Guide to Becoming and NCTM at 4DpianoteachingWe’ve finally arrived at the last of the five teacher profile projects to become a Nationally Certified Teacher of Music.  Project #5 is about studio business ethics and policies.  There are two main parts to this project.  In the first part, you have to answer one question each from three categories discussing how you would deal with certain challenging situations in the piano studio, including chronic lack of preparation for lessons, parents that are too pushy and want their child to do everything, and transfer students.  Probably things that you’ve dealt with many times, so it should be easy to answer these.

The second part requires several documents that you probably have already created if you are running a studio; these include studio policies, an annual budget, and interview questions for new students.  This may give you a good reason to look over your policies and revise them if it’s been awhile since you’ve done that.

If you take it one step at a time, completing your certification projects is very do-able!  Plus, MTNA is very supportive of certification candidates.  There is a TMTA director of certification who personally contacts me regularly to see how things are going and offer her help.  I’m still finishing up a couple of my projects, but plan to be done by the end of the year.  Hopefully soon I will be able to call myself an NCTM 🙂

Other posts in this series:

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

Part 4

Part 5

Author: Spring

Spring Seals, NCTM, teaches 60 piano students ranging from age 3 to 70 in Fort Worth, Texas. She also serves as the Director of Certification for TMTA. She is passionate about helping teachers become more effective in their studios through professional development, new resources, and fresh ideas.