I have been enjoying the break from the heat! It has been really nice here lately. A few days ago, I ran across a website of a Kindermusik teacher here in Oxford. I emailed her, and she emailed back, excited to know of a new music teacher in town. I observed a class taught by her, and sat in her kitchen talking with her for about an hour. It was so nice to make a new friend/contact. She is originally from Evanston (a suburb of Chicago) and it was so nice to get to know her. Her husband is a piano professor at Ole Miss and they moved here 9 years ago. She gave me a video to watch and told me she would be interested in hiring me for a part time position teaching music in a daycare. I love the concept of the program, having the daycare kids learn something useful. I am thinking about it, and will be anxious to know what comes of that. She also told me that although there are 2 other violin teachers, no one is a Suzuki teacher (or viola teacher). When I drop the tape she asked me to watch, she also asked me to bring my business cards and she will help advertise, so I thought that was really nice of her!
I start working at the Oxford Academy of Fine Arts on Thursday, a week from today! I am both excited and nervous. Right now, I'm in the process of making my studio information sheet, as well as a "what to buy" sheet and "how to take care of your violin or viola" sheet. It's fun for me, and I am really looking forward to meeting my students.
Madison starts law school orientation the same day! So I will drop him off at that in the morning, and then prepare for my first day of teaching at OAFA.
I have been advertising for lessons in the paper and around Oxford. It is a lot of work to get students around here! I talked to Jeanne about it (the kindermusik lady) and she said that it is difficult to get students by advertising in the paper, but that word of mouth is the best resource. She is going to help get the word out, and I'm going to try running my ad for one more week and see if I get any response. Irwin Bell also should be getting back to me in a week about my students from him. With the economy in such rough shape, you just never know how many people are going to want to fork out the money for lessons, so I'm just trying my hardest. I got an email last night from a homeschooler (yay!!!) who is interested in lessons -- she's the assistant professor of classics at Ole Miss and homeschools her daughter who is 7. I emailed her back and am waiting on her to get back with me, so I at least got 2 people expressing interest! One with a 2 year old who saw my ad in the Daily Mississippian, and this woman who saw my ad on a Mississippi homeschool forum. (when I say I'm trying hard to advertise, I mean it! haha!)
things are going well -- Madison is getting excited about law school. It's going to be nice to have another place to plug in. It's difficult making friends when you don't have many connections and when you're self-employed (or have a job where you're not working with other people much). We're enjoying the 1 couple that we are friends with and we're excited to make more friends through law school and the church we've been visiting for the past two Sundays. I'm hoping to make friends with other teachers and through the Bunco group that Danica (my 1 friend) just started. Bunco is a dice game that has 8 players. Each month we're going to play and have food at one of the 8 girls' houses. The first game is this month in a few weeks! It'll be fun and something for me to do and a good place to meet people. It's all girls that Danica knows. We'll draw when we have Bunco night at our house, so I'm excited about that. :)
Well, I better get back to lesson plans!
Liz