Two years ago I had students design their own binder cover- an insert for the clear plastic covering on the plain white binder. They were all over the project and I was thrilled with some of the results.
Last year I tried the same thing – but was met with a remarkable lack of enthusiasm on the part of the students.
This year (all by myself!) I managed to design a cover to go with the Brain-themed incentive program. (I remain in awe of some of my blogger colleagues who design amazing pages, activities and programs and share with the world – like Jennifer Fink who designed this incentive). This is also in Printables – it’s a Word doc so names can be added.
While I don’t have all the goals finalized for every student yet, at least I’m giving them the covers this week and stirring up some interest. It’s pretty tough to write down individual goals for each student (I have 12 of them on this program) without seeing them at the lesson and remembering where exactly they’re at. There are some busy days ahead…
Here’s how this year stacks up:
Brand new beginners: 5
2nd year to grade 3 (late elementary): 11
Grade 4-6 (intermediate): 6
Grades 7-9 (early advanced): 9
Grade 10-diploma: 3
It’s quite a nice balance – I thoroughly enjoy teaching at every level. Notably absent from the line-up this year are theory students, aside from my own piano students who are also doing theory exams. Somehow the schedule got plugged up with piano students back in May. But that’s OK. I don’t mind a bit of a break from it for a year.
Great cover, LaDona! I like Jennifer Fink’s idea as well. I’ve been using it with my students the last couple of weeks and they are all intrigued by it. It’s funny how their eyes light up when I tell them that music builds their brains and that a musician’s brain is bigger than the average sized brain.
Oooh – I have to remember that – to tell them their brains will be bigger than normal! Thanks, Dana
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