Re: Teaching woes


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Posted by Jay Bertolet on June 19, 2002 at 21:42:26:

In Reply to: Teaching woes posted by Annoyed on June 18, 2002 at 22:13:11:

Let me tell you a story about one of my teaching experiences.

Three years ago, I started teaching a freshman student at the arts high school. He didn't impress me at all with his playing when I first heard him. Honestly, there wasn't anything he did that I could point my finger to and say "that's really good". However, I'm not in a position to pick and choose the students I teach at the high school so I started him off just like all my other students. After the first few lessons, it because obvious that he wasn't practicing. I mean, almost not at all. He frequently came to lessons and whined about his schoolwork, how little time he had for real practicing, etc. For the first year and a quarter, I was convinced that this student would never maintain his gradepoint average high enough to remain at the school. His lessons were abysmal. I continued to demand the appropriate amount of preparation for lessons and when he didn't bring that, he got a bad grade.

In the middle of the first semester of his sophomore year, something changed. He suddenly started to care more, ask questions, and come to lessons prepared. It was obvious that he was practicing a lot more. For some lessons he would bring in more than what I had assigned because he wanted to catch up to where he thought we should be if he hadn't wasted so much of our first three semesters together. The change in his playing was astounding. Within a semester and a half (the rest of his sophomore year), he changed from a hopeless mess to a really good high school player. His jury at the end of his sophomore year was one of the best I had ever heard and many on the faculty agreed.

The next school year, he came in ready to go. He had practiced very hard over the summer and then he told me he had read about a couple of competitions he wanted to enter, one of them at the 2002 ITEC. He brought all that music into his lessons and we began to work on it. His intensity and commitment were suddenly amazing. We would frequently have long lessons, sometimes two or three hours, and it never seemed like a long time because we were always getting something done. He seemed to feed off this just as much as I did, and it spurred him into working even harder. Near the end of his junior year, just before the ITEC, I began to realize just how far he'd come. He was playing very well indeed and I was really amazed at how much he had improved. I was so proud when Hiram won the young artists euphonium competition at ITEC.

This experience reminded me that just about any student can be great, if they work hard. I would encourage you to stick it out with your student as long as you can. You never know when their attitude will suddenly change. Being around for those lessons when things get done and major progress is seen each and every lesson is truly an inspirational experience. How do you get there? I would offer two pieces of advice:

1) Never compromise your standards. Always demand the very best from your students and tell them the truth about how they play. If they play badly, give them an F. If they play great, give them an A. Be totally truthful in evaluating what they do and don't sugar coat it when they fail. Developing mutual respect is integral to being effective as a teacher. You won't get that by lying to them about how great or how bad they sound. Besides, they know full well how they play and how much they've practiced. Anything other than the truth will lose you respect.

2) Always approach every lesson with a positive attitude. Don't assume that a bad student is going to come in today and play badly. Today might be the exception! Building up a positive momentum can really help the student begin to practice more. I try to focus on specific issues in every lesson, as needed, so that by the end of the semester (or whatever) the student can begin to see tangible results from their practice. Once they see the value in practice, the sky is the limit.

Sorry for the long post. Thanks Hiram, it's been a great ride.

My opinion for what it's worth...


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