I happen to love holiday and Christmas music, and it is not just that the melodies are so classic and they conjure up wonderful old memories of enjoyable times growing up with my family and church in a rural Virginia farming community. What I’ve discovered as a piano teacher is the power of one of those old melodies to actually change a young life. It...
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With a new school year in full swing, fall is a great time to motivate students and build strong practice habits. Many students are new and are highly motivated and looking for guidance. Returning students might feel renewed to do better than last year, perhaps re-energized after a summer off.
Capitalize on this “new year” mentality! Here are some ideas for setting up incentives and goals for the first few month’s of your students school year:
Every year it seems that I blog about a big change happening in my studio: renovating, hiring another teacher, taking the summer off to have a baby…and now, moving to a bigger location!
My studio has grown from being a traveling one (where I went to my student’s homes), to a small one-room space in my house, to another part of my home which includes a separate entrance, waiting room, and restroom in addition to the studio.
That has worked very well for me and my students over the last three years, but I’m at the point where I need a studio that is not located at my home. Exciting? Yes. Scary? Definitely. So why make the move when at this point in time, I have virtually no overhead costs?
Every year, I take a two-week break in December so that both my students and I can enjoy the holidays with our families. After several months of hard work, we all need that time off to recharge our batteries.
But for me, the winter vacation isn’t all play and no work. While I don’t actually see students during this time, there are some important things I do in order to ready my studio, my students, and myself for the upcoming new year.