Friday Finds #53: Dogs, Rwanda, and the Mediocre Life

 

1

I am loving this piano teacher’s new display wall – what a great way to get students curious about books and music. This idea is definitely now in my back pocket for my new studio/home! Thanks, Susan!

 

2

Looking for a career move? The Ohio University School of Music in Athens Ohio how a full-time faculty job posting up. Details here.

 

3

Star Wars fan or not – this Millennium-Themed Falcon Piano is pretty cool. The video is getting added to my fun music videos Pinterest page. My students love browsing these videos!

 

4

College graduations and their guest commencement speakers are always quite the topic in May. Even piano technicians get to be guest speakers. 

 

5

Having a week where students get to choose what they do is a great idea whether it’s the last lesson of the school year or a week where they didn’t have a lot of time to practice and a change of pace is needed for one lesson.

 

6

After seeing several students recognized during our spring recital for participating in a composition festival, several more students during their year-end evaluations this year, mentioned they would be interested in composing more. Two of Nicola Canton’s great composition projects just got added to my music lab time and will be perfect for these students.

 

7

Selecting the right repertoire for your students – a great refresher article by Jane Magrath. Use the Evernote web clipper to clip articles like this in less than 10 seconds for future reference into Evernote. I tagged mine under “lesson planning.”

 

8

Building pianos in Rwanda.

 

9

While I consider myself a highly motivated go-getter most of the time, there’s another side to me. I was raised in the country and I also believe in the slow quiet life. It’s not the life I have most of the time but sometimes I long to just BE – to not have a care in the world. Part of me relates to the words in What if All I Want is a Mediocre Life.

 

10

Susan Pardis’s summer worksheet roundup.

 

11

A solo festival with an online judge – in Lauren’s case, the judge was me! If you haven’t heard, MTNA is also starting a new eFestival. Check out more here.

 

12

I have a friend who is a teacher and works a lot with reading. She told me once about bringing her dog to class and having her students read to him – his name was Duber. Dr. Noa Kageyama at Bulletproof Musician also talks about this in Dogs…A Musician’s Best Friend? It makes me think of a student who has told me she plays for her cat. 🙂 Ooh, which makes me think of the book in my music library I have my kids love, Polly and the Piano.