As many teachers are considering what it may look like to run their studio (temporarily) online, one topic that may be necessary and quite urgent is making the move to online payments.
If you’re still taking checks from parents and worried about making the switch, rest assured, while it may take a little leg work setting everyone up, your future self won’t regret it.
Taking online payments will save you time manually depositing checks, but the payment portal I want to share with you today will save you money compared to 90% of the other online payment services.
(P.S. That number was arbitrary. Basically, the fees are cheaper than anything else I’ve found out there.)
Coinhop has been my payment portal of choice for several years now. I hope the reasons why I love it will help you as you’re considering online payment options for your studio.
Being known as an organized person means I frequently get asked what some of my favorite tools and resources I use on a day-to-day basis. If you’ve been around Piano Pantry long enough, you already know my #1 is by far Evernote.
When we talk about “tools,” though, we use daily a wide gamut whether it’s for organizing music, social media, our schedule, resources, etc. Today, I want to highlight four digital tools that help me stay organized that in 2020, I would now find it very hard to live without.
Evernote. The easiest way to describe Evernote is that it’s a digital filing cabinet where you can save multiple types of content formats in one location: documents, URL links, clips from YouTube, selections from internet pages, PDF files, and more. Highly useful for both our teaching and personal lives!
Feedly. Using an RSS Reader is, in my opinion, the only way to properly manage content in today’s world. An RSS Reader is like a personalized digital newspaper. You tell it the website you want to follow and it will stream all the newsfeeds into one location so you can keep up on new content in one place.
Grammarly. My English teacher and writing sidekick. With Grammarly Premium, you not only get the basic critical grammar and spell-check errors, but you also get instant feedback on over 400 advanced grammar rules. Microsoft Word spell-check can’t even touch the capability of this program.
LastPass. I couldn’t manage all my accounts and passwords properly without Last Pass in this day and age. Your life will be made easier (and more secure).
Are you looking for ideas on fun “off-bench” activities to use in this Christmas season? Look no further! Today, I’m going to share some of my favorite games and resources that I return to year after year, along with tips for each one.
First, let me briefly share how I store my holiday games. We have to stay organized, right?
(P.S. The A4 size is nice because if you laminate a letter size sheet, the lamination makes it larger.)
It’s not a cheap way to store games as they’re almost $1 apiece, so I’m currently only storing my holiday-themed games in these. The rest of my games are stored in hanging files in a file drawer. (I’ll write a post on that another day!)
The digital files are stored in my cloud file manager.
From there, I name files for what they are. This allows me to see how many games, for example, I have, how many worksheets, etc.
This is a great way to have fun with rhythm in a unique and collaborative way. The set includes three songs in three levels: Deck the Halls, We Wish You a Merry Christmas, and Joy to the World.
As soon as you read the title of this post you thought: “Busted!”
As independent teachers, not only do we get daily correspondence both personally and for our studios, but you likely get weekly emails from multiple professional organizations and website subscriptions.
Does your email Inbox have a big fat red number kind of like this (give or take a few thousand)? 🙂
Some of you may be nodding your head in agreement, raising your hand in confession, and some of you may be having anxiety seeing such a large number because you are already on a path of email management called “Inbox zero.” If you’re the latter, then kudos to you!
There are three major tips that I want to share with you today on how to manage your email and the first begins with the modern productivity term “Inbox zero.”
Are you looking for a better way to organize and store photos and videos?
Would you love an easy way to share those special clips directly with students and their families – especially those that aren’t a part of social media (yes, they exist).
Google Photos might be YOUR perfect solution!
My husband and I are PC users. He’s in the business world so that’s just how it goes in our house. For years I tried but never loved iCloud Photos. The interface just didn’t feel good to me and I was frustrated and unhappy.
For years I was hoping for a way to store photos and videos that would easily allow me to tag photos of multiple students on one photo.
Don’t laugh, but in the old old days, I even tried renaming every photo on my desktop file manager to include the name of each student that was in the photo.
This was a TERRIBLE idea but I was desperate.
I felt like I had the rest of my digital life organized and in order but photos were getting the best of me.
Then I met fellow Louisville-based piano teacher Daniel Light at a session I was giving to the teachers of Louisville MTA and he changed my world forever by introducing me to Google Photos!
Today, I want to share with you five reasons why Google Photos may answer your needs (as they did mine) for a better media storage solution.
In April 2019, Evernote came out with a new add-on, “Evernote for Gmail.”
If you’re not sure what an add-on (extension/plug-in) is, it’s simply an extra little program that extends the functionality of whatever program you’re using whether it’s your internet browser, WordPress site, or email client.
You are likely most familiar with add-ons in your internet browser. As you can see in this small screen-shot, in the Google Chrome browser, add-ons are viewable to the right of the URL bar.
Today I wanted to share with you a few thoughts on whether or not Evernote for Gmail is a useful tool.
Let’s stop for a minute and consider how many people we “follow” online. To keep it even more specific and focused, only think about those you follow who create content for piano teachers.
Can you count them all on one hand, or do you lose track after listing more than a dozen?
I stopped counting after 50. Yes, 50. I’m pretty sure my number is actually closer to 90.
Let’s crank that jaw shut – it’s not as scary as it seems!
Next to email, managing the influx of content from all our favorite blogs and websites seems to be the one area teachers struggle with the most – and for good reason. The last five years especially have seen an explosion of new content creators – I’m one of them!
Believe it or not, it is possible to follow a large number of sites online in a manageable way without it feeling overwhelming. More importantly, you can do it without clogging your email Inbox or Facebook Newsfeed with articles. Curious?
How often have you put off purchasing a piece of equipment (whether it was technology, instrument, or office-related) that you knew would be beneficial to your workflow or teaching?
There are many reasons we make decisions to purchase (or not purchase), which are important in being a smart consumer!
Perhaps most of the time, the decision is based on financial reasons, but it may not be so much about spending the money as it is the question floating through our minds… is it REALLY necessary? Can I get by?
I’ve had quite a few items over the years that I’ve put off purchasing for these same reasons, but once I did, I regretted waiting so long. Today I’ll share five of those with you.
Life is much easier when you have technology equipment that isn’t finicky!
After using several tripods over the years and jerry-rigging setups using music stands, etc., I finally purchased this iKlip Smartphone Tripod, and wow, is it well-thought-out!
It extends to a nice 24″ height, doubles as a “selfie stick,” has a Bluetooth shutter control remote, and collapses nicely compactly.
This past year, I was blessed to have the chance to present to several local associations and state and national conferences. Until about three years ago, I found presenting terrifying, intimidating, and completely out of my reach.
Luckily, my inner drive, curiosity, and motivation didn’t let those feelings of fear and inadequacy stop me from giving it a shot. In return, speaking to other teachers is more rewarding than intimidating, energizing than terrifying, and more within reach to those who persevere (and continually polish those proposals, LOL).
Let’s take a quick peek at those of you I was able to be with this past year!
First Applications of Music Learning Theory
My friend Joy Morin and I have been excited to get our first duo session out there. It’s exciting not only because it’s a session we put together and can present together but also because we’re able to share what we’ve been learning about applying Music Learning Theory in piano lessons.
Inspired by 
