Are Extrinsic Rewards Motivating?
The subject of motivation always interests me. Here’s a great post by Tim Topham summarizing the book on motivation called Drive. He mentions a few of the studies conducted on motivation including one on preschoolers and one on adults. The “if-then” approach to motivation (i.e. “if you do this, then I’ll give you this…”) is certainly problematic and Tim’s summary helps us see where those problems lie and how we teachers can tweak our own reward systems to be less problematic.
You can also get Drive in the Kindle edition for $9.99.
Read MoreSmash Hit Games with the Eggspert
About a month ago, I purchased the Eggspert Quizzing System and began using it in my studio. Since then, I have not stopped raving about how my students and I love it! Many of you have also purchased the inexpensive system and wanted more details on how I use it in my studio, so I thought I’d post about it.
First, a bit about how the quizzing system works. There are 2 settings: one where 1 of 2-6 players can press their “egg” which lights up the corresponding egg color on the master quizzing set. This is the setting I am using most. The other setting flashes the eggs (as many as you have turned on) and then randomly randomly chooses an egg to light up at the end. You can use this setting to make the students who answer more random. The white egg, which the teacher controls, clears the lit eggs before you ask the next question.
Here are some of the things you can do with the Eggspert quizzing system:
Read MoreChristmas Piano Games and Activities
I’m gearing up for my Christmas party and have received numerous requests for a post on Christmas activities, so I wanted to give you a list. Newsletter subscribers will receive a few more ideas than what’s here, so be sure to subscribe to email updates if you haven’t already.
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by mtuckg
Name that Tune – This is always a fun activity around Christmas time. Divide your students into 2 teams and play a small bit of a Christmas tune. Place a call bell between the 2 teams and the first person to ring the call bell and guess the tune gets a point for their team.
- Advanced Name that Tune – Use these Christmas Carol Flashcards to show more advanced students. The person who can ring the call bell and name the tune gets a point for their team.
- Encore – Another great game to use for large groups of students (especially older ones). Divide into 2 teams then announce your special word (santa, jingle, tree, jolly, etc.). Each team must sing at least 6 words of a tune with that word in it. The teams go back and forth (they get 30 seconds to think) until one team can not think of another song with that word in it (they don’t have to be Christmas songs, though I would only use Christmas words). The last team to have sung a correct song gets the point.
- Christmas Worksheets and Printables from Susan Paradis
- Christmas Note Bingo from Susan Paradis
- Silly Sentences – not a Christmas game, but Christmas graphics are on this fun game reviewing terms like ritardando, crescendo, accel, legato, etc.
- Christmas Resource Roundout – Jennifer Fink has a post about all the resources and Christmas games on her website.
- Crafts to Make – Here are some fantastic crafts to be made out of sheet music from Valerie at Dollarhide Music Center
What’s on your Christmas Wishlist?
Well, we are nearing Christmas and also the end of the year when we try to take advantage of tax deductions for teaching supplies. I recently started a “teacher wish list” or “studio wish list and thought it would be fun to tell you what’s on it as well as see what’s on yours. I confess that I went ahead and ordered several of these things just a few days ago and am still debating about some. But, here’s what I’d love to add to my studio and teaching supplies for the new year:
- Education Insights Eggspert (quizzing system) – I cannot tell you how excited I was to see this on sale on Cyber Monday. Unfortunately, I was a few minutes too late and they were all sold out before I could order. But, the price now (approximately $29) is already about 50% off, so I went ahead and ordered it. I’ve wanted something like this for a long time, but they are usually way too expensive. It’s perfect for the Christmas games (including jeopardy) I’ll be playing with my students. They’ll love it!
- Scotch Laminator – I’ve mentioned this before, but it would be very convenient to have my own laminator instead of going to our teacher supply store, despite its low cost.
- Laminating Pouches – I’d need the laminating pouches as well.
- Mr. Potato Head Silly Suitcase – This will be great for teaching my students about spot practicing. See Jennifer Fink’s post.
- The Piano Teacher’s Guide to Creative Composition by Carol Klose – Composition degree aside, I can always use more ideas on teaching composition to my students! See samples on the Hal Leonard website. I just found out that it’s on sale now for 40% off at Hal Leonard.
- An ipad – Maybe you thought I already had one since I tweet, FB and sometimes blog about lists of good teaching apps. But no, I do not own one and know that it’s not a realistic scenario at least this year!
New Prize Ideas
Susan Johannessen on Facebook was mentioning how quickly the “Sticky Hands” disappear from her prize box. I asked her where she got these wonderful little toys and she said they were at the $2 stores in Australia! Well, that’s a bit far for me to travel for a good prize, but I did find them at Amazon and another teacher said you could find them on the prize aisle at Target. I know my boys would love these at any time of year, but I’m going to add them onto my Black Friday Amazon order this weekend! Here are some options from Amazon:
Sticky Lizards 12 for $3
Sticky Lizards
Sticky Hands 72 for $8
Laminating Rhythm Drills
I don’t know why this didn’t occur to me until now, but a great way to save money on printing rhythm drills and Rhythm Menagerie would be to print them on card stock and then laminate them! Then, students cold write on them as needed, give them back with they are through, and you could easily wipe them off and give to another student.
Of course, the down side of this is that students wouldn’t be able to keep the beautiful Rhythm Menagerie pages (what student wants to keep the boring black and white rhythm drills anyway?). But, you could laminate all of the pages besides the Fun with Sounds pages (the ones with the animals on them) and then students could keep their Fun with Sounds animals and certificates.
I am blessed to have a teacher resource center close to where I live so that I can laminate cheaply. But, if I were going to buy a laminator, this Scotch laminator has been recommended to me a number of times and has high reviews on Amazon.
Here are the laminating pouches you’ll need to laminate 8.5 x 11 papers.
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