Wednesday 17 June 2015

Working with Children

One of the reasons that I love teaching music is that I get to experience the students' success right alongside them. I can't even count how many time I've worked with students as a clinician and physically jumped into the air when they achieve a goal. Moments like that are reminders to me that, while I love to do a lot of things, teaching music is what I want to do as my career.

As I am still working on my education degree, I don't have any students that are "mine". I work with kids for a few hours and then they disappear back to their actual teacher. In that short amount of time, I learn about what makes these kids individuals, what they strive for, what their limits are. I see them struggle and attempt new ideas, some that contradict what they thought was right. And I almost always see them succeed, and in a way that they realize that they made progress.

I get so much joy from seeing students succeed and improve. I can't even imagine what it will be like when I go from having maybe 4 students to 40, from 3 hours to 3 times each week, from short term corrections to long term goals.

If you're not sure if you want to be a teacher, do become one. It is a profession of passion, of sacrifice, and immense effort. But nothing compares to seeing a student realize that they've grown, as a musician, as an adult, as an individual. Teach for that. Everything else is just bonus. 

Toodles!

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