[email protected]

In a message dated 7/8/2002 6:59:46 AM Eastern Standard Time,
[email protected] writes:


> As my understanding of how my son learns and how I learn develops, the
> natural side-effect is to consider what I do professionally. I teach
> violin, and I've been struggling with how I do that. (I hate the "I
> teach..." comment, too, and I'm open to suggestions on other ways to say
> that! My business card could use a little help, too.)
>
> I'm coming to beleive that most students come to me expecting me to feed
> knowledge into them, and then they become burned out when I do exactly
> that.
> (And so do I!) I was considering it this way: if my son wanted to learn
> about dinosaurs, I'd probably help him find a couple books on dinosaurs,
> search for web sites, check out our nearby Natural History museum, buy some
> model dinosaurs to mess around with, or whatever. The LAST thing I'd
> consider doing would be calling someone whom I heard was an expert on
> dinosaurs and sign him up for weekly "dinosaur lessons", where he would
> learn a little bit new each week and then be expected to come home and
> repeat it over and over and then repeat it back to the expert the next
> week,
> perfectly or at least greatly improved!
>
> And yet to some extent, this is what I do for a living. Somewhere along
> the
> line, somebody hears a violin, decides they want to learn to do that, and
> calls me for violin lessons. And so we begin working through the basics of
> how you play, etc. But here's my problem: they get bored. It happens to
> everyone, somewhere down the line. (Including me, the teacher! I get
> kudos
> for my teaching, I'm a good teacher. But it's not thrilling me, either.)
> Let's face it, put as above, I'd be bored with dinosaurs in the first
> month.
> If we played little games learning the information, had some laughs, etc.,
> I
> might survive for two months.
>
> I'm realizing that somehow, I need my students to see me as a single
> resource in their quest to learn violin. That they also need to read,
> listen, study, experiment, search the internet, etc. They need to think
> about why some things work and some things just don't work for them, and
> how
> to fix their own problems. But how do I get them beyond the "teach me"
> mentality to learn themselves? How do I give these people some direction,
> without it becoming just more assignments that I give for the week, added
> onto everything else.
>
> There's so much more to this all jumbled around in my poor little brain
> tonight, but maybe this works as a start. Thanks for the help!
>

My partner takes violin lessons and my son takes guitar lessons from a very
cool teacher. I've noticed a few things she does that seem to work well.

First, her attitude doesn't seem to be too much I am the Teacher and you are
the Student. Instead, she acts like both are a couple of people really
interested in this cool thing, with one having some more experience and skill
who can share with the other. They are partners learning and playing
together. It's a very respectful approach, and is probably more fun for her
too.

Second, she's flexible. If my son asks a question or talks about a music
concept, she doesn't stress sticking with what she'd have planned. Instead,
she answers the questions, they experiment together, etc. She noticed my son
loves to sing, so she adds that in (easier with guitar, of course).

Now, one of my biggest things from having previously taken lessons...I want
to play REAL songs, other than Twinkle. They can be simplified, they can be
just parts....but Twinkle gets old.

Now, just let me share that MY job is directing a Unitarian Universalist
Religious Education program, and I also work really hard at making it as
not-schooly as possible. It's hard.

Kathryn


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