The Friday after the U.S. Presidential election is the perfect opportunity to show this adorable photo. Four years ago, who would’ve known!
: Want to train your brain? Forget apps, learn a musical instrument.
: This 3-part arrangement is on my list to download for my Christmas group classes.
: My new OXO Good Grips 14.5″ x 21″ cutting board is “amaAAAAzing” that’s me singing the word amazing. Why, oh why have I relegated myself to such small cutting boards the last 15 years?
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…
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.
An incredibly full and organized list of The Apps I Just Can’t Live Without.
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.
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.
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!
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.
I’ve been experimenting with an add-on for Gmail called Inbox Pause. I 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.
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).
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.
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.
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….
Peek-a-boo windows worked 
wonders 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! 🙂
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.
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?
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.
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!
Music made out of something unexpected. Incredible. Marshall Daniels plays the handpan.
I just found out canned pumpkin isn’t pumpkin at all and my whole life is a lie.
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!
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!
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.
Here’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.
Listen to the Worlds Oldest Known Melody.
Rhythm, Post-It Notes, Elissa Milne, Motivation, Stickers.
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
*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!
San Antonio teacher Karen Lien shared an awesome 1960s Warner
A good article on the historic Paul Harvey. I always loved listening to him as a kid. I looked and am surprised there isn’t a CD archive of his shows available for purchase. Has had the most incredible radio voice.
I have been on the lookout for a while for a book of hymns in their original state (not arranged) that were slightly simplified. The homophonic texture of most hymns is quite complicated for most students to play. The Piano Student’s Hymnal is exactly what I was looking for. I have one adult student using it who loves it – it’s the perfect level of difficulty. I would love to see Alfred publish one that’s even just a tad easier.
I love Sara’s Free Music Coloring Pages board on Pinterest.
Words of wisdom from Seth. There are some “rules of engagement” per say that we should all keep in mind daily as we navigate, socialize, and communicate on the web. I WOULD PERSONALLY LIKE TO EMPHASIZE PEOPLE PAY ATTENTION TO #1, 3, 8, 10. (If you read it, you’ll see the irony in what I just wrote LOL).
Violin Judy has a fun idea for making up practice box “treats” for students. This is kind of a different/reverse take on the practice pouch idea I mentioned in #4 of last week’s post. What kid isn’t motivated by special treats?
In April I purchased this Handmade Acrylic Washi Tape Dispenser from Etsy that has a fun paisley design. I was looking for something that didn’t take up a ton of space, would fit on the piano next to the music rack and that was at least somewhat pretty/design friendly. This one fit the bill. (*Disclaimer: You have to press on the tape a little to hold it down when you tear it off since the cutting edge is acrylic and not overly sharp, but I don’t mind that being that my kiddos use it.)
My husband and I like to can. We can anything from chicken/venison stock and soups to corn, green beans, pears, strawberry jam, pear butter, and more. Find out about the rise and fall in popularity of the mason jar in A Short History of the Mason Jar.
Since I teach outside my home, I often pack my lunch. Last year I ended up eating lunch out way more than I like, so this year I’m determined to do better. While my husband prefers leftovers for lunch, I’m fine with a little of this and that. I keep a Pinterest board called “Lunch Box” for inspiration and follow several Instagram accounts like sylina_lunches, planetbox, sara_makes_lunch, and happykidslunch. Even posts on packing lunch for kids are useful. Check School Lunch Solutions Part 1 and Part 2, and A Guide to Teaching Your Kids to Pack their Own Lunch.
I just ordered my fall edition of the ever beautiful Sift magazine put out by King Arthur Flour. This first step into fall time has made me feel like pulling out fall decorations for the studio in the next couple weeks. Autumn is in the air!
Do you decorate your studio for the seasons?
~Amy
