Category Archives: Teaching

Running, Teaching

Did you win?

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Today one of my students noticed a picture I have on the mantel of myself running in a race (the Lewis and Clark).  He asked, “Oh, did you run in a race?”

I said, yes, I ran in a half-marathon in the fall.

He thought about that for a bit, and then asked “Did you win?”

When I told him, no, I didn’t…he looked disappointed. 

He asked what place I finished.  I told him I didn’t remember, that there were over 5000 people, that I was somewhere in the middle, maybe close to 3000th (I don’t remember!).  I think I blew his mind.

But I loved it:  “Did you win?”  No one else has asked me that!

This is why I teach. 

Teaching

18 students

Wow, that’s a lot for one day!  To be fair, I only taught 16.  Two were sick.

I had a great time teaching today though.  I took it one student at a time.  It was fine, only I needed more water. 

I finished “War and Peace.”  I can’t believe I spent almost three weeks reading one book.  I don’t even know what happened.  Well, I DO.  *SPOILER ALERT* It was the war of 1812…I kept thinking about Tchaikovsky’s 1812 Overture!  Lots of Napoleon, Alexander, and a few Russian families falling in love or dying.  Seriously, Tolstoy.  Could the book have been edited a bit shorter?  (And I usually love long books!)

After such a long day, I wasn’t in the mood for cooking, so Chris and I decided to go to Dressel’s for dinner.  I had a glass of wine and the beef stew with salad, which was very good.  I always enjoy Dressel’s. 

Tomorrow is fun Friday (most Fridays are fun Fridays!).  Gym with Mike, lunch with Melissa, cook dinner (planning on a new recipe from Cooking Light magazine), attend the SLSO concert, and drinks with friends afterwards (hopefully).  I’m not quite sure how my “days off” become so busy, as I seriously need to do some housecleaning.  The weekend should allow for that though…

May I apologize for this slightly boring post…but it beats yesterday’s whiny ones, right?  RIGHT? (foot feeling better, wrist…we’ll see).

Teaching

Patience is a virtue

I am not doing well today with patience.  I lost my temper (well, in a child friendly way) two to three times during my morning classes.  I was TRYING to do something nice and play games—we played “Violin hangman” and I even added a true element of randomness to it by having the students draw for a song and then roll the dice to determine which line of the song to play.  It makes a nice challenge, having to start in the middle of the song rather than the beginning.  (What happens is, they do this, then get to choose a letter for the hangman game.)  But I asked them to follow one rule:  when somebody is playing, everybody must listen.  Evidently this was too difficult.  GAH!  Group classes are starting to drive me insane.  I see so much I could address with each child on a one-to-one basis…but that’s just not possible in this setting.  And as I’ve mentioned before, my discipline skills are sorely lacking.

I did manage to run 5 miles at the gym—I am working on my speed, so I was doing intervals of running/walking, but running much faster than I ordinarily would.  I believe I ran out my frustrations and I am now ready to face my later students.  At least there are no more group classes this week.

And I feel that having patience is one of my strong suits and helps me to be a good violin teacher.  I guess everybody gets a bad day?  I’m feeling like I really failed my morning classes…but maybe I just need to be clearer about the rules OR be more relaxed about them to myself.  I am not being consistent enough with the students and I probably confuse them.

Some of the students did play really well!  So that’s good.  Maybe I’m not a total failure in the class setting Smile.

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Music stand (Tower Grove Park) in the snow

Food, Teaching

Not a snow day!

Somehow today schools were not canceled.  Though a few students told me they fell on the ice on their way to school.  I was a bit disappointed I actually had to work today, but seriously, there was just a touch of ice. 

I know, I just dove right in there, didn’t I?  Hello, and welcome to tonight’s blog entry.  I taught tons of students today.  I taught two violin classes, one orchestra class, and 7 private students.  I’m very brain dead right now. 

I decided today was a good day to really work with my orchestra on following the conductor.  Up until this point in the year, I’ve been doing quite a bit of piano playing with them rather than conducting.  I do think it’s important to use ears AND eyes in orchestra, so we did scales trying to follow me.  They did pretty well!

I’ve been a bit concerned recently over my right wrist.  I’ve been having pain in it, particularly in the morning, but really whenever I’m bending it.  I think I should probably sleep with my brace on for a few nights, and probably cut out all non-essential wrist activities.  I am actually not blaming the violin at this point, though my wrist is prone to injury due to the violin.  I’ll blame push-ups and other gym activities. 

So, I failed at bread-making last night.

I put the ingredients in and then just let the machine do its thing.  Oops.  I failed to notice I hadn’t properly put the pan in, thusly the little paddle that is supposed to mix the dough didn’t QUITE mix it properly.  So it baked like this.

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Not QUITE what I wanted.  However, I did try a few bites and it seemed like a promising recipe.  I just need to make sure it mixes properly before letting it rise/bake.  Does this still count as a  new recipe for the month?

Food, Teaching

Snowy Sunday

Today we are getting a bit more snow.  After my spinning class I decided to skip the “Yoga for Runners” workshops I had signed up for…it would have meant driving out to Chesterfield and I had already driven past too many cars off the highway (in the ditch!).  Spinning class was all hills today and was seriously tough.  I’m hoping by next week I can figure out how to adjust the darned bike myself instead of needing help each time…it’s harder than it seems, for someone (such as myself) with very little spatial awareness.

Since I was home today instead of yoga-ing, I thought I’d see what baking I could do.  I settled on using my bread machine to make “True 100% Whole Wheat Bread” (page 20 of the manual).  The only ingredients are water, salt, honey, whole wheat flour, vital wheat gluten (whatever that is?), and yeast.  The bread machine is working hard right now, and I’m eager to taste the bread later (three hours or so from now).

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A few pictures of my bread machine.  I am pretty happy with it, though I don’t use it nearly often enough (as evidenced by the fact that I had to clean dust and cat hair off of it before using it today.)

I also am basically all caught up on my phone calls and busy work from my trip.  I would say I spent about 2 1/2 hours since getting home on paperwork, which isn’t bad.  I told myself I just had to sit down and DO it.  I am such a procrastinator with some things, and build them up bigger in my mind (or more time-consuming) than they actually are.  Don’t get me wrong, the business aspect of all of this does take time, but I mustn’t let it overwhelm me.

I am entertaining my summer institute plans…(if any) and am considering returning to Ottawa, KS for a Suzuki Teacher workshop.  Susan Kempter (my excellent teacher from last summer) is teaching Book Five—which I’ve already had BUT would gain new perspective.  Or there’s a Kreisler class with Alice Joy Lewis, who is supposed to be a brilliant teacher as well.  Not that I currently have any students doing Kreisler, but hopefully someday.  My other thought has been to attend the Mimi Zweig Indiana University Retreat, for a different perspective.  I know any choices I make will be good ones, as I believe all the options are great.

Okay, time to make dinner, watch a tv show and check out more of the Parents as Partners videos online.  Watching a few videos yesterday is what made me think of the summer institutes.  One big thing to remember:  Listen to the recordings!  Listen to the recordings!  Listen to the recordings!

Tomorrow I’m back to work for real—a busy week ahead! 

Running, Teaching

So Cold!

I guess it’s a good thing I’m going to Phoenix, Arizona tomorrow!

Friday in St. Louis:  High of 34, Low of 27 (all temps Fahrenheit)

Friday in Phoenix: High of 73, Low of 46.  MUCH BETTER!!

So I’ve got my “spring” clothes packed, and I can’t wait.  I haven’t been out to AZ in about two years, so this trip is long overdue.  And after my little race on Sunday, I’ll have four days to relax and celebrate, before returning to the cold.

Race day weather:  Partly Cloudy, High of 73, Low of 52.  I think that’s actually hotter throughout than the Lewis and Clark Half in October…I hope it’s not too hot for me to run decently!  I am planning to run in black capri leggings, a purple tank top, and start with a light jacket.  I’ve got a special “13.1” Sweaty Band for the occasion as well. 

Can you tell I’m excited?

 

I do have some teaching to do beforehand, and one last training run to squeeze in.  I’ve got 8 students at the school followed by 9 students at home.  I just hope some of them have practiced since last week—I think I gave out some darned good practice assignments last week, and there shouldn’t be any excuses—after all, most of the kids had a snow day, perfect for extra practice, right?  *sighs*

I do have to finalize the Solo and Ensemble stuff before I leave, but I’m also taking my laptop with me so I don’t get too behind on “business” stuff.  I need to streamline the paperwork/email/phone calls process.  I  spend way too much time doing that sort of thing each week without actually getting everything done. Maybe I need to dedicate a certain block of time on a few days to working on that stuff (and nothing else)?

What is generally involved?

  • Inputting payments into my computer program
  • Invoices and receipts
  • Dealing with special events such as concerts/contests—planning, emailing parents, memos
  • Rescheduling lessons
  • Resending invoices for parents who haven’t paid
  • Returning phone calls from potential and current students
  • Returning phone calls from potential and current clients (wedding business)
  • Returning emails from the same
  • Putting together wedding contracts
  • Signing checks
  • Taking checks to the bank
  • Planning classes
  • Making practice charts
  • Keeping up on repertoire ideas for the groups and orchestra
  • Xeroxing of important handouts for the students who continually lose them
  • Keeping travel bag clean and up to date (some music I use on the go and at home, I have to make sure it gets back into the bag afterwards)
  • Directions to gigs
  • Organizing gig music if needed (for instance, getting trio music or quartet music out, making sure I have the correct songs for the event)

If I have a week with regular teaching and a wedding or too, that is all the stuff I might have to get done!  Obviously the phone calls and emails vary, the invoices are primarily a end of month thing…but many of those things have to be done at the end of each teaching day or by the next morning for  sure.  I often feel overwhelmed by the paperwork (computer work, what have you.)  I am thinking I should just dedicate, say, 1 hour, three days a week to this stuff and then stop.  Does anyone else deal with this stuff in a better way?  (Other than having a personal assistant…)  When I get back I may try that—scheduling a few hours a week to dedicate to the about list as needed, and then not go past that time.  Maybe an hour Tuesday, an hour Wednesday and an hour Friday?  And if I don’t need that time, great.  If I need more time, I’ll just have to carry the work over till the next day. Then again, emails I generally want to respond to quickly.  But I could do that once or twice a day rather than all the time?  Help??

(I’m actually writing this on Wednesday night, and I’m exhausted, but I want to read a bit of War and Peace before bed, so I apologize for any incoherentness.)  Have a fabulous Thursday!