What follows is a rough-edit of the episode, so please forgive typos and/or formatting errors.

All content is my own; requests to use this material – with proper citation – can be sent to [email protected]

Episode 211: Cheers to What’s Working in this Season of Life

Well, hello, my teacher friends! Welcome to the Beyond Measure Podcast. My name is Christina Whitlock, and I have taken the liberty of designating myself as your Anytime Piano Teacher Friend.  I love to think about the human condition, and how it shows up in the music studio.  You too?  Oh, good.  Let’s link arms and move beyond the status-quo to build valuable musical experiences that impact our students for a lifetime.  Sound like a plan?  Excellent. Let’s get on with the show.

First of all, can I just ask you a question?  Can I ask you how you’re doing, like, as a human being? Maybe it sounds dumb of me to ask… but I really do feel a connection to those of you listening to this podcast.  I started this show to be a Friend to the Profession and I guess I’m just hoping you know that I really do care how you are doing.

I think, as music teachers, we all have these niche skills that we can get hyper-focused on.  These skills give us a way to function in the world around us.  I always try to be thankful that I have such an OBVIOUS skill to contribute to my community.

Yet – I also know more than anyone how easy it is to go all-in on these skills and to miss the big picture of how I’m doing as a human being.  Not as a piano teacher… not as a mentor of teachers… but just as a person.

So, please know…I genuinely care about how you’re doing and I hope you are able to look at your life BEYOND your profession and feel satisfied.

WITH THAT SAID: It’s time for an episode dedicated to my favorite reflection question, which is to name What Is Working in this season of life.  I aim to release one of these episodes every quarter, and today’s the day.  This is the fifth episode in this series; I’ll link the others in today’s shownotes.

I say it every time I do this, but there is great benefit in taking the time every few months to be intentional about naming the things that are working. Some people in the online space use the question, “What’s Saving My Life Right Now?” and it’s kind of the same concept.

So, today I’m sharing four things that ARE working in my life right now… and then I’ll share the flipside, what’s NOT working, in my weekly Piano Teacher Confession email that goes out on Thursdays. If you want to make sure you get the juicy stuff (because, let’s face it, there’s something extra intriguing about what is NOT working in someone’s life), head to ChristinaWhitlock.com and get yourself on the email list.

So, let’s get right to it, friends: Four Things that ARE Working for Me –  your Anytime Piano Teacher Friend – in this season of life.

1. Spring Break. Oh, spring break. I took two weeks off of teaching at the end of March and it was wonderful. I’d originally planned to be at MTNA in Minneapolis for the first week, then home with my kids the second, but I ended up NOT going to MTNA, which gave me two full weeks at home with very little travel involved. Both of my kids ended up home sick from school that first week, so I definitely didn’t get the quiet time I envisioned, but it did feel luxurious to be able to tend to them without having to make alternate arrangements for lessons and all that.

Over those two weeks, I was able to spend time with THREE of my real-life teacher friends: I met Amy Chaplin for a long lunch, I went to see the show Come From Away with my daughter’s violin teacher, Tiffany Arnold, AND I ended up driving a couple hours to meet Janna Williamson for brunch and an impromptu afternoon of mall-walking.

Let’s be honest: music teachers – by nature – can have a hard time truly being ON BREAK, right?  We’re notorious for filling our non-teaching hours with quests for “productivity”.  In fact, I have used the week of spring break to play catch-up on work for just about as long as I can remember.  I remember being grateful for the time to catch up on schoolwork as far back as elementary school.  And in college?  Did I take spring break roadtrips with my friends? Nope.  I used that week to practice my brains out and catch up on projects.  Trips to MTNA Conferences are pretty much the only travel I’ve ever done over spring break.

The older I get, the BETTER I am at finding a balance between rest and productivity.  I am slowly, little-by-little getting better at finding a balance of work and rest.  So, while I absolutely got things done over this break: I released the 2025 Recital Guide, I got my studio cleaned up and ready for this final push into the school year, and much more, I will say…. I was also able to head back into teaching last week feeling renewed and organized and ready to tackle the rest of this school year.

As you begin to think about NEXT year’s lesson calendar, can I cast my vote for a two-week spring break? ESPECIALLY if you’re attending MTNA in Chicago in 2026, make sure you give yourself time afterwards to BREATHE and PROCESS, and RESET.  I can’t tell you how great it felt to step off the hamster wheel of life for two weeks and hang out with my family and make real meals and read and write and rest and… ahhh… when’s the next break again?

2. The second thing working for me in this season of life? My Happy File. My Happy File is a literal file folder that I keep in my studio, and it contains a mountain of evidence that I am, indeed, doing good work in the world.  I talked about this WAY back in episode number 20 – Cheers to Preserving Gratitude.  You know those sweet notes your students write you, or the holiday cards with meaningful messages in them?  I grew up sticking them in a shoebox I kept in a closet. The problem is, you’re only going to be prompted to look back through those things… what…. Once a year when you’re cleaning out the closet?

For me, looking back on those words and drawings are a real boost to my spirit, so I always recommend keeping some of them in an easy-to-access location. Not tucked away in the closet.

Enter: My Happy File. I can’t keep EVERYTHING from 29 years of teaching in a single file folder, but I do keep some of it handy. Then, when I find myself having sort of a low day or feeling overwhelmed by stress, I can just open up the file folder and remind myself that I am loved by my studio community.

I do the same thing in my phone: When I receive a particularly heartwarming text message or message on social media, I’ll take a screenshot and put it into a special folder in Google Photos. That way, if I’m ever stuck in a Doom Scroll on my phone and need a pick-me-up, I just need to go open my Happy File on Google Photos and let the kind words of others pick me back up.

I found myself in a spiral several weeks ago where I was feeling bad at my job… ineffective as a parent… like I was wasting my time on all these podcast endeavors… all the things. Once I got enough perspective to do so, I reached out to my Happy File and it really did help pull me out of the muck.

So much of what we do is intangible. When we have access to PHYSICAL EVIDENCE of the difference we’re making in the world, it’s helpful to put that stuff to use.

3. The third thing working for me in this season of life is prepping for student evaluations. It’s that time, friends!  I released an episode FOUR YEARS AGO about Writing Student Evaluations.  It’s episode number 014, and I still find myself recommending it to coaching clients all the time.

Here’s the deal: CAN you run a piano studio without writing student evaluations?  Of course.  But writing evaluations truly is one of those mutually-beneficial endeavors you know I am obsessed with. Just like I think it’s important to make these lists of what’s working and not working in my season of life, it’s ALSO important to put words to paper regarding my students’ accomplishments and goals.

I’m trying to get an earlier start to these evaluations this year so they don’t get lost in the end-of-the-year shuffle, but I just have to say: you don’t know how much BETTER and CLEARER you will feel about your teaching until you write a round of student evaluations.

They don’t have to be eloquent and they don’t have to be complicated.  Decide what kinds of things you want to communicate.  For me, that’s a list of accomplishments over the last term, what I hope to accomplish in the next few weeks, and any specific points of improvement we’re working on.

Here’s the secret: once you establish YOUR points of evaluation, then you can take notes during your students’ lessons for a week or two.  That’s where I am right now.

When you take notes during the lesson itself, your communications are going to be quite simple to put together on your own time. If you don’t, this process will take SO MUCH LONGER because you’ll be sitting at your computer trying to remember how many new scales you learned this year and what your student’s favorite pieces were… it’s just too much recall.  Be smart about this: use the lesson time to help you.

4. Alright, friends… the fourth thing that IS working for me in this season of life? Cooking with my kids. I have to say: it’s NOT fun to talk about parenting on the internet.  People are so quick to judge.  So as I say this, I feel like there are going to be people out there who say, “OF COURSE you need to cook with your kids!” or “your kids should be DOING the cooking by now!”  But here’s the thing: I grew up with a mom who – by her own admission – just wanted to get things done.  She did not enlist my help very often, and when she did, she often ended up taking over and doing it her way anyway.  And that is very much my tendency, too.  So when I’m done teaching and it’s late and I just need to throw dinner on the table, I’m not great at getting my kids involved because it’s just going to take longer.

And yet – I have a Teacher’s Heart, right?  I WANT to teach my kids these things, I WANT to help them figure it out, and I know there’s no way to learn your way around a kitchen until you just get in there and do stuff.  So, while we had that glorious two-week break, I was very intentional about getting them involved in meal planning, meal preparation, and clean-up.  AND – I’m even happier to say – when I went back to teaching last week, I was still able to include them in the rapidfire dinner prep on two different evenings. I’m hopeful this is a trend that can continue at least occasionally.

I think this has many applications beyond parenting. Many of us shoulder too many responsibilities simply because it feels easier to do it ourselves than train someone else.  I hope this takeaway will help you stay open to asking for help and considering short-term inconveniences for long-term benefit.  Can you think of anything YOU need to begin training someone else to do so you don’t ultimately have to be in charge of it?  I can’t help but feel like most of us have something like that in our lives.

There you have it, friends!  My latest list of what IS working for me in this season of life. I would love to know what you put on YOUR list!  Follow me on Facebook and Instagram at BeyondMeasurePodcast and drop me a message to let me know.  Or, you can always send me an email at [email protected].  That’s [email protected].

Let’s toast our way out of here today, and then we can celebrate our new Teacher Friend of the Week.

Studio teacher friends from all around the world:  Like the great Ferris Bueller once said, “Life moves pretty fast. If you don’t stop and look around once in awhile, you could miss it.”  That’s precisely the intention between naming the things that are working – and aren’t working – in your season of life. May we all take time to make those lists this week, knowing there is power in NAMING things for what they are. Cheers to you, my multi-faceted teacher friends! Here, here.

Once again, I’ll be sending out my list of what is NOT working in this season later this week in my Piano Teacher Confessions email.  You can get on that email list, and read past confessions, at ChristinaWhitlock.com/blog.

Today’s Teacher Friend of the Week is Patreon supporter and friend, Laura Grey. Laura is one of those SuperFriends who often starts her week off with me in Monday Morning Power Hour.  I know I say this a lot, but there is something really special about starting my week off with friendly teacher faces.  It’s a luxury most studio teachers just don’t get.  Laura and I also got the pleasure of sharing a meal together at the airport coming home from MTNA when it was in Reno in 2023. I’m celebrating Laura today for lots of reasons, but I’ll focus on the fact that she introduced ME to a collection of pieces I’ve grown to absolutely love. Last December, I hosted a Teacher Show and Tell in the Patreon Community, and every teacher who attended brought one favorite teaching piece to showcase.  Laura Gray brought a piece from a collection called Waddle and Quack – by Canadian Composer Lynette Sawatsky.  Since I’m used to being the one who introduces teachers to new collections, I loved the opportunity to be shown something new. I’ve loved exploring this collection of Elementary pieces by Lynette Sawatsky, and I’m grateful to Laura Gray for helping introduce me to them!  Congratulations, Laura Gray, on being Teacher Friend of the Week!

I will link the Waddle and Quack Collection in today’s shownotes.  If you’re looking for more supplemental repertoire recommendations, the 2025 Beyond Measure Recital Guide should definitely be on your purchase list. The Guide Is $15, and you will receive links and descriptions for 36 winning selections, along with my top 10 recital tips and more. Head to ChristinaWhitlock.com/2025 for all the details, or check out the link in today’s shownotes.

Give some serious consideration to joining the Beyond Measure Superfriends community on Patreon!  You’ll get access to that Teacher Show and Tell I mentioned from December 2024, you’ll be able to attend Monday Morning Power Hours… all while helping this show stay on the ari.  We all have to make tough decisions as to how to spend our time… I’m no exception… and the financial support I receive through the Patreon Community is what allows me to keep this work a priority in my life. So, if Beyond Measure matters to you, I’d love to find your name on my list of SuperFriends!  Membership is just $3 or $6. Check it all out at Patreon.com/beyondmeasurepodcast.

That’s it for today, my friends!  I hope you have a great week ahead of you and I’ll look forward to sharing my list of what’s NOT working in this season with you in Thursday’s Piano Teacher Confession email.   Onward and upward!