POGO Sticks

POGO Sticks are my unique way to help students remember to practice. It's easy to stick these anyplace, like on your piano right in front of your nose! I stick them on my student's foreheads, and then they have fun sticking them somewhere that they would see them at home.

The students who have trouble OPENING THEIR NOTEBOOK during the week really liked that they would stick somewhere easy to see. Some have used it as their bookmark.

Do you know what POGO stands for? The students came up with some very clever words for the abbreviation. Some of their slogans have been "Practice On, Great One”, “Pursue Only Gorgeous Opus”, “Practice Overcomes Giant Obstacles”, “Post-its Or Green Ogre-teachers, or “Patience Overcomes, Get Original!"

But I know the truth. It's "Practice Or Get Out". I meant it in the nicest way possible. And I liked the play on the words Pogo Sticks, like the child's toy. In fact, I still can't say it without smiling.

The green POGOs sold out on Friday. This is amazing to me in a way. I thought I might be using my own personal stack of them into my eighties. There is more than a difference in color. The green ones have minutes pre-written on the bottom, and the watermelon is blank. I made the green ones first, with my own studio practice requirements. Then when I started selling them nationally, I ordered the blank minutes so other teachers could use them too. Some liked the same practice minutes requirements as mine, I guess!

One of my students said that "these have really motivated me. I realized I hadn't practiced in two days when I got back to the piano. So I made up
the minutes by practicing longer the rest of the days in the week. They are really helping me achieve my goals." And a teacher emailed me and said, "I just had to email you this. My student came back this week and told me that these had `inspired him to practice harder'. He said, I want to be a WOW this week”. What a compliment!

Now I get to decide. Should I make more WITH minutes? Or choose another color? Or choose another color but only offer blank minutes, as these seem to sell better? The artwork is already on file at the printer, so the costs will be the same, a reprinting charge. Do you have an opinion?

PS, I have some complimentary samples if you'd like to try some on your students!