“It’s not what you know, it’s who you know.” As all college graduates should know, networking is the key to success in today’s job market. This is especially true for piano teachers trying to build a studio, because parents usually want someone they can trust teaching their children. Although I don’t have many students yet, here are a few ways I have begun making contacts in the Denver area.
In college, I became a student member of Music Teacher’s National Association (MTNA). When I graduated and moved to Denver, I transferred my membership from a collegiate membership to an active membership in the Denver area. Little did I realize how beneficial this would be! A few weeks later, the president of the local MTNA chapter called me and welcomed me to the group. I attended the first meeting of the year, where I met several fellow music teachers. Many of them have offered to pass along my name as their own personal piano studios fill up.
In addition to networking with fellow music teachers, it makes sense to go where the students are….school! I have left my name and contact information with several of the local school music teachers.
Finally, my biggest connections have come through my church. Never underestimate the power of volunteering when making connections. At the beginning of the school year, I began volunteering my services as the music teacher to the 4th-8th grade students at Shepherd of the Valley Lutheran School. Two weeks later….ta-da! I was asked to take on five new piano students from the school.
The key to successful networking is to never give up; always be on the lookout for new contacts, especially in the world of music teaching. If you have any more networking suggestions for me; please let me know!
Guest Blogger, Emma Veers
Sunday, October 16, 2011
Saturday, August 13, 2011
Musings of a Beginner
Our guest blogger is Emma Veers. She graduated from Wisconsin Lutheran College, Milwaukee, WI, in May with a Bachelor of Science degree in Educational Studies and minors in piano pedagogy and mathematics. Following graduation, she moved to Golden, CO, with plans to pursue a Master’s degree in Piano Pedagogy. In the meantime, Emma has taken on the challenge of setting up a piano studio from scratch in an area where she has few connections. Readers in the greater Denver area, feel free to help her out!
Although I’ve taken piano lessons continuously for the past fifteen years, I never realized the amount of work my teachers put into my lessons until I attempted to take on the noble teaching profession myself. Even my piano pedagogy classes in college did not fully prepare me for setting up my own studio and taking on paying students. Here are a few examples where experience proved to be the best guide.
In my first piano pedagogy class, my professor required that we put together a potential “studio policy.” However, writing down rules that I thought I might want to include in my future policy differed greatly from actually putting a policy into practice. Before putting a policy into practice, the teacher needs to have a means of enforcing this policy. (Teaching reminds me of parenting in this respect; don’t make promises or threats if you have no means of following through!) For example, when it comes to paying for lessons, I state in my policy that payment is due at the beginning of the month for the entire month. However, if a parent says “oh, I’m sorry, I forgot to bring my checkbook this week, can I pay you next week?” I have to trust that this parent will pay me eventually unless I have a solution in place, such as a late payment fee.
Then there is the task of selecting method books to use. Unfortunately, this decision is complicated by the fact that many, many method books exist, each with slight differences that tend to trip up the unsuspecting rookie teacher. I learned this the hard way when I tried Hal Leonard’s new series “American Popular Piano” last year with a beginning eighth grade student. As I glanced through the series, I thought its hands on approach and use of popular sounding music would be perfect for motivating my student. Unfortunately, this series would have been easier to use as a supplementary series than a standalone series, and this made my lesson planning difficult. Oops!
Speaking of lesson planning, do experienced teachers actually write “lesson plans” for each of their students before each lesson? When I took piano lessons, it always seemed that my teachers would just open up to the next page in my lesson book and teach from that. However, now I need to write notes to myself before I teach each lesson, or I find myself blanking on what to say next.
These are just a few of the “surprises” I have encountered so far in my first year of teaching. Stay tuned for more as the year unfolds :)
Although I’ve taken piano lessons continuously for the past fifteen years, I never realized the amount of work my teachers put into my lessons until I attempted to take on the noble teaching profession myself. Even my piano pedagogy classes in college did not fully prepare me for setting up my own studio and taking on paying students. Here are a few examples where experience proved to be the best guide.
In my first piano pedagogy class, my professor required that we put together a potential “studio policy.” However, writing down rules that I thought I might want to include in my future policy differed greatly from actually putting a policy into practice. Before putting a policy into practice, the teacher needs to have a means of enforcing this policy. (Teaching reminds me of parenting in this respect; don’t make promises or threats if you have no means of following through!) For example, when it comes to paying for lessons, I state in my policy that payment is due at the beginning of the month for the entire month. However, if a parent says “oh, I’m sorry, I forgot to bring my checkbook this week, can I pay you next week?” I have to trust that this parent will pay me eventually unless I have a solution in place, such as a late payment fee.
Then there is the task of selecting method books to use. Unfortunately, this decision is complicated by the fact that many, many method books exist, each with slight differences that tend to trip up the unsuspecting rookie teacher. I learned this the hard way when I tried Hal Leonard’s new series “American Popular Piano” last year with a beginning eighth grade student. As I glanced through the series, I thought its hands on approach and use of popular sounding music would be perfect for motivating my student. Unfortunately, this series would have been easier to use as a supplementary series than a standalone series, and this made my lesson planning difficult. Oops!
Speaking of lesson planning, do experienced teachers actually write “lesson plans” for each of their students before each lesson? When I took piano lessons, it always seemed that my teachers would just open up to the next page in my lesson book and teach from that. However, now I need to write notes to myself before I teach each lesson, or I find myself blanking on what to say next.
These are just a few of the “surprises” I have encountered so far in my first year of teaching. Stay tuned for more as the year unfolds :)
Sunday, October 10, 2010
Charter School
I have several contacts but one can never have too many suggestions. It will be a wonderful opportunity to give a great experience to students who don't do well in the traditional classroom environment.
Sally Ritchie
Scoring
Points were given for each activity in our camp. We had thought of using music money but my problem with that is that I did not want them equating their progress with money.
We decided to use pony beads. We gave them out throughout the camp........we actually didn't have any method for that other than the fact that everyone would get beads for each activity. The winning team would get the most but each team got beads for trying. The students really got into choosing their beads and stringing them on the necklaces that they wore during camp. At the end, we gave ribbons to the top three bead-earners, but each camper got some small prizes.
Just a note here: next year I would have them leave their bead necklaces at the camp instead of taking them home to bring back the next day. As I should have expected, two of the kids forgot their beads for the last day. We did eventually get them back to use for next year.
We decided to use pony beads. We gave them out throughout the camp........we actually didn't have any method for that other than the fact that everyone would get beads for each activity. The winning team would get the most but each team got beads for trying. The students really got into choosing their beads and stringing them on the necklaces that they wore during camp. At the end, we gave ribbons to the top three bead-earners, but each camper got some small prizes.
Just a note here: next year I would have them leave their bead necklaces at the camp instead of taking them home to bring back the next day. As I should have expected, two of the kids forgot their beads for the last day. We did eventually get them back to use for next year.
And that brings me to a summary of camp. Both Bradd and I were extremely pleased with the camp. The students really were excited about it and we have had several requests to do it again next year. Our administration was very supportive and would like it to be a regular part of the summer program offered at school. We have ideas for other camps and since now we will have their help to get the information to our students, we should have an even better turn out for next year. It was probably best that we had this year with a smaller group (we had 24 campers) so we could see how it worked. We will be doing a camp wrap up together to file our materials and thoughts as to what worked best and what didn't work as well as we would have liked. We did many things that I haven't mentioned in the blog but anyone who would like to know more can contact us.
Sally Ritchie
Sally Ritchie
Sunday, September 5, 2010
Note Names
Our introduction to note names began with the grand staff and an expanded explanation as to why some of the campers use only one clef for their instruments. Note naming exercises were done as a group before moving on to any of the note name games.
Stinky Sock Revisited
Revising the Stinky Sock game involved changing the slips of paper to include words made by using the letters A through G. The camper that was left holding the sock when the music stopped had to choose a paper and spell that word on the staff using notes (more details on this game in the previous post).
Note Name Relay Race
NoteWordy Level 3 (Whirligig, LLP game) card decks were perfect for playing a note name relay race. Each team for this game consisted of two campers.
Campers could take home note naming worksheets for extra points. I had made some note name sheets on which each measure spelled a word. To keep some campers from just guessing at the words rather than actually figuring out all note names, some of the words were spelled backwards.
Sally Ritchie
Stinky Sock Revisited
Revising the Stinky Sock game involved changing the slips of paper to include words made by using the letters A through G. The camper that was left holding the sock when the music stopped had to choose a paper and spell that word on the staff using notes (more details on this game in the previous post).
Note Name Relay Race
NoteWordy Level 3 (Whirligig, LLP game) card decks were perfect for playing a note name relay race. Each team for this game consisted of two campers.
- The first player on the team looked at the first word on a prepared "word list."
- He or she then chose the "note" cards from the NoteWordy Level 3 card deck which would spell the first word.
- With "note" cards in hand, he or she ran to the other side of the room.
- Once there, the "note" cards were used to spell the "word list" word for the teammate.
- The second player had to write down the word that the cards spelled.
- Play continued with the second player choosing a word from a prepared "word list."
- When "time" was called the team that had the most correct words won!
Campers could take home note naming worksheets for extra points. I had made some note name sheets on which each measure spelled a word. To keep some campers from just guessing at the words rather than actually figuring out all note names, some of the words were spelled backwards.
Sally Ritchie
Sunday, August 29, 2010
Music Terms and Symbols
Trying to find different ways of presenting and reinforcing music terms and symbols in an exciting way, proved to be a little more difficult. Our beginner group had very little knowledge of this concept and was a bit overwhelmed with trying to learn them in a short time. For the students with previous music lessons it was easier since we could just expand on what they already knew.
Stinky Sock
We began by introducing the basics and then played a game called Stinky Sock (I had seen it mentioned on a Yahoo piano teacher chat group forum).
Memory Game
The card deck from The Whirligig, LLP game Legato Lake Level 2 was used to play a memory game.
We separated the cards into categories. Approximately half of the terms from the deck were used each time we played so that the games didn't take too long. For our beginning students we started with the more basic terms. The more experienced group used the half of the deck with more advanced terms. They were still all playing the same game at the same time so it wasn't obvious to them that there were different levels.
I had worried that it would be much too tame in comparison to the other more active games but the students really enjoyed it. I think it was good to have a combination of very active and then more calm activities.
Music Category Game
Bradd and I made a Music Outburst type game. It is a game where teams are given a category and have to "yell" words that relate to the category.
Some examples of our categories were
Worksheets
We made many worksheets for the campers to do if they were out of a game early or just to take home and bring back finished for extra points. I'll explain our scoring method in a later blog entry.
Sally Ritchie
Stinky Sock
We began by introducing the basics and then played a game called Stinky Sock (I had seen it mentioned on a Yahoo piano teacher chat group forum).
- Different music terms, symbols, and questions were written on small pieces of paper which were then placed in the very dirty sock.
- Music played while the students passed (mostly actually threw) the sock around the circle.
- When the music stopped, whoever had the sock had to take a piece of paper out of the sock and do whatever was on the paper (the paper might say to give an example for the term "forte" and the player would need to talk loudly).
- Fun instructions were included in with the music terms, symbols, and questions -- hop three times before you can throw the sock or turn around twice before giving the sock to the next person.
- Anyone who answered incorrectly was out and moved on to a different game designed to work more on music terms.
Memory Game
The card deck from The Whirligig, LLP game Legato Lake Level 2 was used to play a memory game.
We separated the cards into categories. Approximately half of the terms from the deck were used each time we played so that the games didn't take too long. For our beginning students we started with the more basic terms. The more experienced group used the half of the deck with more advanced terms. They were still all playing the same game at the same time so it wasn't obvious to them that there were different levels.
I had worried that it would be much too tame in comparison to the other more active games but the students really enjoyed it. I think it was good to have a combination of very active and then more calm activities.
Music Category Game
Bradd and I made a Music Outburst type game. It is a game where teams are given a category and have to "yell" words that relate to the category.
Some examples of our categories were
- name things related to rhythm
- things relating to tempo
- things you would find in a band room
Worksheets
We made many worksheets for the campers to do if they were out of a game early or just to take home and bring back finished for extra points. I'll explain our scoring method in a later blog entry.
Sally Ritchie
Saturday, August 21, 2010
Rhythm!
After the first day of camp we were able to do more activities rather than so much instruction.
The second day began with a short review of note values for our beginners and then added more emphasis on eighth notes. After some counting practice, we played a game called Telephone which was one of the TCW games (I can't find a link to that game or I would put that in). I had purchased a set of children's handbells and thought they would work well for this game. Each child was given a rhythm card and when the operator called his or her rhythm on his bell, the student with that rhythm would have to ring it back right away or get disconnected. It was fun! We had several players get disconnected, but when they heard that ring again, they could beg to be reconnected. We stressed that they really had to sound very sincere so it got pretty animated. The students had a great time with that.
Another rhythm activity combined a drum circle and the rhythm cards from the Rhythm Riot game (Whirligig game). We divided the campers into groups of three and gave them a rhythm to practice. We had a "beat keeper" on the bass drum and the rest each had different drums and rhythm instruments. The beat keeper kept going but we signaled when each group was added or taken out. Without exception, the students enjoyed the activity. It helped to get them more independent with rhythm.
During the week, the students played an echo game where each team (they were divided into three teams) was given a few Rhythm Riot cards and they had to perform the rhythms on the cards. The other teams had to echo that rhythm without seeing it. It was a great listening game.
We also did a bell circle...................giving each student a different rhythm and they had to keep the bells going by taking turns playing the rhythm on their cards. Any player who couldn't keep the circle going was out. After a short time, everyone would move to the bell on their right and get a different rhythm.
I wrote a "Jammin' Rap" and had some fun with rhythm in a different type of format. The more advanced group actually choreographed their parts for the rap and we did a performance for the fathers when they came to pick them up on the last day. It was really cute!
Of course the big hit for the camp was the trash can game. It was done similar to a drum circle but each student had a pair of drum sticks and they were playing their rhythms on trash cans. The cans were different sizes and even included some plastic garbage cans for a different sound. It was exciting for them (and extremely loud). They wanted to sound good though and so tried very hard. By the end of camp it was sounding great! We were amazed at how well they did!
More to come on activities for other concepts that were covered!
Sally Ritchie
The second day began with a short review of note values for our beginners and then added more emphasis on eighth notes. After some counting practice, we played a game called Telephone which was one of the TCW games (I can't find a link to that game or I would put that in). I had purchased a set of children's handbells and thought they would work well for this game. Each child was given a rhythm card and when the operator called his or her rhythm on his bell, the student with that rhythm would have to ring it back right away or get disconnected. It was fun! We had several players get disconnected, but when they heard that ring again, they could beg to be reconnected. We stressed that they really had to sound very sincere so it got pretty animated. The students had a great time with that.
Another rhythm activity combined a drum circle and the rhythm cards from the Rhythm Riot game (Whirligig game). We divided the campers into groups of three and gave them a rhythm to practice. We had a "beat keeper" on the bass drum and the rest each had different drums and rhythm instruments. The beat keeper kept going but we signaled when each group was added or taken out. Without exception, the students enjoyed the activity. It helped to get them more independent with rhythm.
During the week, the students played an echo game where each team (they were divided into three teams) was given a few Rhythm Riot cards and they had to perform the rhythms on the cards. The other teams had to echo that rhythm without seeing it. It was a great listening game.
We also did a bell circle...................giving each student a different rhythm and they had to keep the bells going by taking turns playing the rhythm on their cards. Any player who couldn't keep the circle going was out. After a short time, everyone would move to the bell on their right and get a different rhythm.
I wrote a "Jammin' Rap" and had some fun with rhythm in a different type of format. The more advanced group actually choreographed their parts for the rap and we did a performance for the fathers when they came to pick them up on the last day. It was really cute!
Of course the big hit for the camp was the trash can game. It was done similar to a drum circle but each student had a pair of drum sticks and they were playing their rhythms on trash cans. The cans were different sizes and even included some plastic garbage cans for a different sound. It was exciting for them (and extremely loud). They wanted to sound good though and so tried very hard. By the end of camp it was sounding great! We were amazed at how well they did!
More to come on activities for other concepts that were covered!
Sally Ritchie
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