Teaching

Cardinals Game

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.

Travel

Vacation time approaches

This weekend was busy with weddings, as usual. Saturday was an incredibly hot day, but luckily we only had to play one hour outside towards the end of the day. It was exhausting being outside for even that hour due to the intense heat and humidity.

This week I only have one day of teaching and then I am off to South Carolina to visit my family and hit up Surfside Beach. I’m looking forward to it! I will particularly enjoy the weekend of NOT playing a wedding 😉 I haven’t driven from St. Louis to SC yet so I look forward to the drive. I used to drive everywhere but as I’ve gotten older I’ve been flying more. I decided to drive for this trip since I was also visiting my parents at home in Clinton in addition to the beach in addition to allowing more flexibility with dates.

I am still reading the Rewards book I mentioned earlier. Additionally I have put aside a couple of nice fiction books to read at the beach. Two more days, two more busy days.

Books, Food, Teaching

Japanese Lessons

I finished the book “Japanese Lessons” by Gail Benjamin yesterday.  It was recommended to me by a colleague (from Suzuki Institute).  The author spent a year in Japan with her family, and describes how the Japanese schools are run (and the differences between the US and Japan).  I found the book to be pretty interesting.  I just spent ten minutes trying to write a summary of my thoughts on the book here, but decided to just delete the whole thing, because I can’t write a summary.  Quick summary:  schools in Japan are very different than schools here, but the answer isn’t in more Math and English classes but in more free time, recess, arts, and leaving the students alone to do their own thing.  Which jives with everything we learn about how children learn–it is NOT in 1 1/2 hour periods studying one thing, sitting still at a desk, and trying to be quiet for hours upon hours.

I played a wedding at the Hyatt Regency Downtown yesterday.  Here is the view from a window (this is the famous St. Louis Arch!)

What a beautiful day it was!  It was not as humid as it had been the past few days, so Chris and I sat outside at a sushi restaurant afterwards…delicious sushi!  (fits in with my Japanese theme, right?)

Teaching

Target’s Onespot

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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?

Weddings

Solo violin at weddings

Lately I have been booking more solo violin weddings than ever. Though I still think the ensemble is a little bit nicer, there is something easy about solo violin…I can play whatever I want, improvise/repeat/cut VERY easily, I can blend from one tune to the next, I don’t have to coordinate my entrance with anyone. Plus from an organizational standpoint, I only have to play myself (or hire another violinist to fill in) and don’t have to worry about getting two or three other people to play.

So, YES, I would love to play solo violin at your event! I can play a wide variety of tunes, and I’m sure you will love it 🙂

Weddings

July lull

July is becoming very slow. This week several of my students are out of town or taking off for various reasons. Additionally, I have a Saturday completely FREE. NO weddings!

I do have one on Friday though 😉

I had four weddings last weekend. The last was my trainer’s wedding, and we stayed after to hang out. It was a casual backyard wedding and a lot of fun. They set off fireworks from the roof afterwards! I would post a picture but all of the photos I took are just plain awful.

I created a facebook page for the “Frantillo Strings.” Just to be clear, that’s Frantill-o. Not Frantiy-o. It’s not very exciting yet–I need more pictures of us during events. That will help! Any past clients reading this and want to help out?

I’ve started a book titled “Punished by Rewards” by Alfie Kohn. The premise is that if we only do things to get the reward we don’t do those things as well. I have only read a few chapters so far however. The book was recommended by Susan Kempter at Suzuki Institute the other week–she does not give rewards to her students. Learning is (I guess) intrinsically its own reward. In any case, I’m trying to stack up new ideas for the fall, for my new classes.

I also got a sweet little Mr. Mozart finger puppet/bow topper. I can’t wait to try him out on a little student.

thoughts about violin, teaching, running, life.