The iPad and the Music Teacher Darlene Irwin
Today is my first time blogging... it’s a little scary, but here goes!
My name is Darlene Irwin. I have a Bachelor of Music in Education and an Associate Diploma in Piano Performance from The Royal Conservatory of Toronto. I am a member of the Ontario Registered Music Teachers Association and have served as president of our local branch. I have been teaching piano for many years. It is my love and my passion. I am also the author of "The Student Music Organizer" along with many other great teaching tools and aids.
I am very excited to begin my blogging journey. My hope is that this will be a place where music teachers and students alike can talk about and discuss the very important task of inspiring our students. I envision a place where we can share ideas and help each other along the way.
If you would like to receive notification of new blog entries and be part of the musical discussion, then please sign up for our mailing list. Please pass this along to any of your friends, colleagues or students. This post is just the beginning of a musical collaboration.
The iPad and the Music Teacher
This post is the first in a series for music teachers about getting the most out of your iPad. The iPad is an amazing tool for teachers. I literally use my iPad EVERY DAY I teach! It really has revolutionized my teaching. In this post, I will talk about two of the apps that I use most for managing my music studio:
Calendar
You can use the iPad calendar for keeping track of your teaching schedule... everything you need right at your fingertips. You can also colour-code your entries. I have different colours for regular lessons, lessons that have been changed, missed lessons, part-time lessons etc. At the beginning of each lesson, I set an alarm to sound when the lesson is over (with 5-minute warning). This helps me keep right on time.
The search feature on the calendar is also very handy. I number the lessons #1-35 for the year. I can then type in a student’s name and up comes all their lessons scheduled for the year. (Note: the calendar will only search for the past year, so it's not ideal if you are looking for something further back than that).
Contacts
I have all of my students grouped together in the iPad's contact list. That way, I have all of their information conveniently accessible in the studio. I have separate entries for the parents and for each of the students. I put the birthdays of the students right on the calendar. For parents, I store the names of both parents, phone numbers (home, work, cell), e-mail address, home address etc. In the notes section, I can put specific information about each student such as: age in September, school, school grade, piano grade, goals etc. I also keep their information for doing exams, i.e. exam number. I take pictures of each of my students on their first lesson, which can be added right into their contact sheet.
Stay tuned for more posts sharing creative ways to integrate the iPad in your teaching.