Yesterday I had an amazing teaching experience...
01/04/17 15:37
I have a teenage student from a difficult home in a difficult school with a pleasantly difficult attitude. I say pleasantly because she is one of those students who is too intelligent, and she puts her intelligence toward outwitting her teachers WHEN she concludes that they are not worth her time. She will not be condescended to. She will not be mocked. She will not be patronized. These are all good things.
As an added bonus, she is incredibly musically talented. No surprise there.
She spent her first year with me testing, pushing, and challenging everything I said. At first, I was at a loss about how to connect with her. But she made me a better teacher. We grew in our separate roles.
Now, two years later, she is performing chords at the piano while singing along. If you’ve never done this, you don’t know the coordination it takes as well as not only understanding the layout of the piano but a feel for the choreography. You cannot make a mistake. You must remember proper singing technique and proper piano technique. It takes so much skill, especially for a youngster.
Yesterday we spent our entire lesson discussing how to make her performance more musically moving and emotional. Not correct notes. Not proper singing technique. She did all that on her own. After her lesson was over, she asked to perform it again to make sure she understood what she was to implement AND that she’d done it correctly. Most of the time, when a student performs, I’m paying attention to the mistakes they make and how best to turn those mistakes into teachable moments.
Here, I stopped. And just listened.
I heard her frustration with her peers. I heard her disdain for some of the particulars of her upbringing. I heard her longing for friends she could depend upon. I heard her desire to reach out for others and be accepted for her unusualness just as she is. It was tearfully moving.
Yesterday I had an amazing teaching experience. She taught me.
As an added bonus, she is incredibly musically talented. No surprise there.
She spent her first year with me testing, pushing, and challenging everything I said. At first, I was at a loss about how to connect with her. But she made me a better teacher. We grew in our separate roles.
Now, two years later, she is performing chords at the piano while singing along. If you’ve never done this, you don’t know the coordination it takes as well as not only understanding the layout of the piano but a feel for the choreography. You cannot make a mistake. You must remember proper singing technique and proper piano technique. It takes so much skill, especially for a youngster.
Yesterday we spent our entire lesson discussing how to make her performance more musically moving and emotional. Not correct notes. Not proper singing technique. She did all that on her own. After her lesson was over, she asked to perform it again to make sure she understood what she was to implement AND that she’d done it correctly. Most of the time, when a student performs, I’m paying attention to the mistakes they make and how best to turn those mistakes into teachable moments.
Here, I stopped. And just listened.
I heard her frustration with her peers. I heard her disdain for some of the particulars of her upbringing. I heard her longing for friends she could depend upon. I heard her desire to reach out for others and be accepted for her unusualness just as she is. It was tearfully moving.
Yesterday I had an amazing teaching experience. She taught me.
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