So Thankful for Hard Working Students

I just love it when my students grab onto an incentive idea and run with it. My last student of the day came to her lesson SO excited today! She had finished all the games in her current level of MusicLearningCommunity.com. Our agreement was that she would earn $100 composer bucks when she finished a level, and this totally inspired her to finish in 1 week. All of a sudden I saw a huge leap in her understanding and ability to sightread. How fun is it to teach a really motivated student?! I'm so grateful for this spurt in growth.

This year shines as one of my most successful teaching years. After 30+ years I'm finally doing something right! Back row from left: Ben, who is a senior next year and doing PSEO, Ellen, who is homeschooled and performed an almost perfect Level 6 Piano Exam (first piano exam she's done), Mary, who has a scholarship as a piano major at Northwestern College, studying with Dr. Barbara Rogers, and Jackie, who has done an incredible job of progressing in piano while taking many AP courses in high school; Middle Row: Jessica, who was a finalist in the State Piano Contest and plays with great enthusiasm, Hannah, who loves the arts and surprises me with her progress at every lesson, Hailey, who did a great job on 2 recital pieces, Bryce, who practices 7 days a week most weeks and has incredible fun and personality in his playing, Devin, who has come a long way in a short time as a beginner, Marah, who was so excited at her lesson today; Front Row: 6 yr. old twins Sydney and Alexis, who played our own arrangement of Twinkle, Twinkle after only 6 lessons. Wow! I love teaching these students and consider myself so blessed to have them in my life.