new favorite song is The Answer to Every Question (Technicolor Jesus). Actually, it’s been my favorite “new” for like 6 months but I just now got around to telling you about it. 🙂

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Friday Finds #89: Easter Week

March 30, 2018
by Amy
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1 – Easter-Themed Teaching Aids

Susan Paradis has several Easter-themed worksheets and games on her website. One of my favorites is the Bunny Basics note-naming worksheet.

 

2 – Tax Tips

My husband and I just wrapped-up and submitted our 2017 taxes. We were later than we like to be (something called building a house yourself might be the cause of that :-). To glean a few extra tips, check out Ed Pearlman’s article on Music Teachers Helper Blog Tax Tips for Musicians.

 

3 – Holy Week

A visualization of Passion Week.
Holy week prayers.
Maundy Thursday explained.
On the etymology of the word Easter.

 

4 – Avoid Buyer’s Remorse

I met a teacher at the MTNA Conference who introduced me to her website Piano iPad Apps. This is a great resource site as she has a lot of videos that walk you through apps. Seeing these videos can help you make a decision whether or not certain apps might be for you, especially if they’re ones you have to purchase.

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Conferencing with Mickey Mouse and Friends: MTNA 2018 Orlando

March 23, 2018
by Amy
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M.I.C.K.E.Y  – M.O.U.S.E.

That’s all I have to say and now it’s stuck in your head, right?! 😉

Well, another MTNA Conference is in the books. This year’s conference was held at the Coronado Springs Resort at Disney World in Orlando.

Regularly attending live conferences is one of the best choices I’ve ever made as a teacher. Why? Sam Holland stated it best in one of his Questions and Answers articles in Clavier Companion.

We are social animals. We learn from one another in direct exchanges… A live conference is an IMMERSIVE experience in which you leave the regular workday world behind and immerse yourself morning, noon, and night.

I always feel a little lull in my energy for teaching this time of year. The moment I get to the conference, that all starts to slowly melt away. I always walk away feeling renewed and energized to make it through the end of the school year.

I have to say I didn’t take nearly the number of photos I do at conferences, but that’s OK because the ones I did get are highly memorable. Today I’m not going to share a listing of all the sessions I attended or notes, just the “social animal” part. 🙂

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Friday Finds #87: Banana’s, Improv, and Teaching Taboo’s

March 16, 2018
by Amy
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1 – Should You Apply?

A wonderful opportunity to further your career! The Frances Clark Center is currently seeking an Editor-in-Chief/Chief Content Director (EIC) to lead and direct all aspects of its digital and print publication, Clavier Companion.

 

2 – Do You Let Them In?

Your Kitchen Table by Seth Godin.

 

3 – Mama Bear

An amusing story of a piano teacher’s experience with moveable do and une mère française.

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Manipulatives and Piano Games for Private and Group Lessons

March 6, 2018
by Amy
2 Comments

How many manipulatives, piano games, and other resources do you have in your music studio? You probably don’t even have to count to know the answer. A lot!  Am I right?

Keeping track of all our teaching resources can be a daunting task. Lesson planning for private and group music classes can be enough work in itself without having to continuously recall and rehash all the different manipulatives and games we have each time we plan.

After finding myself physically walking back and forth regularly to my game files, flashcard box, and such, I decided it was time to put together a master list of every activity or manipulative I had or could use to teach a concept.

It can be very easy to lose track of what we already have. Having a document like this has allowed me to not only have an easy place to reference what activities I could utilize at any given time, but it was an awesome snapshot and inventory of what I owned.

Keeping a master list is also a great place to keep teaching ideas that may not necessarily have physical items to accompany the activity.

I thought you might find this document useful as well.

The Master List

Since it is a document that I update on a regular basis, I decided to simply share the public link to a Google Doc. Keep in mind that it’s a working document so it’s possible I will add to, edit, and even remove items as time goes by.

There are three ways you could utilize this document

  1. If you want to keep the document as is and not risk being at the mercy of my future edits, you could download it.
  2. If you want to always see the updated version, I would recommend bookmarking the link in your browser. This way, you simply click on the link, and you always see the most updated version.
  3. If you wanted to create your own list, you could even copy and paste it into your own document to get you started and create your own version with the materials you have!

May this document help you add a little more sanity to your lesson planning and studio organizational life. 🙂

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Friday Finds #85: Be Ridiculous for the Sake of Creativity

February 16, 2018
by Amy
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1 – Blackbean Brownies

When it comes to sweets I can say no to just about anything but brownies or cookies. I rarely make brownies but man, do I love them. I’m looking forward to trying this interesting recipe which uses black beans as a base. Sounds gross, I know, but I have a feeling they’ll be a winning “healthy brownie” recipe.

 

2 – Willing to be Ridiculous

“…if I want to chase after beauty in this world and make art, I have to maintain my right to be ridiculous.”

Read more.

 

3 – Ahh!

akimboSeth Godin has a new podcast! Nuf said.

 

 

 

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See you at MTNA 2018?

February 11, 2018
by Amy
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The 2018 MTNA National Conference in Orlando, Florida is just around the corner!

Attending the national conferences is always something to look forward to (besides the expense of course! :-). There’s always so much going on and new and exciting things to check out. More than anything I look forward to meeting all of you face to face who I only get to see online otherwise!

My roomie, Joy Morin and I are planning on arriving on Friday the 16th. Even though it was a great time, I’m not planning a Piano Pantry dinner like I did in Baltimore (2017). Disney is just too crazy of a place to organize a formal meet-up!

We wanted a chance to hang out with ya’ll though, so we are planning on being at the Laguna Bar at Disney’s Coronado Springs Resort (the Conference Hotel) on Friday evening around 8:00 pm.

If you haven’t already scoped it out online, the outdoor area at Coronado Springs looks pretty cool. I hope we have good weather!

No need to RSVP, just plan on coming by if you can. If you’d like to drop me a message, feel free to contact me here or comment on this post.

Hope to see you there!

Don’t Leave too Early!

I’m also looking forward to presenting a session at the conference! It will be my second time ever at a National Conference. Yea! The first time was at 2016 MTNA in San Antonio.

If you’re still around Wednesday morning, catch me bright and early at the very first session at 8 am.

My session is called Taming the Jungle: Digital Management Strategies for the Independent Music Teacher.

It was a privilege to get the chance to present the same session to all the wonderful teachers of Louisville MTA in Louisville, Kentucky this past weekend.

If you’re not too tired by then or already heading to the airport, I hope to see you there!