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.

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.