Putting On Our Piano Pants: The Student-Teacher Two Way Street
Practicing is definitely a two way street. I was reminded of this important dual thoroughfare is when my work with 2 different students and my own practicing intersected this week.…
IKEA Practicing: 5 Steps To Improve Learning
Can the way you put together a piece of IKEA furniture say something about the way you might approach other tasks? L J Sedgwick thinks so and advocates using the…
Giving Your Best Guess
My favorite quote about guessing comes from a Star Trek movie. No, I haven’t finally lost it. Please bear with me. Here’s the full text from IMDB. How do we get…
Vintage PA: Learning Ogi Matsuri 2
Everyone who teaches should try to learn a completely new skill every few years. It keeps you humble. It keeps you patient and kind to both yourself and to your…
Great Job!
Being specific with our praise phraseology isn't anything new. Social media is full of articles on parenting language. It helps if we as teachers also think carefully about our language. The student…
Lapbook Project For High Schoolers
Last semester I asked my high schoolers who study at the college to create a lapbook detailing one of their performance pieces. Some had no idea what a lapbook was.…
PA Shorts: What A Mess!
I mostly like surprises. I love it when students come in with their own ways of looking at things and their own ways of working out problems. I'm not so…
Smart Choices
Do you judge yourself as you practice? Those negative inner thoughts are human nature. Sometimes voices from the past echo in our heads. Sometimes, the thoughts have nothing to do…