October Update

 Sorry to the photo lovers. I forgot to take pictures. Completely.

   So, what's new in October?

   Basically, what's new is me trying to be a balanced teacher by having weeks planned out for covering everything -- ear training, sight reading, technique, etc. And in trying to be balanced, somehow the theory books get neglected, and then I berate myself for not achieving my goal to teach a balanced course! 

   Of course, we had Canadian Thanksgiving in October, which demanded Thanksgiving-themed activities! (I was going to take a picture of the activities I used. But for some reason, maybe because it was mostly worksheets and composing activities instead of actual games, I can't seem to find the same sheets I used. I have the PDFs on my computer, of course, but none already printed out.) I try to use Thanksgiving as a time to get to know my students ("what are you doing for Thanksgiving?") and also to encourage them to be thankful. Which is probably what everyone else does too! But you can never have too much gratefulness, and sometimes we really do need to just stop and think about what we are thankful for. 

   


   I had a goal of working with lead sheets one week. Then I realized that most of my students haven't learned chords yet, because they are still beginners. 😞I think I wound up doing lead sheets with one student, who mostly found it hard work. There were two others that had making their own lead sheets on the lesson plan... except that we ran out of time. Which is what seems to always happen with me! Oh, well, we were choosing Christmas music that week anyways, so fun stuff still happened! I did manage to introduce the C Major scale to one student, and I think I covered basic chords with one other. So, it didn't go as planned, but learning still happened! 

   By accident, I made the discovery that students find lessons more fun if a dice is involved. This super-simplifies making online lessons fun! Almost anything can be turned into a game if you throw a dice into the mix. Like these sight reading cards I downloaded from Top Music Marketplace (the seller was Music-Me-Piano) and then numbered to give  an exciting twist.

   
   I don't know... I try to make lessons fun. But I also want to be a good teacher, not merely a fun one. And lately I've thought more and more about my last teacher, and the teacher I've called Mr. B on this blog, and how they taught me to love the music itself. And then I'm reminded of how powerful music is in our lives. I want my students to enjoy lessons, but I also want to love music and use it well.

   Only time will tell if I will reach this goal. 

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