First Recital Around the Corner

The Rockin' Hot Summer Show will happen in just under two weeks and today is one of two days of rehearsal. Instead of giving one student a specific time slot to rehearse his/her piece on the piano at the location, I am giving a group of students their own time slot. I divided 13 students among 3 time slots over 2 days.  It will be like mini masterclasses. This will allow these first time performers to see and feel what the big day will be like when performing in front of others.  In addition, I can communicate performance practices to a group of students at one time.

Music Books Falling Off the Shelf?

Ever got frustrated with having your music books on the shelf fall over every time you take a book out or try to put it back?  Ever wanted to categorize your music books by genre so it's easier to find but didn't know how?

I thought of a way that would tackle both problems:  large magazine file holders.

I found these Rubbermaid (r) magazine file holders at Walmart for about $4 each.  I grouped my books together by genre and labeled each holder with my DYMO.

Now, whenever I need to find a jazz book, I just look for the jazz file and pop that book out!  Putting it back has never been easier as well.  And no more books falling over while trying to take one out or put one back.

Lesson plan organization

Ever since I started having more than 7 students a week, I had to create a system for all the lesson plans I made for each student.  So far I've tried to simply memorize what I've covered with each student and continue off that at their next lesson.  However, that just took up too much brain power and it just wasn't working.  So I tried another system.  I bought a 3-pack of Steno notebooks and a set of colored pens.

I would write out the lesson plan using a different colored pen for each student (just to distinguish between the lesson plans).  As the weeks went by, I used a small binder clip to help me keep my place in the notebook.  This system seemed to work for a while for me.  I liked the fact that I had my lesson plan written down and I could take notes of what I was able to cover with the student, what needs improvement, and what I didn't cover.  After a few months of using this system, I started to dread doing lesson plans because I would have to re-write the lesson plan from the previous week, often with just a few minor changes.  It just became time consuming and cumbersome. So, I came up with my current plan.

I now create my lesson plans in a word processing program on the computer.  I save the file as the date of the lesson plan (e.g., "05.01.08.doc").  I then file it under the day of the week.  For example, May 1 was on a Thursday so I would put that lesson plan into the Thursday folder on my hard drive.  When I've completed making the lesson plan, I would print it out for easier access during the lesson, make notes during or after the lesson, then file the printed copy in a 7-pocket folder -- each pocket for a day of the week.

So far, this system seems to work out nicely. It is more efficient in the word processor with the copy and paste functions.  I won't have to re-write a lesson plan by hand ever again. Also, I can quickly retrieve a student's plan by going to the day of the week their lesson is held. No more flipping through the Steno notebook for previous lesson plans.

Open-Studio Management

At the beginning of the month I started reading a book called Open-Book Management. It's a concept that has been around for at least 10 years where a company gets all of its employees involved or aware in the finances of the business.

That gave me a wonderful idea to start a similar concept in my studio. I'm calling it Open-Studio Management.  I posted a spreadsheet in the studio with all of the names of my students on the left column of the chart and the lesson week dates in the first row.  I told my students that their goal for this progress chart is to get a sticker (I use happy face stickers of assorted colors) at the end of each lesson.



They have to meet two criteria:

1)  Come to their lesson prepared (i.e., homework completed and practiced their songs).

and

2) Show me that they are prepared (i.e., they stay focused with no distractions during their lessons).

If the student misses the lesson for the week, obviously s/he will not get a sticker and cannot make it up and I will mark "absent" in their square.

So far it is working.  Out of the month, I had only 1 student who did not get a sticker the first time around.  The second time around she worked harder and I was able to give her a sticker.  This system works especially well for young ones because they LOVE getting stickers and for competitive students because they get to see how everyone else is doing in their lessons.