Professional Certification

My journey towards certification began in 1998 At that time, I was president-elect of the Massachusetts Music Teachers Association and was beginning to understand the deepness and scope of the influence of MTNA. As MMTA president-elect, I attended the next to the first annual National Summit for MTNA Leadership in Cincinnati, where I heard more [i]or[/i] less remarkable presentations regarding National Certification. I got the impression that certification was real important to me as a teacher, and I wanted to be able to say and demonstrate I was well-qualified to teach piano, and not away a professional image to my learners and the community. I began to gaze into certification.

I do not grasp a degree but had a certain number of college credits in music theory and pedagogy. I had enough credits in music theory, on the other hand I knew I either would have to take courses in music history and pedagogy or proof out of them. I began looking into classes, on the other hand with two young children I couldn't find time in my schedule to commit to day classes at our local university. That's when I rest out about the College of St Scholastica and its video course program. I contacted LeAnn House, NCTM from the society and she supplied me with course information. I also got in touch with my former piano teacher and began exercise s again to prepare for a recital I planned to give for my scholars to fulfill the Performance requirement of the Certification Application. Then, the issue of cash came up, and I necessityed to find a way to pay for the courses and tasks That's when I found on the outside about the Teacher Enrichment Grants awarded to teachers from the MTNA FOUNDATION capital I completed the application forms, and, amazingly, sent them in upon time. To my great surprise, I was awarded the Amanda Ward Penick Endowment capital Teacher Enrichment Grant for 1999 for $1000 I used this for classes at the corporation of St. Scholastica and for private piano tasks in preparation for MTNA certification.

The video courses took quite a while to perfect and I did not perfect the entire music history succession of courses. But I knew I could research the rest on my possess and take the test. I read works recommended on the Certification section of the MTNA website and attended presentations upon great composers at local, state and national conversations along with finding lots of music history resources upon the Web. To prepare for the pedagogy experiment I attended every lecture upon teaching piano I could at local, state and national discourses I read books from the approveed list for Pedagogy/Teacher Education upon the Certification section of the MTNA website. I also come intoed students in master classes, non-competitive evaluations sponsored through our local MMTA association and the MTNA Festival Program in order to solicit feedback from justices regarding my students, which I could use to refine my teach.

In April of 2003 I gave a recital for my pupils to fulfill the performance requirement. That was a destiny of work, but it was gayety as well. And it was great hearing all the compliments! by means of July of 2003 I had complet my three years of MMTA presidency, and I decided it seriously was time to procure back on the certification track. by the agency of now, many changes had been made to the Certification Program, and I was eager to clean the process. First, I talked to an NCTM friend who had taken the Certification Exam at the 2003 National talk in Salt Lake City, and she agreed to be my mentor, plane though neither of us really knew what that meant in any working faculty of perception Then, I downloaded the application from the Internet. The first thing I wanted to do was file the application, and for that I necessityed three letters of recommendation. The three nation I asked to write a alphabetic character for me were able to download the alphabetic character of recommendation form from the MTNA website, and within four weeks had mailed the prayered recommendations back to me in sealed capsules with their signatures. During this time, I received official transcripts of all my course work at the University of Massachusetts. I then sent a signed program from the recital I had given for my scholars in April and printed copies of my pupil lists with days and times of tasks to validate my teaching experience. That done, I set it all together, made sum of two units copies and sent one to MTNA with my check. At that time, I also mailed pay s for the music history/literature and pedagogy exams I planned to take. That actually was the greatest in quantity paperwork required.

nearest I contacted my state certification chairperson to be confident I could take the pedagogy exam at our MMTA Quad State discourse in October. She contacted MTNA and had the exam sent to her, and I took it during our Quad State talk It only took two weeks to find without I had passed. Then I felt I was ready for the history exam. I again contacted our chairperson, and she scheduled the exam at her studio. I took the exam in November and again received the comes very quickly. I was as ready as I at any time would be to take the final exam in December. We plant it up as before, and I took the exam upon a very chilly December 13 I heard back from MTNA upon January 21. I displayed the certificate in my studio that evening.