The Spark for Music Teachers

Can you remember when you were filled with thoughts, dreams and ambitions about the impact you’d create when you started teaching? That’s how most of us live our early lives - until the real world brings us back to reality and we start teaching in a school where we hit major obstacles.  Whether your students or parents don’t like you; your principal doesn’t want to rehire you; you’re teaching...

I love being efficient, but beyond efficiency, I love it when I find HARD things and make them EASY to achieve ahead of time. Time is my obsession, it’s something that we can’t earn more of and yet we often need to fit more in. So if there are ways to not only save my time but spend it in the right places - I'm all in!  That’s why I’m obsessed with creating simple tech -free strategies like t...

If you think that music teaching comes down to you and teaching the students and that’s where it begins and ends, this episode is for you. I’m sharing the four keys to focus on so that you can teach to your full capacity, with total enthusiasm, so that you can take back your joy in 2022 and focus on routines and practices for showing up in a way that FEELS good. Let’s explore this idea that music...

So you’re looking ahead at your calendar and the date keeps getting closer. The first term of teaching for 2022 you’ve been preparing for is coming at you full steam ahead, and just thinking of it makes you feel uncertain and anxious. What will happen when that first school bell finally rings? What changes will be about to take place for the 2022 teaching year? How will you focus amidst the pressu...

Being happy in the school workplace especially at this busy time of the year is critical to your longevity, happiness and success in teaching, and by extension the happiness and success of your students”. But often as the end of year approaches, we’re left with the feeling of not being able to do anything right or being able to make anyone happy and are instead faced with criticism after criticism...

Have you ever had a time where you just wake up and you don’t know how to do what you’re supposed to do and teach your classes? Or have beyond just one day, have you ever experienced a period of time where it feels like motivation left the building or you’re a bit lost, or something has happened and you’re left wondering how the heck you’re going to be able to face your music classes or your day-t...

Rekindling the passion for teaching music can mean hundreds of different things to different people- for It might be taking a moment to breathe, booking a dinner out, learning a new instrument, it might be taking time out or it might simply be sharing your wins! Whatever it is, it’s more about the “how” in making sure you do it regularly so that it creates lasting memories and impact leaving you f...

It doesn’t matter what area of music we’re teaching- instruments, theory, curriculum or something new- there is a non-negotiable that is essential and helps save us from all the stress, fear and nerves about teaching music! This non-negotiable allows us to go through each lesson with confidence, creativity and strategy. Let’s dive into what my 3 super simple examples of systems and plans look like...

You might already have strategies for behaviour management - some passive, some active and some which might be rewards based. But what do you do with those naughty kids who can’t seem to be reached?.. oppositional kids who are non- compliant, unsafe, disrespectful and walking out of the room. Why do they continue to act out and miscommunicate? What  are your back-up options for when most stra...

If you watch any successful music teacher in action and ask them how they got that way, it boils down to these three things: 1) They act, sound and feel confident about the content they deliver. 2) They believe in themselves and in the skills they’ve developed. 3) They know what they want from any lesson or situation and know why they want it. I suppose if I said it another way, it’s like they tap...

Feel like you want to pursue other interests outside of teaching? Conflicted about what you really want? Before you hold your hands up and resign to it all being “too hard” I’ve got a secret to share with you for you to improve your efficiency so you’ll be able to do more with less. If you think you’re ready to take your music teaching to the next level, let this episode be your guide. From “time...

Before we started the Fun Music Co, I taught in schools with little or no budget, and schools which went through “budget cuts”. Then when we started our own music school, there was no funding!! We just had to find a way to bootstrap ourselves to success. These days, we still get no outside funding and it’s such a positive because we know our programs work and that’s why teachers use them. Yet we s...

We’re going to dig deep into how just two little words we say everyday can stop you in your tracks and stop you from being the impactful role model you deserve to be. I’m going to challenge you to listen with an open mind, do a little self discovery and turn this episode off with three tips to creating a stimulating learning environment based on your positive role modelling. Enjoy & Let me kno...

Whether you’ve ever been involved in a conflict that leaves you feeling like you want to quit your teaching job or someone lashes out at you for seemingly nothing, these moments can serve as triggers for blame and feeling unworthy. This episode is about redefining the meaning we give to those moments. Rather than seeing conflict as a NEGATIVE… I hope I can leave you feeling that you’ll be able to...

Change. How do you cope with it? Or maybe the question should be how many people do YOU know who don’t cope with change too well? How in the world can you actually cope with teaching and life, without things crumbling down while in the middle of a BIG challenge or change? Let’s talk about how to strategically position yourself and your mindset for the win! What's the ONE THING you need to look for...

Have you ever been given teaching advice that just hasn’t worked for you and wondered why? Everyone needs to focus on their own truth and make sure they are being their authentic self. It makes you feel so good to be teaching congruently to living your real life. But how?!? This is how to be comfortable with yours, because people outside of your own experience don’t always know your own truth. Enj...

Today’s podcast is about attention . How do you get it, and how do you keep it? There are many tools that we can access and use as teachers to gain our students attention, and this episode is about sharing one of them, which is totally learnable - and that is the power of humour. Today I’ve also got a story for you about how a wonderful band director I knew engaged their band, however this episode...

We’re going to dive into my go to methods for building a music curriculum system from scratch plus the mindset behind it all .. All for free. No resources, no huge music budget while using what you’ve got, okay? For me it’s always been about finding simple ways to grow, to better serve and foster the students' needs which is based around heart-centred strategies. Fun Music Company FB community: ht...

Whether you’re just hopping into teaching for the first time - first off welcome!- or you’ve been teaching for a while, you’re sure to hit a bit of stagnancy at some point. Let’s talk about some fun and different ways to help you reclaim that energy back over the break. These three ideas don’t take a lot of effort, time or money and they can really help you get your work life balance back in check...

Progress and perfection do not mean the same things. One is much more important than the other. In this episode Janice explains why making progress on your skills in music are more important than the perfection of having completed that course or obtaining mastery in a specific area. Free Fun Music Ukulele Teaching Resources: https://funmusicco.com/teaching-ukulele-lesson-plans/ Fun Music Company F...

We’ve all heard of the phrase”Time flies when you’re having fun!” but what does it really mean to be a Fun Music Teacher? Over the years, my husband Kevin and I have been able to shift our music teaching mindsets in a positive way! And it’s transformed so many aspects of our teaching and publishing life. I feel like we’ve learned that being a fun music teacher is much more than just being a superf...

Have you ever been late for your classes? How do you react when other staff members are disappointed because of your lateness? Does being late teach you important lessons? ...Or is it the last thing you want to think about. As music teachers being late from time to time is inevitable - there’s not much time between lessons, teaching from a cart can be time consuming, classroom drama’s happen and r...

Here's a motivational idea: What if you were to give out sweets to every child who came to your class. Would that work? You probably know already that giving out sweets is what is called an extrinsic motivator - it's when you're trying to motivate another person from the outside. The other type of motivation is intrinsic motivation - the motivation that comes from within someone. That is what the...

This is my new favourite strategy for creating engaging emails,video lessons and lesson plans. We all know there are millions of tips and tricks and strategies out there floating around about making the perfect music lesson plan. But there are very few that are this simple and ever present and will help you get started even if you don’t have much skill in a particular musical area yet. 

Call me crazy, but I believe that music teaching programs should be kept simple- and there’s no better way than following an uncomplicated view. I originally learned this strategy from another podcaster Gary V and I’ve been putting it into practice with music teaching ever since. Click here to get the resources mentioned in the podcast .