Kathryn Drake

Suzuki Violin Teacher

Archives for February 2019

Help & Support…

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Carrie passed around a cheesy hand out in our class on Friday. The title matches the title of this post, “Help & Support…” It was published by Soles & Associates Inc., but has the uncanny character of a Seth Godin blog post.

The point is this:
1. Help means doing something so that another person need not do it.
2. Support means doing something that contributes to someone’s capability or productivity.

As people receive support they become more creative, productive, and effective.
As people receive help they become more dependent while credit is giving to the helper.

This does not suggest support is good and help is bad; there is nuance.

A crucial skill is learning when to provide help and when to provide support.

Your job as a teacher, much like that of a leader, is to constantly help and/or support.

How will you know when to help and when to support?
How will you know when to provide the answers, and when to wait uncomfortably for them?
How will you know when to make exceptions and when to uphold expectations? [Read more…]

Elsewhere

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Platforms are constantly changing.

What was myspace is now facebook. What was the record store is now Spotify. What was the concert stage is now YouTube.

The message I have to share will not change.

I discuss the philosophy, teaching points, and best practices around teaching Suzuki Violin well. I plan to document my journey from being a student of Suzuki violin to being a master teacher of Suzuki violin. I’ve been doing that documentation on this website, my home base, for over four years now.

I’ve learned, though, that in order to allow what I have documented to reach others, I have to allow the bits of wisdom I’ve gleaned from my lived experiences to live in a place where others will see it. It has to live places where people are — on platforms.

For the past four years I have posted, almost exclusively, on my website. However that has started to change. [Read more…]

What Deep Suzuki Teaching PRACTICE Looks Like

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A graduate student in my Suzuki Pedagogy asked me how I was preparing for class and doing well.

For background, our Suzuki Ped seminar class meets once a week with our professor. In our time together we go over the teaching points of pieces, play the pieces, and ask/answer questions about how to best teach. We have occasional written assignments to turn in such as book reports, interviews with parents, or written reflections. At the end of the semester we meet with Carrie as a group and take turns performing and discussing the specific teaching points of the pieces in the books we worked on.

So what he was really asking is how I PRACTICE teaching. [Read more…]

Snowstorm in Twinkle Class

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Last weekend we had a lovely winter snowstorm. Two feet of snow stacked up on the ground over a 24 hour period. To commemorate the changing landscape, both of weather and a transition between a group class performance and a few weeks off, we decided to do an extra special activity.

We made our own Twinkle Snowstorm!

Imagine the final result:
13 twinklers (age 4-6) standing in lines.
Each one has a snow flake dangling from their scroll
The snow flakes aren’t yet moving or dipping to the ground, their posture is stable and tall
Teacher and pianist play Twinkle Theme while students stay in posture and listen
Every parent has a camera out to document the moment
We take a twinkly bow, students ask to keep the snowflakes, which of course they can

It was a great success. I want to explain here exactly how I set up the snowflakes and framed the activity to make it wonder-full and educational.

Make the snowflakes

I used this Martha Stewart tutorial to make one snowflake for each member of the class.

I attached fishing line to each snowflake with a paperclip, then tied a large loop at the top of the line. The paper clip gives the snowflake a nice weight so the flakes really hang down.

I transported the collection by looping the large top loop around a dowel. The snowflakes still got a bit tangled, but I would not recommend letting all of the line loose and just carrying by the flake part.

Snowstorm in Class

I introduced the activity by instructing students to their best violin posture (no bows necessary). I told them we were going to hold up our instruments while Ms. Sarah (co-teacher) took a trip outside and back. She put on her coat and hat — it was quite theatrical — and then retrieved the paper snowflakes which were in the hallway.

As she came back inside I exclaimed, “Oh my goodness! Look what Ms. Sarah brought back with her!”

Sarah and I then went around the room looping the snowflake lines over students’ scrolls until everyone had a dangling snow flake.

Students stood with tall scrolls and hanging snowflakes as Sarah and I performed Twinkle Theme.

We let them keep their snowflakes as a souvenir from class.

I hope you try this engaging activity with your Twinkle class. It’s important to spice things up (or cool things down) every once and a while!