A new resource for the new year: A Piano Teacher's Planning Kit

Why do piano teachers need a planning kit? Lesson time is precious. We only have 30 to 60 minutes a week to pack in everything we want students to know before they step out of our studio into the "real world."

For years I've been calling the time between lessons the "black hole."

Even if parents attend every lesson, Even if we write amazingly thorough lesson notes, Even if we hope to have full control, in reality, teachers have minimal ability to drive what happens between lessons...

There's no guarantee that students will do what we want them to do, which is…practice so they make progress!

This is the biggest challenge of teaching piano: getting students to practice.

When practice and progress don’t happen, it's discouraging for the teacher, the student and the parent. When students come back to the studio with jaw-dropping progress, it feels mighty good. Our collective goal is quite simple: we want to experience success and satisfaction every week with every student.

This connection between student practice and progress has everything to do with what happens AT the lesson.

That’s where A Piano Teacher’s Planning Kit comes in. It provides the framework for your lesson plans and includes the components listed below. Watch the video to learn more.

https://youtu.be/3pBSzoCP_50

A Lesson Plan

Method books provide a sequential curriculum but, it’s still crucial that you plan on how to proceed in a lesson. You need to be armed with a plan so you are prepared for the brief time you have with students. It doesn’t need to be complicated and can be trimmed down to three simple sentences.

A Lesson Template

A four-step lesson template helps to implement your plan. When you rely regularly on this template, it’s like breathing and becomes a natural part of every lesson.

A Sample Lesson Assignment Sheet

A lesson assignment sheet created in Google Sheets is ideal for delivering your expectations to students between lessons. There’s many other ways that work but, this one can save a good deal of time and paper and spare your students from reading your messy handwriting!

A Sample Scope and Sequence

This document gives you a sneak peek at how to organize concepts, resources and apps that can assist you in your lesson plan. Creating a “big picture” project like this takes discipline but, keeps you on track. You’ll be thankful to have this map as you teach from week to week and year to year.

Practice Strategies for Practice Stages

A four-stage practice agenda will equip you with a system for clearly communicating practice strategies to your students and help them develop strong practice habits. This component of the kit not only shares student-tested and approved practice strategies, it equips you with tools that will help YOU communicate them and save time!

Let me explain… It's common to see articles, posts and products geared to help students practice more efficiently between lessons. Recently, it dawned on me that how I communicate practice strategies could be improved. My lesson notes include instructions that I repeat over and over and over. I'm not sure why I didn't think of this sooner but, I've found a way to streamline the communication of practice instructions.

Who doesn't want to save time and write less during a lesson?

A Piano Teacher’s Planning Kit equips YOU with tips and tools to help students practice more efficiently. I guarantee it! To understand more about this style of teaching and learn more about what triggered this resource, listen to my interview with Tim Topham on his Creative Pianist podcast.

This kit organizes my approach and will do the same for you.

When you’re finished listening, A Piano Teacher’s Planning Kit will equip you with direction and time-saving guidance for lessons in 2018 and for years to come.

Get it here while it's on sale!

Bonus! Get a complimentary copy of "Technical Difficulties Made Easier" with your purchase.

The resource is offered as a studio license which means you can share it with other teachers in your studio but not outside your studio.

Happy new year and happy teaching,

-Leila