The best teachers are lifelong learners, always questioning the way they do things and trying to better themselves. When we continue to learn, we stay passionate about our teaching and have a better understanding of our students. One great avenue for professional development is to study for a teaching diploma.
Tess Hill designed the syllabus for the CTMusA (Certificate of Teaching Music Australia) and is passionate about helping teachers. She mentors candidates for the AMEB teaching diplomas, as well as examining and teaching piano students. She loves helping teachers to improve their teaching skills, and discover new ways to inspire young learners.
Having a teaching mentor and taking lessons yourself is really the best way to improve your teaching. We can learn so much by modelling more experienced teachers, much more than we can from a book. As Tess says to her students:
“Do it my way until you’ve find a better way, and when you’ve found a better way come back and tell me because I want to do it!”
Tess’s passion for pedagogy is inspirational. Whether you’re in Australia or elsewhere I think you’ll learn a lot from her approach to teacher mentoring.
Yes, this month I’m sponsoring my own podcast!
TopMusicPro (formerly The Inner Circle) is my private community of the best piano teachers from all across the globe who are committed to creative teaching, progressive piano pedagogy and creating the best learning opportunities for their students.
As a member of the TopMusicPro, you get access to all of my resources including my top-rated PianoFlix 8-part video course all about teaching pop music, videos of me teaching my students, tech-training videos to help you see how to use apps in your teaching, recordings of all my live workshops and keynote speeches and much more.
You’ll get to hang out with me and all the other members on our Monthly Member Masterminds and you get free access to all my downloads, PDFs, lesson plans and resources. You may also like to accept one of our regular member challenges designed to get you trying new things, pushing your comfort zone and improving your teaching.
Connect with expert teachers from all over the world including the likes of Bradley Sowash, Hugh Sung, Paul Myatt, Leila Viss, Daniel McFarlane, Nick Ambrosino and many more. Access exclusive member bonuses including discounts on courses and sheet music that are simply not available anywhere else.
Best of all, you’re membership gives you access to our members’ forum where you can ask any questions you want, share ideas, upload resources and generally hang-out with the most dedicated, creative, fun and friendly teachers from all over the world.
Keen to try it out? Click the button below to learn more.
Forte School of Music has been a success story in Australia and around 4,000 students with music schools in all major capital cities and in New Zealand and the UK. Many of you will know Gillian & Paul from Episode 33. Paul Myatt is one of my Expert Teachers in TopMusicPro.
Gillian and Paul are looking for entrepreneurial music teachers who are interested in building successful businesses in Australia and other countries along with the opportunity to be the master franchisor for a territory. Forte schools can build to the size you’re able to manage, some schools are small with just a couple of hundred students while other have nearly 1,000 students and a million dollar turnover.
Having been in business for 22 years the keys to success are simple, quality courses with a pedagogically sound curriculum, business system, current marketing strategies and a positive attitude for success. Some of the backgrounds of the school owners are: AMEB Examiners, Piano Teachers, Opera Singers and Guitarists. Check out the website to meet the other Forte Business Partners to download a Forte Prospectus.
There are a lot of podcasts you could be tuning into today, and I’m grateful that you’ve chosen mine.
Being a full-time teacher myself, I know how busy teachers are and how much time, effort and passion we put into our students. Sometimes, the last thing we want to do in our time off is listen to more piano teaching stuff! So, well done for using this time for self-improvement.
Whether you’re at the gym, on the bike or in the car, I know that you and your students will get lots out of what you learn in the long run. Just make sure you try out some of the ideas before they get lost in the business of your next lessons.
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Have you taken a teaching diploma? Or worked with a more experienced teacher in a different way?
Are you considering studying for a diploma or taking some lessons yourself?
If you have any questions for me to pass on to Tess, please feel free to leave them in the comments.