Today is another excessive heat warning day here.  I’m just thankful I haven’t had to play outdoors in awhile!  August is usually a slow month for weddings, and this August is no exception–in fact I have only played one wedding so far this month, and will only play two or three more.   September and October really explode though.

I spent Thursday evening at Good Shepherd Lutheran School’s Registration.  I’m the new violin/strings teacher there (part time) so I spent several hours hoping to meet parents/students and answer questions.  We have another open house before lessons start up there.  It looks like about 10 to 12 had signed up, and hopefully a few more will yet.  I’ll be teaching private lessons during school and having a small orchestra program also.

This week I’ll have open house at Child of God Lutheran School (my other new job this year!).  The program is only one year old, and the previous teacher did group classes.  I plan to continue that, and hope to get last year’s kids back in addition to adding a few new ones (or more than a few, I’m not picky 😉 ).

I also will be continuing at the Ballet School and (I presume) at St. Margaret of Scotland. (And continuing my home studio).  Basically I will likely be teaching somewhere four to five days a week, and I can’t wait!  After a few years of barely working, it will be really interesting to be at so many different places and meeting so many new students and, of course, teaching them to play the violin.

It looks like this year should be full of teaching! I will be doing several new things, and I look forward to the challenge.

I was talking with someone today regarding the merits of rewards versus the no rewards school of thought. As a child, I actually worked really well towards rewards. I haven’t finished the no rewards book yet…(got caught up with some Sookie Stackhouse and other things 😉 ) but I am reserving judgment on the matter. I was realizing how many concepts, ideas, details, thoughts on teaching, etc, that I have been exposed to this past year and a few months, and how I have barely had any time to utilize those ideas or let them sink in. Hopefully this year I will be able to do that! Then by summer, I will be ready to attend either another Suzuki Institute or maybe Mimi Zwieg’s Institute, or perhaps something else. Though I have no intention (at this time…) of continuing formal schooling, I want to continue to learn. There are so many things in the world I don’t know…

I forgot I wanted to post a couple pictures of the Cardinals Game last Monday.  Chris and I went to see them play the Phillies.  It was a high scoring game–the Phillies got ahead at first, but the Cards came back, and came back with a vengeance. I think the stadium is really a nice looking stadium (then again, I suppose most are!)

It started out very hot and humid that day, but the weather turned out to be really quite nice.

A few weeks ago, when I returned from Suzuki Institute, I ordered a “grab bag” of various dice (all different colors and sizes) online.  FINALLY today I got them!  I have regular dice in a variety of colors, dice with many different sizes (12, 20, etc), dice that counts in 10’s, purple dice, multi-colored dice, and probably more–seriously I got about 50 dice.  Why, you ask?  Well, for teaching, of course.  I am told that kids LOVE rolling dice to see, for instance, how many times they need to repeat something, either in the lesson or at home.  I’ll start incorporating this tomorrow.  I’m sure I will come up with many more uses for the dice as well.

I made the error of going to Target today when I didn’t really need anything.  I did need to make a quick return and pick up shampoo, so naturally I spent quite awhile at the onespot (where everything is $1).  Even though I am in the process of reading a book about how giving rewards to children doesn’t work…I purchased quite a few stickers and pencils.  There were BATMAN stickers!  And pencils!

I had a student today who came in with his mom and both were upset as they had been having a lot of trouble practicing.  Practicing is always the challenge–playing the violin is great and fun.  Practicing the violin can be super dull, like pulling teeth.  I didn’t have as much advice as I wished I did.  (This is a fairly new student for me, had three or four lessons).  I gave him one of my practice charts where you do the list, check it off, and then (though you can practice more) technically you are done.  I tried to be very specific with what he should do, in the hopes that, even if he didn’t enjoy the practice, the finality of the short list would make the practice session go by easier.  It seems that this student has never been “into” practicing, so this will be an ongoing project.  The student is (I hesitate to say it, but) very talented, and a quick learner. The problem is (naturally) he gets bored quickly, learns easily, and doesn’t want to spend extra time perfecting things.  I can see my challenge will be to keep him feeling like he is doing new things while continuing to work on old things.  My other challenge is to keep the family happy enough that they stay with me, as I am really enjoying this student.  (Of course I like all my students, but it’s nice to have a child who is not one of my beginners!)

The one thing I didn’t suggest was any form of bribery/rewards.

Any practice suggestions from my readers?