On Surviving September

Ahhhhhh! Where did September go? The students and I are back into the swing of things. The days are long. I typically begin teaching at 3:30 and go till 9 pm. I do have a few day students on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Fridays. I've even managed to stay on top of reshelving the books used each day and getting some regular practicing in. My former teacher would be pleased that I've pulled out some senior repertoire to muck around with (mixed in with some jazz, improvising and JPop of course). With more intermediate and senior students this year, I need to stay on top of things.

Now if only I could get in the swing of things with my paperwork. I'm behind on my bookkeeping (surprise, surprise) and other admin related work.

I am so excited to have such a great bunch of students this year. Actually, I should say "families" since being able to have a good relationship with the family is fundamental to making the year go well. For the most part, the students are doing well with their practice journals, although a few haven't been keeping track as well as I'd like (or practicing as much as their parents and I would like them to). Overall though, the practice journals seem to be working. The kids are using the forms to ask insightful questions, share what they enjoyed most out of their homework and alert me to what they need help with.

Even Maestro is maturing into his role as "canine teaching assistant". He rests quietly in his "room" (his kennel) most of the time and hasn't tried to steal any stickers. Prizes though, are another story. He bonked his head on the prize drawer a couple of times while trying to steal a peek.

A few students have simply blown me away with their compositions. A few were inspired by a tune they heard, while others have come up with something unlike anything I've heard before.

Students, parents and fellow teachers, feel free to share your feelings on your year so far. As for me, I better go practice...

(c) 2006 by Musespeak(tm), Calgary, AB, Canada. All rights reserved.

Musings at Musespeak's 100th post

Happy first birthday to Musings. I can't believe that I've made 100 posts since setting up this blog. Maestro is all set for the students. He's upstairs waiting to see if anyone is going to show up today. However, I'm not quite ready for them. I still have to go shopping for some new music (The Music Tree and My First Piano Adventure to name a few), prizes and supplies. I'm really excited about trying these two books. I've heard wonderful things about The Music Tree series and I think most teachers have been eagerly anticipating Faber & Faber's release of My First Piano Adventure for over a year. The CD accompaniment is very catchy.

Some students have been moving around to different time slots. I have to finish sorting that out. Then, I really need to book a church for the recitals, clean up my office again and my computer. That's not so bad.

As you can tell, it wasn't a complete week off - but I knew that going in. I've been good though - work a bit, play a bit, sleep a lot. It's all good.

(c) 2006 by Musespeak(tm), Calgary, AB, Canada. All rights reserved.

An Adventure in Piano Lesson Plans

I'm in between temping assignments at the moment. Maestro and I did enjoy some time off but it's now time to start planning ahead for the 2006/07 year. If I can get everything done in the beginning of the month, then I can relax for the second half. At least, that's the plan. I am always looking for ways to improve how lessons are planned and run. I was at an educational store with a friend/fellow piano teacher the other day and got some ideas for games, lesson plans and materials.

I have also revised the practicing contract, inspired by a goal sheet posted online by another teacher and created a Practice Journal/Assignment sheet (new). I will ask all the parents to copy enough of these sheets to last the school year. The incentive program will be tied more closely to how much and how well they practiced. I did have something like it last year but things did get out of hand with students earning as much as two swanky prizes every lesson because they improvised six songs and memorized one. Progress wasn't as steady for some of them because of this. I guess I was too easy them.

Now, they will have to work a little harder for their prizes, which will be much easier on my wallet. If they complete 90 - 100% of their homework, they will get three stars. If they complete 80 - 89% of their homework, they will get two stars and if they complete 70 - 79% of their homework done, they will get one star. Stars will be given to students who practice more than the recommended guidelines and the parents must initial the homework sheets for kids to cash in on the goodies. My hope is that this will get them to practice more often and strive towards balanced practicing - not just doing what they like to do.

The two things that will elicit gasps from my returning students is that now, they will have to earn 15 stars to get a prize, instead of last year's five and that the prizes will regrettably, be smaller.

Here are some of the sites I scoured to look up teaching materials such as incentive programs and lesson plans:

• Music Lesson Plans and Resources

• Pedagonet.com

• The Music Education Madness Website

Now that the templates are done, it's onto the next step - planning out 40 individualized 10 -month curricula and creating some note value, note name and rhythm supplemental material.

(c) 2006 by Musespeak(tm), Calgary, AB, Canada. All rights reserved.

Four Weddings, Two Filing Cabinets and One QuickBooks

July is nearly halfway over already? Where has this month gone? The office temp work isn't going so well. So far, I've only had one one-day assignment. I did register with a second temping agency (Mark Staffing), which sounded extremely promising and cast my resume off to a few community businesses. Someone has got to bite.

Oh I typed that in too soon. I just got a couple of phone calls - one from another temping agency that wants to see me and another from temp agency number one with a one week assignment next week. Things are starting to pick up.

In the meantime, Maestro and I have been keeping busy. We're having a lot of fun with our summer students, who are enjoying improvising, exploring popular and world music, and composing. I have completely caught up on the bookkeeping, including the adjusting entries for depreciation. Perhaps the biggest project that I finished was the filing cabinet merge/purge/clean-up.

I've got four wedding gigs slated for the summer so far, with two on the same day. Last night's rehearsal went all right. Unfortunately, the church doesn't have a piano, so the couple had to rent me a digital piano. Thankfully, I've got over a week to play with the sound settings.

This one is a unique gig because the bride is a friend and former co-worker. In the span of two hours, I wore four hats last night - hired musician, friend, kitchen helper and anime otaku. I'm looking forward to the wedding, which will be in English and Spanish. Of course, that's not the only reason why I'm looking forward to it. I'm always glad to see a friend marry a good guy.

Well, it's back to the grind. I promised Maestro an adventure as soon as I complete this afternoon's tasks.

(c) 2006 by Musespeak(tm), Calgary, AB, Canada. All rights reserved.

Summertime for Music Teachers

Most students take the summer off from music lessons. Only a small handful commit to summer lessons (to prepare for a summer exam, personal interest/motivation or parental interest/motivation). For example, I'm going from 40 students in the school year to about five for July. Where does that leave the private music teacher come summertime? Some teachers are able to take the entire summer off. From what I can tell, it's those who have a growing brood of children and a husband with a steady income and/or an established studio with no or little business debt. These folk are able to put away some money throughout the school year.

On the other hand, teachers with a relatively young studio, who have bought a house, got married and/or started a family recently do not have that luxury. Nor do teachers who wracked up some debt before starting a business (and just continued to add to it) or those who are married to someone who's also self-employed. For those of us in this category, there are but two options - run up the lines of credit a bit more (IF there's room) or get a job.

I had a wonderful interview with a temporary office staffing agency this week called OfficeJobs.com . A friend recommended it to me (her husband is the website guy). Part of me is cringing at the thought of re-entering the corporate world but another part of me is looking forward to doing something different. Give me some data entry, where I don't have to think too hard. Surround me with adults all day for a change. That's fine by me. I like my students but a change in environment is refreshing.

It'll be different from being an employee. Temps can avoid office politics, don't stay in one place too long and aren't usually given a lot of responsibility.

The change of scenery will be good. (c) 2006 by Musespeak(tm), Calgary, AB, Canada. All rights reserved.