Hey Everyone!
Next week begins summer lessons of 2014! Tuition is due on or before your scheduled lesson next week. If it is later than that (and you don't give me 24 hour notice) then a $10 late fee will apply. If you have questions about how much you owe for the month, you can look on this website, or contact me. Also, if you know that you will be out of town or unavailable on a given week this month, let me know and we can factor that out of your tuition payment. When canceling any lessons always do so with at least 24 hours advanced notice, or I will not consider making up that lesson.
This summer we are going to do a practicing competition! I'm going to keep track on this website all of the total hours each of you practice this summer. Each of you will come up with your own nickname (for example: Beethoven, or Mario. Really it's whatever you want as long as it's not super long) to keep it anonymous. You will be able to see how many hours everyone is practicing, but you wont know who is practicing what (except yourself) unless that person tells you his or her name. I will also award practice points at the end of every week. The top three students with the most points will receive prizes. These are as follows: 1st place - a half gallon of Aggie Ice Cream of choice, 2nd place - a giant candy bar of choice, 3rd place - a regular size candy bar of choice. If you are in the top three you can also choose something of equal or lesser value as your prize if I approve. The point system is as follows: students 8 and under get 2 points for every half hour of practice, 9-12 get 1 1/2 points for every half hour, and students 13+ get 1 point for every half hour of practice. Hopefully this will even out the playing field, and give everyone the opportunity to win a prize. Next week everyone will give me their nicknames at their lesson, and then the practice competition will begin. You will start reporting your hours the following week. I will make practice sheets for everyone to fill out every week, and YOUR PARENTS MUST SIGN THEM to help ensure that everyone is being honest. Lessons where the practice chart is forgotten, or where parents have not signed it will result in a zero for that week. This can be corrected the following week. Only students who take lessons through the entire summer will be considered for prizes (Vacations are ok. Just let me know about them in advance). How much you practice this semester will influence in part my decision of who will be cut from my studio in the fall. Factors in my decisions for who to keep in the fall include attitude in lessons, preparation (which will be influenced not only by how much you practice, but how well you focus when you're practicing. For example, if your practice chart says you've been practicing a lot, but I don't see much progress, I'm probably not going to be very pleased. Remember, in the end it doesn't matter how much you practice, but how well you use your practice time), and my feelings about our student/teacher relationship.
I know this is a lot of information, and is potentially confusing. Let me know if you have any questions.
