Concrete, observable, and reproducible.

Any assignment you give a student in a lesson should be those things. 

Concrete (something very specific that they can do), observable (they can tell what it is and what they should see or hear happening) and reproducible (they can practice it at home and understand what they are doing).  Or maybe I’m not describing that very well.  You probably get the idea though.

I drove home from Ottawa, Kansas yesterday.  It’s lovely to be back, but I’m overwhelmed by what a wonderful week it was.  Returning home from Institute is always overwhelming, because there is just so MUCH that I learn and observe that it takes awhile to get back to normal.  Not to mention that the Institute setting is so unlike the real world, it is so much more utopian in nature, that it’s strange to return to normalcy. My brain is racing with ideas, and wishes, and hopes for the future as far as my teaching and my students…it’s overwhelming.  Did I say overwhelm too many times?

And I’ll miss my friends, new (especially new) and old.  Holly, thank you for being so beautiful on the inside and the outside, and for letting me discover I can be completely at peace not ever being the most beautiful girl in the room, at least when the most beautiful girl in the room is so freaking cool ;)  And Michaela, thank you for being so adorable, kind and energetic, and for making me feel young!

Yesterday morning there were still classes to be observed.  We hit up Scott Conklin’s group for the last time, and Terry Durbin’s Book 4 Masterclass.

Then we had our last hour of teacher training class.  That led to a whole HOST of thoughts as Susan and the class thought I carried a lot of tension in my neck (while playing) that DOWN THE ROAD might lead to pain while playing.  I tried to explain that for me, pain while playing is hardly a "down the road" type of event but more of a "since I was 13 years old" thing, but that fell on deaf ears.  I did realize that I need to get back into practicing more and put more thought into my setup though, as I haven’t done that in some time and my body has changed a bit over the past two years.  We are told to keep careful watch on our students as their bodies change, and I haven’t done the same for myself.  I will.

And there’s Susan Kempter, my teacher all week.  She is truly inspiring and brilliant!

Farewell Ottawa Suzuki Institute!  Until we meet again.

(I will probably do a follow up post in a few days with afterthoughts, just fyi.  So it’s goodbye for now.)

I can’t believe it is the last day of Suzuki Institute already!  The time flies by.  Mainly because you are kept so busy.  But this has been a great summer—wonderful people, inspiring teachers, and fudge.

I had to teach in front of the class yesterday.  It went just fine…I have become better at this over the past two years. 

Advice for teaching: 

Drive the point home.  Stick to the point.  Keep sticking to it.

Make a point.  Activate that point.  Use minimal words, then activate it.

Lead the student to answers.  Isolate and follow through on points.

Prioritize.  Teach technique first, music second.

Do you see a pattern?  I think I might.  Something about "one point, one lesson." 

Lots of class observations as usual 🙂

Our class decided to go out to dinner last night, to a nice place (well, THE nice place) in town.  Oh, wait, first, violin cookies!

(I hope Mike isn’t reading this…or else I suppose he won’t be surprised if I obliterated last week’s weight loss.  Darn fudge shoppe and violin cookies…)

I DID get a 2.5 mile run in before dinner, aren’t I fancy?

The menu for "Cream ‘n’ Sugar."  I had the gnocchi with shrimp…yum!  It is the "nice" restaurant in town.  It wasn’t open last year.  I hope it makes it through the year.

Then I wanted a picture of Holly and I standing so you could see how I spent all week feeling short.  Except I look taller in the photo.  Oops.  Trust me that I spent a week feeling like I wasn’t the tallest woman around.  Just trust me.

Also my head is gigantic.  Oh well.

So today I drive home.  And that is the end of Suzuki Institute for this summer.  It’ll be back to the originally scheduled blogging about…well…very little ;)  Less fudge, more working out, I suppose.  Oh, and more wedding planning!!

Confession:  Today I had a bon-bon.

I had never had one before.  I HAD joked about eating them, however.  When I moved to St Louis a few years ago, it took awhile before people realized that I actually worked.  Let me clarify.  When I moved to St Louis a few years ago, it took awhile before I actually worked.  And the joke was that I simply sat around and ate bon-bons all day.  (Not true, obviously I like all kinds of food in addition to bon-bons, and occasionally I play the violin, yell at children, or go outside dressed in bright colors to run around in circles.)

However.  Here in Ottawa (that’s Ottawa, Kansas, to all you Canadians that keep commenting, so sorry!) there is a delightful fudge shop.  Really, more of a fudge shoppe.

You may recall I visited the other day.  In any case I needed to return today for a quick errand, in addition to wanting to try some more of their delicious chocolate candy.

This is me in front of the bon-bon selection.  It was a tough decision but I chose a dark chocolate peanut butter one.  Yes, I’m still wearing my institute ID even though we are technically off campus.  It’s just easier.  Don’t mock me.

Holly and I decided to walk around campus a bit as well (to work off the bon-bons).

The dorm.

This is a memorial?

The Administration Building where many classes are.

Taking your own picture is hard…

Ok off to class!

Edited to add:  After talking to Chris on the phone, he said "Where are you?  You say you’re at Suzuki camp but it sounds like you are at some sort of magical candy land instead."

Happy Thursday morning everybody!  I’m writing this post the night before, but delaying its production because I can.

How was my Wednesday?  Overall great.

It was "wear your camp t-shirt day".  My roomies and I decided to go with it—after all, when else WOULD we wear our camp t-shirts?  (There was a group picture, but we skipped that.)

That’s Maggie with the evil look spearing the delicious (ha!) breakfast sausage.  The others are Holly and Michaela (left to right) and of course me.

8:30 am group class as usual, then to Terry Durbin’s class too.  (There is a little bit of a shortage of different classes to observe for book 5 at 8:30 and 9:30, but oh well.)  Terry told the story of the Seitz concerto (5/1) which involved Don Quixote and windmills and such.

10:30 I went to Carol Dallinger’s for the first time.  She is just wonderful!

Lots of great technique stuff happening.  I really need to bug my students more than I do. 

Snippets of information from today:

Get in the habit of looking at the notes before big shifts and string crossings.

The body is made to move.

Children that sing and participate in music acquire language sooner, faster, better, and remember it more than children that don’t.

Teach what is best for the student.

In music, there is no equivalent to an eraser.

Unrelated to Suzuki institute:  my wedding save the dates are SO close to being done.  I’m just working on getting all the addresses exactly right.  I am SO pumped.  They look awesome and I can’t wait to share them with you readers, but I will wait until my guests receive them to put them on the blog, because I want them to be a surprise.  It’s funny that I am here at Suzuki training but also working hard planning my wedding (minus my binder because I left it at home) and also being an awesome diligent blogger and keeping up my running.  I wear so many hats!

I wish I could run my July 4th race in these, but I can’t:

(from a student in a class today!)

I’m off to run!  And then technically, happy Thursday—today we are teaching each other in class, which, as you all know, freaks me out (teaching other people in front of people who are judging me teaching.)

In music, there is no equivalent to an eraser.