University of Mary Band and Choir Tour
Every year, the University of Mary Music Department goes on tour. The primary purpose of these tours is to share the experience of music with others around the country. These experiences provide the college students and those students we are visiting to interact and learn more about others' abilities, interests, and much more. This includes many Q&A's with our director and ourselves, public concerts that bring us in contact with all ages and backgrounds, performances for students from many different schools, and an opportunity for us to experience what it can be like to grow up with both smaller and larger music communities than what we have grown up with. |
Private Piano Lessons
Over the course of approximately the last two years, I have had the honor of working with many students from Kindergarten through adult. I have enjoyed the challenge of having to adapt my methods of teaching to best suit the strengths and weaknesses of each student and to build relationships with those students. For some, these adaptations have required getting up and moving (which is not a typical activity in private piano lessons). For others, I have created additional activities and games to help students learn a concept that is particularly difficult for them. One student was recently diagnosed with a delay between what is seen and their ability to react to that stimuli. The doctors were surprised that he was able to even play piano, much less play as well as he does. I have worked with students from different cultures, students that come from families with musical backgrounds, and others who are entirely new to music. I am also constantly in close contact with the parents, scheduling, letting them know how their child is doing, and what they can do to help during each child's practice sessions. Teaching has stretched my comfort zone and provided me with countless opportunities to grow both personally and as an educator by contributing to my expanding knowledge of classroom management, transitions, a collection of many activities, variation in how I teach, differentiation, how to properly communicate with students of all ages, and much more. |