Oh!!! The Wonderful Month of May!

Let me just say what I say this time every year---"MAY KICKS MY BUTT!!!" I would do Christmas 4 times in a row if it meant I got to skip May! But it's all good and I'm still alive! So if it hasn't killed me yet, then I must be stronger for it right?!

So I started the month with my piano recitals. Yes, it's plural because I have a million students, the recitals at my home, and I do 4 of them back to back so that each recital remains about 45 minutes. But, all went great! The students did great! Carlie played in all 4 recitals because #1: she's the piano teacher's daughter and #2: because she ROCKS!!!


Ethan did fantastic too! I am sure proud of his progress this year. (He had a baseball game RIGHT after he played)




Carlie and I ended each recital with our duet: "Waterfall" (I LOVE playing duets with my kids--one of my favorite things in life:)


Then....the event that REALLY kicks my butt: ACHIEVEMENT DAY. So this is the optional event that my students can participate in. It's quite intense in that they have to perform 3 memorized pieces, scales, sight reading, theory, and ear training all for a panel of judges. It's very stressful getting 29 students ready for the event and if that's all I was doing that would be fine....BUT (there's always a "but" with me:) I was running the event as well! The music teacher's association that I'm in (Desert Valley Music Teacher's Association) put me on the board 2 years ago--I think because I'm one of the youngest teachers there:) and this is my event that I have run for 2 years now. So this means that I have to organize this event for 300 piano students valley wide--rent the venue, get pianos and judges in the right places, and order and organize 300 trophies and ribbons. FUN FUN! So it all went great with no major hang-ups--small miracle in and of itself when dealing with a bunch of piano-teaching old ladies:) Here's what my guest room looked like with 300 trophies (you can't see that the floor is covered in trophies too):

BRAGGING MOMENT:
Well, my students KICKED BUTT this year! I couldn't be more proud of them! I had 29 students in the event and my average theory test score was 95% and my average ear training score was 98%. So who had the highest-scoring studio? Umm...that would be us!!! So as hard as this whole month has been on me, it has definitely been worth it! I have always felt that teaching piano is one of my many life callings and so I'm just gonna keep on keeping on until I'm one of those cute little piano teaching old ladies!
NOW I'M DONE BRAGGING! (Sorry, I couldn't help myself--my students ROCK:)
Here's all their trophies: