Piano Forum
Piano Board => Teaching => Topic started by: urbanspice on July 20, 2005, 12:43:05 AM
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These questions are basically for all who teach in a school setting (public or private)
1. Are you a licensed\certified teacher? What? Do you have a BA or Masters?
2. Do you teach group or private or both
3. Was a piano program already in progress or did you help start one? If you helped start one, how did you go about it?
4. And lastly, I would just like some advice. I think it would be fun to teach in a school setting, only I don't know how to go about it. I don't have a teacher's license. I graduated with a BA in music composition not education. I know that a lot of teaching programs emphasize instrumental music (band\strings) or choral and those aren't my passion. And I figured teaching at a school would be a more reliable way to make money. Anyway...
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Why dont you do one years training in Training College then that is a passport for teaching in many schools.
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1. Yes, certified. And no comment. :)
2. Yes, both group and private.
3. I don't know a lot of schools (any now that I think of it) that have a piano program. I can't imagine a school being able to support a "piano only" teacher. Hope that doesn't discourage you.
4. "I think it would be fun to teach in a school setting" LOL All fun, not work at all. :) Save this for later. I can tell you haven't been in the schools yet. Don't mean to scare you. It's very amusing.
Reliable, yes, definitely.
If you want to teach in the public schools, you need to be certified. You need to fulfill all the requirements for certification for your state. You need to pass the classes required, take the tests, all that fun stuff.... do some student teaching, observation out in the field. Probably at least two years to do all that. Maybe a full calendar year if you do summer school.
Private schools are different. They can hire whoever they want, certified or not. That means you can teach in a private school right now, if they hire you.
The main paths are the instrumental (band/strings), choir, and general music tracks. Piano can fit under any of those really. The jobs don't necessarily follow that so strictly. I haven't heard of a "piano only" teacher, but there are general music teachers who teach music appreciation and keyboard classes.
Don't forget about small colleges and being an assistant professor who teaches those areas. That's an entirely different situation though.
Good luck! :)