Thursday is a long day for me–I have 12 scheduled students in two locations. Today I finished my second student and I thought I was going to just fall asleep. I didn’t know HOW I would make it through the rest. After the next two, things were even worse. Then I realized why today was so bad (in addition to still being a little sick, and having slept poorly…). None of my students had done even CLOSE to the practicing I had asked for. In fact, several had done NO practicing at all. It’s sad how quickly I can go from being hopeful and excited about new students to being totally depressed because none of my students are practicing and I just don’t know what else to do. Granted they are new and I haven’t tried much, but if they won’t practice right off the bat with a new teacher, when will they?
However, as the day progressed, a couple of my students really surprised me, and had done MORE than I asked for, and really done a great job. So at least I’m not failing all of my students!! I’ll have to figure out how to encourage the non-practicing students to do better.
So I think the rewards day has already come back to bite me, as the kids keep asking what they will get for doing this or that. “Do we get a candy bar?” NO. You get to learn a new song. Isn’t that enough? Bonus: if you don’t get candy for everything, you will have a lower sugar tolerance and might have less problems with your weight as you get older. Goodness knows our society has enough trouble to that effect! Maybe I’ll incorporate push-ups as a reward? You play this song well, you get to do 10 push-ups! Play it again with a better tone, and you get to run up and down a flight of stairs! Would this work? Then again, it’s still a reward for doing something, and would probably backfire. Life is hard 🙁
1) I really enjoy driving by myself for 30 to 45 minutes for teaching or gigs. It’s the perfect amount of time for clearing my head, listening to the radio (big npr fan), or catching up with a friend on the phone.
2) I should really decide when I set my alarm if I am going to dry my hair in the morning or not. Makes a 5 to 10 minute difference. Stupid hair.
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.
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.
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!
