Category Archives: Teaching

Food, Teaching

Flashback Friday!

I had a blog before this one, and I was just rereading it (yeah, slow night!).  I would like to repost most of an entry from Saturday, November 1, 2008 because it is a really great entry!

Saturday, November 1, 2008

Life in St. Louis

For those of you following my blog…haha! I know no one is. But anyway, at the beginning of September, my boyfriend and I moved to St. Louis for him to play with the SLSO this year. What have I been doing? Well, a few gigs, a few students, and really that’s about it. At first all the free time was really refreshing (I was used to working every day for about ten to twelve hours) but by now I’ve gotten a wee bit bored. So what I like to do is break up my day into thirty minute blocks, and plan activities around that. Okay, not really. But I’ve had more time to practice, sleep, cook, and work out. I also get a lot of business done.

One of the things I did recently was make some delicious pumpkin chocolate chip cookies. Only I used butterscotch chips. I’m going to give you the recipe here, because these cookies are truly awesome.

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies:
INGREDIENTS

* 1/2 cup shortening
* 1 1/2 cups white sugar
* 1 egg
* 1 cup canned pumpkin
* 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
* 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
* 1 teaspoon baking powder
* 1 teaspoon baking soda
* 1 teaspoon salt
* 1 teaspoon ground nutmeg
* 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
* 1/2 cup chopped walnuts (optional)
* 1 cup semisweet chocolate chips

DIRECTIONS

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease cookie sheets.
2. In a large bowl, cream together the shortening and sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in the egg, then stir in the pumpkin and vanilla. Combine the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, nutmeg, and cinnamon; gradually mix into the creamed mixture. Stir in the walnuts and chocolate chips. Drop dough by teaspoonfuls onto the prepared cookie sheets.
3. Bake for 15 minutes in the preheated oven, or until light brown. Cool on wire racks.

Notes from me: I did not include the walnuts, I’m not a big walnut fan. The dough turned out really wet, and the cookies do not spread, so you can put them really close together. Lastly, they took more than 15 minutes in my oven, so be sure to check. Even when I took them out I wasn’t really sure they were done because they were pretty light, but they passed the taste test.

I have been teaching a violin class at a nearby school–there are five kids in the class, and it’s beginning violin. I’m not very good at discipline–I tend to let the kids distract me with random questions too much. By random questions I mean questions like, how are bows made? I hate to not answer stuff like that, because I love when kids are curious, but it tends to derail the class. We’ve had about five classes so far. I am trying to be more in charge. I will have to lay down the law a bit more, and insist that we stay on track. On a bright note, the kids are doing well–each week they have met my expectations. I suppose I need to raise my expectations of them!

I also have three private students so far. They are fun–one adult, one high school student, and one 4 year old, all male (a big change for me). The four year old is so fun! At the end of the first lesson, I showed him the stickers, to pick one. He looked through a bit, and then said, “Where are the batman stickers?”. As if, naturally I had batman stickers, and he just couldn’t find them. Unfortunately I did not! Since I was so used to mainly girl students, I had a lot of hearts and stars, but no BATMAN. Since then I have purchased batman stickers.

The other funny story about my four year old. We’ll say his name is Daniel. The second or third lesson, I called him Daniel, and he looked at me, and said “That’s not my name, my name is Andrew.” I was HORRIFIED, worried that I had called him the wrong name, and I looked at his mother to apologize. She rolled her eyes, and said, “yeah, for some reason he has decided he would rather be called Andrew. Just ignore it.” It was hilarious!

Note from Hannah today (not from the past):  I plan to make those cookies again this month, I remember how delicious they were!

Teaching

Students leaving

2 Comments

I just wanted to say a few words about when students leave my studio.  I’ve lost a few students recently, but gained a few as well.  I do not require contracts from students, so basically people can quit whenever–I probably should start making people sign a contract that they have to give one month notice, but I really don’t want more paperwork…

There are two ways people leave the studio.  The best way is that they tell me, either in person, over the phone or email.  It’s really fine!  I understand that finances or other life events, or other activities get in the way of violin lessons.  When you sign up for violin lessons, you are not making a lifetime commitment (like I have ;)) so of course I expect people to leave at some point.  Ideally that would be high school graduation for my younger kids, but I don’t actually expect that.  Sometimes people leave and ask if it’s okay if they change their minds later and sign back up.  Of course!  I do not hold grudges against people who leave (or at least haven’t yet 😉 ).  I can’t hold time slots, of course, but if our schedules permit, then any former student is more than welcome to become a current student again, no worries at all.

The other way people leave the studio is to just stop coming to lessons.  I hate this way.  One week they won’t show up.  I’ll leave a message.  And never hear another word again.  I never know whether it was something I did, or if it was a financial decision, or if the family all died in a horrible accident, or they simply didn’t consider me or my time important enough to notify me that they wouldn’t be continuing.  That really bugs me.  I would be hesitant to take somebody who left under those circumstances back, though, I am a forgiving person by nature.

I do miss certain students who have left, and I also miss students that I have left (moved away, changed schools, etc.).  But people come and go, and all I can do is hope that I have made a positive impact on their life in some way!

Running, Teaching

Violin photos

Another marathon teaching day is completed!  Man, Thursdays are a killer…today was 12 students out of a possible 14.

During one of my breaks I decided to have a little fun with my violin and my camera apps on the phone.  Here’s some of my favorites–what do you think?  Does anyone have a preference…please comment!

Option 1

 

Option 2

Option 3

 

And even though I know I am really behind on the “warhol” idea, this next one is pretty neat, I think!

Yes, I was bored.  I ended up with an hour of free time I hadn’t anticipated, and had already done enough practice for the time being.

I ran 3 miles tonight after all that…I am trying to a) run a little faster and b) keep running longer.  I seem to be doing okay at both goals–I am trying to be careful as I don’t want to injure myself by doing too much too fast.  Hmm…sounds just like a musician, huh?  I think running and practicing violin have a lot in common, both require time and discipline, and are (in my opinion) best done alone.  (I know some people enjoy running in groups, but I don’t want to).

Tomorrow…no students, just a wedding!  Gotta love Fridays 🙂  (Don’t get me wrong, I enjoy teaching…I just enjoy free time more!)

 

Teaching

Sleepy Wednesday

I’m feeling very sleepy today.  I taught all morning at Child of God, came home for lunch, and will shortly be headed off to the St. Louis School for Ballet to teach four students (one new, one viola 🙂 ).

The students at Child of God are excited because we will have an opportunity to perform for the school at the beginning of December for “Grandparent’s Day.”  I love getting ready for performances–it gives the kids a goal and really encourages them to work hard.  I try to make performance as low stress as possibly by planning far in advance, doing lots of “practice” performances, and talking through every step of the performance, starting with walking onstage, to bowing and walking offstage.  Obviously some of the students will still freak out a bit, but if they know their music really well that helps so much! I cannot emphasize that enough–as adults we often perform pieces we do not know that well, but for students, they MUST know it forward and backward.  Otherwise you are just setting them up for disappointment, and performance at that age should be about success and fun.

I thought it would be fun to include a few pictures of the space where I teach.  I really like the room I get to use at Child of God.  It is for art and music.

The piano I play on
Space to set up in front of the piano, plus tables to unpack on
White boards to write music or assignments on

As you can see, the room is fresh and new looking, and is a great place to teach.  In case you are wondering, the tennis balls under the chair legs are to keep the floor from scuffing.

 

 

 

Food, Teaching

Happy Columbus Day!

Today is a half day for me as one of my schools is closed.  Though I don’t get paid vacation/days off, they are still really nice to have on occasion to regroup.

Sunday was a great day.  I met a good friend, Melissa, for brunch at Koppermann’s Deli in CWE.  (She had a Groupon).  The food was quite good, and the weather was perfect for outdoor seating.  I always like to try the eggs benedict at new breakfast places (even though I doubt the hollandaise sauce is actually “diet-friendly”) and though I still think nothing compares to the Inn on Coventry (in Cleveland Heights), this was pretty good.  It was a nice place to eat, and I would definitely return if the weather was nice outside.

After brunch we headed over to St Louis Community College to see our friends at Chamber Project St. Louis play a concert.  They did a bunch of shorter pieces for various combinations of instruments by composers such as Jennifer Higdon and Libby Larson, among others.

Program:

AMERICAN ACOUSTIC
with guest
Amanda Kirkpatrick, piano

Program for October 10, 2010
DASH (2001) and Lullaby
Jennifer Higdon (b. 1962)
flute, soprano saxohone, piano

Doppler Effect (2008)
Adrienne Albert
flute, clarinet, piano

Black Birds, Red Hills (1987)
Libby Larsen (b. 1950)
viola, clarinet, piano

American Counterpoint (2002)
David Gillingham
flute, clarinet, saxophone

Barn Dances (2001)
Libby Larsen (b. 1950)
flute, clarinet, piano

 

I enjoyed watching/hearing them play!  I look forward to performing with the group on their November 5th concert.

It was a nice relaxing Sunday–got to practice, ran 4.5 miles on the treadmill (including some hill practice) and did a bit of reading as well.  I’m just reading for fun right now–I’m loving the True Blood series of books by Charmaine Harris.  I recommend reading the series if you need quick, easy entertainment.

Remember my obsession with the “retro camera” app?  I thought it would be fitting to get a few “retro kitty” pics.

 

She was very tired

 

 

Chris couldn't resist giving her a good tickling!

 

Running, Teaching

Thursday teaching marathon

I made it through another Thursday!  They are getting easier…today was 7 students at the school then 5 at home.  Two cancellations today (yes, I have 14 on Thursday’s schedule.  Yes.)  Now I’m done teaching for the week, except for a teaching “interview” I have tomorrow afternoon at a school. A couple of my students really impressed me today with their practicing during the week–some practiced 5 or 6 days, yay!  A couple did none though 🙁  Perhaps someday I will have only students who practice 5 to 7 days a week…

After all that teaching I even managed to get to the gym.  I wanted to do a three mile run tonight, and I managed (wasn’t sure how I would feel as I’m still recovering from Sunday’s race).   I am  trying to run more without having to take walk breaks.  I did intervals of 9 minutes running/1 minute walking until I hit the 3 mile goal, then I walked another mile waiting for Chris to finish up.  It occurred to me last night driving home from the gym (walked 3 miles) that most folks don’t work out 6 days a week.  I didn’t until this year.  It feels great!