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Monday, December 5, 2011

tough day...

I taught my last lesson to my little voice student. She's been working hard. I've been working hard to keep up with piano. Today was especially frustrating since we've got a performance on Thursday. I REALLY struggle when it comes to the piano. But I am a damned good voice teacher. She filled out my evaluation today after struggling to put the piece together. I saw some of it. I wish I hadn't. I didn't see specific things but I really expected 5's (excellent) all across the board. We've been working so hard and accomplished so much. I didn't see all 5's. I saw a lot of 3's. Which makes me a little sad. I don't think she sees the value of what we've worked on or how far we've actually come. She's done some wonderful things. She's broken a LOT of bad choir habits. We've identified a lot of technical issues that take more than 6 lessons to iron out. But we've started. It's disappointing to have watched her advance and see that 3's are the main number she's putting in the evaluation.

But I'll try not to get disappointed. I KNOW I'm a good teacher. I can see that in the progress we've made. I have an hankering that she's not going to continue lessons with me. But I supposed that's one less thing to squeeze into my schedule next semester. It's just an ego blow. Trying to let go. Though it would be very interesting to see her interact with another teacher. I'm her first voice instructor, she is not my first voice student. She might have had a different preconception of what lessons ARE. Like it's my magical responsibility to make things perfect... when it's really about internal passion and want for musicality, I'm here to observe and offer an outside perspective and hopefully learning tools that she can take to a practice room.

This is me reasoning away my disappointment. Better reasoning than eating.

On the flip-side, my peer critique in English class went very well. I'm very close to gaining "insight" through my piece. I'm not one to blatantly say "moral of the story is..." I like to leave them digging. But I need to narrow my clues a little. It was a piece about finding a dead Indian man in the hot springs here. I'm pretty happy with it, but it needs a final edit. The class was generally pretty positive comments and constructive as well. I will hold on to the positive and constructive comments. 

Health thoughts are sitting on the backburner... simmering; water,calories, fat, scale, water, carbs, sugar, diet, fat, scale, -39, plateau.

I'm trying to change them to: healthier, looser clothing, minus, minus, minus, active, move, move, move, laugh, enjoy, cook, healthy, veggies, alternative choices, HDL cholesterol, water, water, water, move, move, move, PEE IT OUT!

6 comments:

  1. You can't hit a top 10 with all your students. I have found that out with daycare kids, no matter if most like me or love me there are the few I have put my heart and soul into and it didn't make a difference. So just remember the experience and move forward.
    Good luck this week and keep working on becoming the healthy and wise woman you can be.
    Take care and God Bless!!

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  2. Julie's right. Different people perceive differently. If you're valuable to some/most students, take pride.

    I took voice lessons for a short time to help my asthma (breath control and stuff). I enjoyed it. I had to switch the money to Pilates, so couldn't afford both, but even with my weenie voice, it was kinda fun. :) I envy folks with beautiful,flexible voices and perfect breath control AAAAH.

    I bet you are a wonderful, wonderufl teacher!!!!

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  3. Oh, and yeah, always focus on ACTIONS more than the scale number. The actions lead to the better cholesterol, better weight, better muscle tone, etc. It's all about the thoughts that lead to actions that lead to change. Later....that plateau WILL BUST.

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  4. Student evals....ugh. How old is the student...? It is funny when you ask a 'student' to eval a teacher because they really do not always know what goes into teaching.

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  5. This student is a whopping 16 years old. So really, I should be able to brush off the opinion. I'm finding I wish she was taking as much from these lessons as I am. At least somebody's getting something. heh.

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  6. It's tough when so much is wrapped up in an evaluation and they can be so different from person to person. I know that I don't really ever give out the highest rating even when I liked the person. Maybe I should re-think that!

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sorry guys, so much spam, gotta put the filters up again.

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