Back to School Season

Back to School season was always my favorite as a student and a teacher. I have a passionate love for school supplies. There are few better things than the snap of a crisp notebook, blank pages waiting to meet my new collection of mechanical pencils. I love browsing Target, analyzing ailes of colored pencils, markers, and dreamy boxes holding great collections of pointy crayons, their fresh, pointy ends undisturbed. These things, and the smell of new floor wax on the hallways at school are what bring out my creative tendencies.

Now that I am no longer teaching in a regular classroom setting, I do not seem to have the need for school shopping sprees. This saddens me each year. This year I am only planning on purchasing a couple measly bags of mechanical pencils and a few packages of ballpoint pens, in blue. I do not neet to buy 250 8 cent folders as I did when I taught English. I do not need any 10 cent college ruled notebooks. I still have a surplus from three years ago. I don't even need shiny new binders, and this makes me want to go back to work.

Except, I love being a private music teacher. So I have decided to channel my back to school energy into improving my private teaching abilities. This week I am updating my lesson policies. I have created a stack of special phone cards to have on hand when people call inquiring about lessons. I get so nervous on the phone that I usually forget to tell people important things they should know, or ask important questions. I think the cards will come in handy. I am sending out emails to teachers in my city telling them I have just moved, what my music education background is and that I am interested in acquiring new students. I went to the music store (measly though it is) and got on the list of local music teachers. I am researching websites for new pedagogical techniques in piano, flute, clarinet and voice. This reminds me of things I know and have forgotten to use in my teaching, and I am learning a few new things also. Yesterday I purchased bright colored buttons for my students to place on piano keys when we do activities at their lessons. I am keeping the buttons in a glass jar. They look smart. And this week I may purchase a cupboard I have been eyeing in a store to house all my teaching materials in the living room so things don't look so cluttered. These activities make me feel happy and productive.