hat's new? Another teaching year! And since by this time, most of us have either already begun or are just about ready to begin our 2002-03 academic year of teaching, it seems appropriate to once again focus on our goals for the year-our "new-year" resolutions, so-to-speak. As always, during the summer I took a look back at my teaching over the past year, and here are a few miscellaneous things I am resolving to zero-in on during this new year:

• Developing students who acquire the "dictionary habit"-students who actually see new musical terms in their pieces and who are more curious about their meaning. (After the first year of study, I ask all of my students to purchase a pocket-size music dictionary and to look up all new musical terms.) This year, I plan to ask them to not only keep a "dictionary list" of all of these words and their meanings in the back of their assignment notebooks, but to also write the definition of each term beside the word on the music itself.
• Developing more student interest and awareness of both the titles and composers of the pieces they are studying as well as of the music history that surrounds them. (The monthly group lesson provides a perfect forum for students to share such information with their peers.)
• On a personal note, I plan to continue pursuing my long-standing goal of teaching at least ten or more new pieces during the year-music that I've never taught before. (I've found this to be a tried and true panacea for possible burnout!)
• Being sure that a student never leaves a lesson without having experienced going "beyond the notes" with at least one piece-that is, experiencing the joy of music-making that can only really occur when the performance goes well beyond just accuracy and technical security!
• Continuing the pursuit of a lesson environment that is more student-centered than teacher-centered.

Apropos of this final item, some of you may recall that this was the subject of the Editor's Page a year ago in the Autumn 2001 issue of the magazine. Now, one year later, I can report that pursuing this goal has truly had a positive effect on both my teaching and the lesson atmosphere during the 2001-02 teaching season. Here are some of the strategies that were used:

• Students were sometimes asked how they would like to begin the lesson-with technique warm-ups, or with a piece? If they chose technique, then they selected the activity they wished to do-scales, arpeggios, Hanon, etc.; if they chose to begin with a piece, they picked the piece. (Although ideologically, I strongly support the importance of beginning practice with technical warm-ups to get the muscles, ears, and of course, the brain, ready to feel, listen, and think, still, I believe that sometimes offering students a choice for the beginning lesson activity provides a welcome change of pace. During the course of the year, it was interesting to me to discover that whenever students were given such a choice, more often than not, they actually chose to begin with technique warm-ups rather than repertoire. This, to me, was an indication that doing this pre-performance activity-whose importance I continue to stress-is well on its way to becoming a habit in most students' home practice!)
• In the area of technique, students were sometimes asked to create their own warm-ups rather than always doing just exercises which I assigned. (They like to do this, and most of the time, I have found their exercises to be not only imaginative, but also quite useful, technically.)
• Sometimes when a new piece was to be assigned, I would play several possible options and let the student choose the one he or she would most like to learn. This approach is almost always an effective motivator!
• When a student finished playing a piece, before I made any comments, I would ask the student what he or she liked about the performance; next, I would ask for suggestions of things to do with the piece in practice during the coming week-procedures for making it more accurate, or more secure technically, or enhancing its musicality, etc. And frequently, I would ask for a demonstration of whatever practice steps were suggested. Of course I would also add my two cents worth, but only after first receiving the student's input.
• Students were sometimes assigned "on-own" pieces-music to be worked out without receiving any help whatsoever. For such an assignment, they were usually also asked to write down a list of the practice steps they used. (My students always seem to enjoy doing "on-own" pieces. For me, this assignment is extremely valuable because it enables me to assess what has thus far been successfully taught in the areas of reading, rhythm, technique, musicality, and how to practice. And of course, conversely, it elucidates what points have not yet been made so that these can continue to be a primary focus both at the lesson and in the assignment.)

At the bottom of each week's assignment sheet, students were given questions to answer about their preceding week of practice:

• How was it? (Great? Pretty Good? Not so good?) And we'd often discuss the reason for the student's answer to this question, particularly if the response was, "Not so good." ("Why was it not so good, and what could you have done to make it better?")
• With what did you make the most progress? (And I would be sure to hear this piece or activity.)
• What was your favorite piece? Your least favorite piece? (Usually, the least favorite turned out to be a piece with which the student was having problems, so I'd almost always opt to hear this one at the lesson. It was interesting to note how this "least favorite" frequently became one of the favorites later on as the student became more successful with it.)

For our monthly group lessons, students usually always select the pieces they want to play. During the past year, they were frequently asked to come to class with a question about one of the pieces they would perform, i.e. "How can I practice the scale passages in this section to get rid of the stumbles?" Or, "What can I do to be able to bring out the upper note in these RH chords?" etc. (It was wonderful for me to be able to sit back and observe the class members volunteering suggestions, and then to watch the performers often experience on-the-spot improvement as they tried out the various procedures suggested by their peers.)

I believe that during this past teaching year, all seven of the above strategies played a significant role in promoting group and private lessons that were indeed more student-centered. I also believe that in this environment, because of more student participation, lessons were not only more fun (both for me and the students), but probably more learning (and thinking!) also took place than if the lessons had been primarily teacher-centered. Needless to say, during this new teaching year, I plan to continue my pursuit of ways to ensure that each lesson is a well-balanced partnership between teacher and student.

We invite you to share with us the "new-year resolutions" you plan on implementing in this year's teaching.

About Our Cover Picture

 Elvina Pearce, editor-in-chief of KEYBOARD COMPANION, interviews pianist Nelita True who discusses practice at the piano - both her own and that of her students.