Teaching

Giving in

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Monday I had a double class at Child of God due to scheduling concerns. In fact, it will be that way every Monday–I’ll have a class of 1st through 4th graders. I probably could have come up with something better to do, but since I was sick over the weekend (and into the week, argghh!) I went the lazy route. I told the kids they had to play Twinkle and French Folk Song for me and if they succeeded they would get a pencil. The class was full of cacophony of the kids frantically practicing! However, I was able to accomplish two goals: hearing each child alone for assessment purposes and making sure each child knew Twinkle and French Folk Song. So it worked pretty well, though I felt guilty and cheap 😉

And here I am going into Wednesday without a super clear idea of what to do in tomorrow’s classes…really I want to play a bunch, play as many pieces together as we can and also work on posture (NO droopy violins, stand up straight.) Hmmm…I suppose that’s as clear of an idea as I need…let’s see how it goes! Perhaps I’ll play piano tomorrow instead of violin to give the kids variety and hold their attention longer.

Teaching

Llamas

I have a new student who is about 10 years old.  She is really chatty and friendly, and I am excited to be teaching her.  We have been working on the bowhold for two weeks now.  I was trying a colleague’s suggestion of making a “bow-doggie” with your right hand.  She came up with the idea of a “bow-pacman” since I was emphasizing how round her hand should be.  However, she kept making her hand into what I called more of a “bow-anteater” which we didn’t want!  She was flattening out her fingers and thumb too much.

About halfway through the lesson, she tells me she had a school teacher the previous year who LOVED llamas.  Even had a sign up that said “Save the drama for your llama.”  And they would sing a song about llamas, complete with hand motions…which included the exact thing she was doing with her right hand–pinky and index finger in the air, middle two fingers touching the thumb, but FLAT, not like a violin hold.   She sang the whole song for me while I cracked up laughing.  Mystery solved!  I told her this was going to be a “llama-free zone” and that I might have to make a sign to that effect.  I still giggle thinking about it.

(9/23 update:  My friend found this video of the song from sesame street!  I had not heard it before, but evidently it is very popular.

Teaching

Whew!

Today went much smoother than last Monday.  Monday I teach at Child of God, then Good Shepherd, then I return home for a few private students.  Last week I hit two bizarre traffic problems on the way to Child of God and was late, then barely made it to Good Shepherd due to traffic.  Today was NO problem, thankfully.

The classes did some good work today–the orchestra students were a bit tired by the end of class (it’s 1 hour 15 minutes long), but they worked hard.  I’ll need to remember next week to give them a water break part way through.  We started on our new music for the fall semester and next week will be starting on our Christmas songs.

It’s odd that Tuesdays are practically free right now.  It’s nice but disarming.  There are a couple of possibilities still up in the air for that afternoon as far as teaching goes.  However, as I am just sniffling and sneezing my way through the days here, a day practically off is much needed!

Running, Teaching

The GRD continues?

So my weekend plans have been sidetracked by yet another cold.  I guess seeing over 20 new kids in a week might have been too much for my immune system.  Luckily this strain is not as debilitating as my last cold (just under 3 weeks ago 🙁 ), but it’s still causing me problems, particularly in my half-marathon training…I should be doing a long run today, but, according to the internet, if you have a fever or congestion below the neck (I have a bit of a chest cough), then you should not run. I think I can make it up on Tuesday, if I’m feeling up to par then.  This first half marathon will be just a race to complete, not for any sort of time goal.

First half marathon, you say?  Why yes, in fact I have registered for the Rock n’ Roll Half Marathon in Phoenix, Arizona in January.  My sister lives there and we have decided to do the race together!  (She may be doing the full marathon though.)  So my current plan is to suffer through this first race, and then continue training/running.  And after that half marathon, there’s one back in the Lou in April, so there is absolutely no shortage of running goals for me to have.

As far as teaching goes, I am excited for my orchestra class tomorrow.  Last week I spent the time doing scales and review pieces.  This week I will have some new music for the kids to play.  I’ve chosen a few easy pieces, one or two challenging ones, plus several Christmas tunes.  The students range from third to eighth grade, but they all know each other from last year and have a good rapport.

I am not settling into the classes at my other school quite as well.  I do not teach private lessons there, just Suzuki group classes, and it will just take me longer to relate to all the students.   The students really loved their previous teacher and get upset when I don’t do things exactly the same way.  That should pass with time, as they get accustomed to my style.  The previous teacher was really good, luckily, though he seemed to use a very rewards-oriented approach to teaching, which is something that I am trying to avoid.  I think I’ll have to ease them out of that, rather than go cold turkey…

At the moment I am trying to decide what to do with a chart that tracked each child’s progress with a star (for completion). This was a nice chart last year’s teacher made, and most of the students are the same.  I found the chart in the storage and brought it out to show them (a mistake).  Of course those who were ahead were excited by this, and those who were behind were a bit downtrodden.  I suggested that we make a new chart, and to regain stars one would have to play the songs in the group together.  (My understanding had been that originally it was a solo performance, so this was much easier).  I thought this would be a fun way to review, in addition, I would want to hear all the pieces anyway to make sure that the kids hadn’t forgotten everything over the summer.  Long story short, one of the children has a mini-breakdown and spends the rest of class crying.  (He was “ahead” of the others, and I believe was worried he would lose that “status.”)  Now the question is:  do I just forget the chart entirely?  I think yes, as it’s just not worth the hassle.  I would rather focus our goals on things other than learning new songs…but will that upset the OTHER kids?  I feel like it’s a lose-lose situation right now.  Maybe I won’t mention it at all in tomorrow’s class and just see what happens.

Thoughts?

Cruise

Cayman Islands/Cozumel, Mexico

Just an update post–the last 🙁 from our cruise vacation in August.  I got the waterproof camera photos back so I wanted to post a few here.

The first few are from our jet ski tour in the Cayman Islands.  We went to Stingray City, which is not a real city–it’s a place where the water is very shallow and tons of stingrays hang around.  With the help of the guide, we were able to pick them up, hold them, and “kiss” them, which is supposed to be seven years of good luck!

On the jetski. Our guide had found some starfish for us to hold. Not the most flattering photo ever, but the best we had.
Holding a stingray!
My turn to "kiss' the stingray. I felt very silly!
Chris's turn. That was our guide on the right hand side. He was great!

The next few pictures are from our day in Cozumel, Mexico.  We went parasailing and spent the day at Nachi Cocum beach club.  I still dream about this day!  It was so beautiful, and the parasailing was fun UNTIL I started to get really nauseous.  Oops.

On the boat, getting ready to go up in the air!
Leaving the boat behind...
We took this ourselves from in the air.
Our view...the camera doesn't nearly do it justice
Safely back on the boat!
Relaxing in the pool after lunch.

There you go.  That’s the last of the photos I wanted to show off from our Excellent Cruise Vacation of 2010.  If you just happened upon this post I encourage you to look for my other posts of the cruise (Carnival Legend) from August.  If you’ve been following along the whole time, I hope you enjoyed it!

Teaching

Things I love about teaching

I love that one of my students at the Ballet School has dyed her hair blue.  It’s dirty blonde with blue underneath and is wonderful!  It’s the sort of thing I used to joke about in high school but never had the nerve to do.

I love when a new student is so excited to learn to play violin that she practices every day for a week.  I love it more when she keeps practicing like that.

I love when the student has that “light bulb moment” when they really understand (thanks to Susan Kempter for the phrase)!

I love when a child gives me a drawing they made of me!

I love when I finish a long day of teaching and finally get to let my guard down and relax.  Today I taught 12 students.  Whew!

thoughts about violin, teaching, running, life.