When do you kick off fall semester? My fall semester begins next week. I just got back from vacation so I’m busy pulling everything together. Luckily, all the big stuff was done before I left so now it’s all the little things that can add up.

In my piano studio, I do what is called, Fall Kickoff for the first lesson of the year. All my students come on their normal lesson day at the same time. I introduce our new theme. (This year it is the A.N.T.H.E.M. program) If they can’t make it on their normal lesson day at that time, they just come on a different day. We do some kind of activity or game together and then we share what we have done over the summer. In the past that was through the Summer Practice Projects they would work on, but after 6 years of doing that, I decided it was time to change things up. So this year I gave the challenge for students to “Suprise the Teacher“.

Surprise the Teacher is exactly how it sounds. I wanted students to do something musical over the summer to keep their skills up while we were on break. Anything goes, but something they can share with me when they return for our Fall Kickoff. I gave them some suggestions but told them they were not limited to those suggestions. I try to give my students general guidelines or ideas to get their wheels turning. It’s always fun when a student thinks out of the box and I never want to discourage that. Here is the flyer they received from me…

How do you kick off your fall semester?

I recently opened up my Music Educator Community Facebook group to all music teachers who enjoy my resources. It’s a nice mix of both private and classroom music teachers in the group. 

I would love to see you there! Happy Teaching!