Why Organizations Grow With Us

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This is a free newsletter. If you really, really like what I do, it would be a good thing to subscribe for $5.00 per month. Better if also you share this with other teachers and musicians and music educators who then subscribe. Best if you also hire us to transform your staff and instructors, thus raising student competencies, improving teacher retention, increasing profit, expanding morale and career satisfaction and changing the educational world one note at a time.

This is what I do:

We help professional musicians and first year music education teachers make the successful transition to Effective Educator.

Most professional musicians and most first year music ed teachers know their musical stuff and the theoretical this-is-what-to-do.

But it’s not real until it’s real.

When you teach for a full 16 weeks, then you get it. THEN you get it because of all the behind-the-scenes stuff you can’t see yet.

And EVERYONE needs help. It’s not you.

You know theoretically what to do, but until you are face to face with a student who thinks you’re an idiot and will make no bones saying so, and you can’t respond like you might in The Wild, and your boss asks about your classroom management skills instead of backing you up, you.don’t.know.

This is what teachers do for a living:

Think of something you do so well that you can do it in your sleep. Or regularly in front of 5,000 paying people (that’s what musicians do).

Now, explain how to do that…to…anyone.

Break each step down so clearly that a ten year old can get it and can demonstrate competency.

And do so with a good attitude and without cursing or referencing anything in-appropriate. All the time.

And be sure you can consistently explain and demonstrate all day or at least for four hours a day, four or five days a week. For ten to 100 or more students per week who are different levels of motivation and competency, sometimes within the same hour. Always with a good attitude. All the time.

And also make sure you can show clear progress, which you planned for in writing two weeks in advance and in a way that is appropriate for the age and maturity of the student, which is often varied within the class or studio and overseen often by those who have never been in a classroom or taught a day in their lives but can run rings around a profit-and-loss statement.

Yep.

That’s where I come in.

1. The Piano Instructor offers one day professional development seminars. This is best for reminders—here’s the law on privacy and copyright, make sure you remember to involve all the senses when teaching, use positive language and here are some examples, remember that muscle memory is best so Be The Model For What You Want To See, and so on.
   
2. On the other end of our scale is the Semester Intensive. This is where we work closely with the professors at XYZ Conservatory or ABC Studio. For 16 weeks, we meet at least once a week for 15 minutes (max). We sit in on classes and observe with a written list of Things That Good Teachers Do that is shared in advance and analyzed privately with encouragement. We team-teach to help relieve the load of the Lead Teacher. New teachers have access to call off-hours to vent and ask how to handle situations that come up.
   
3. If you need more than a tune-up but not so much of a deep intensive, we can then create the curriculum and meeting calendar as you want. You tell us what the major issues are in terms of new teachers (which is usually retention) and we help you retain your teachers. It’s that simple.

The people leading your training are all certified teachers and working musicians.

Please understand what this means:

There are too many workshop and seminars lead by people who have no idea what they are talking about. They’ve not studied or maintained their certs, they are not hosting courses or teaching, and in many cases they believe that what they currently know about their instrument is all they need to know.

Here’s something else:

In order to be certified in the state of Michigan, you must have completed an approved certification program. You also must have at least a Bachelors degree, and most certification holders have earned a minor degree as well.

In addition, to maintain the certification, you must complete either 150 professional development hours, or complete six university credit hours, or some combination of the two every six years.

You must have passed an FBI background check, and when you leave one school or organization to go to another, you must be rechecked.

And remember we are working musicians—which means a whole other set of skills are present. We practice, collaborate, negotiate, listen, rehearse.

Finally, if you’re doing all that, and you’re working for a company that helps train other teachers (ThePianoInstructor.net), I can tell you with all of my heart that we are Geeks of The Highest Order for Education and are also musicians who love to Get Down Wit It, and we want to share the tips and tricks and humor and support and then jam afterwards so that you can get it all out and get it all in.

Ours is the Dream Team you want when you’re struggling and wondering “How do we…?”

So what’s the very first thing we teach in the professional development workshop or semester long coaching or our calendared schedule?

The very first thing I teach, after introductions have been made and food has been consumed and beverages have been savored, is the process by which sound travels.

*crickets *

Ok, so that sounds…uh…not exciting when I write it out like this.

But think about it—it’s THE MOST EXCITING THING EVER.

Everything we do as music teachers revolves around how the vibrations are generated, directed, felt and embodied. By the end of this portion, you know in your physical being how to explain the hows and whys of what we do.

This single lesson, if you learn nothing else from me, is one of those lessons that repeatedly changes perspectives of educators and introduces new ways of teaching that are personal and unique to this generation. It has to come first.

And I have enough receipts to show that the way we do it will—must—show up in your teaching. If I may quote Rush:

The blacksmith and the artist
Reflect it in their art
They forge their creativity
Closer to the heart

My creativity is showing you how to be creative in your instruction while maintaining your You—as a team, as an individual, as a staff member, as an educational leader, as a musician.

Let’s.

I can be seen at YouTube, heard on Spotify, read on Substack. I clearly would love to train your new teachers. Contact me, email me at Info@ThePianoInstructor.net.