Part of my unending quest for insights involves reading and re-reading books. There are a few wonderful books like If You Want to Write by Brenda Ueland that I need to re-read every few years. But I also try to throw new things into the mix. My mother, who is also a music teacher, sent me this book a few months ago, so exploring Bonnie Blanchard's ideas about teaching has been my summer project.
Blanchard has a wonderful website where you can get a better picture of what this book is all about. What I loved about the book is that it made me really think about what would work and what wouldn't work in my studio. She freely admits that not all her strategies will work with every kid in every studio, and I appreciate that.
One area of concern that I have is the section on the difference between teaching girls and teaching boys. Every student is an individual. Some girls with thrive with the strategies she lists under "boy's brains" and some boys need the "girl's brains" activities. My advice would be to learn the needs of the individual student and then select strategies from either list that fit that kid.
The ways she sometimes talks to her students also wouldn't work with me. It may be that her personality comes through in a way that communicates something different from the actual words, but some of the things she recommends saying were damaging to me as a student and/or have had negative responses with my students. Again, I think each teacher needs to know themselves and be aware of how your words affect students. Do your words actually motivate and encourage, or do they create guilt and frustration?
Some of Blanchard's ideas just simply won't work in my studio right now. I teach in a school, and one of the reasons they have voice teachers there is to make studying easier for kids. When more kids take voice lessons, the overall level of the choirs increase. Even students who don't practice are better choir singers because of their time with me. Because of that philosophy, I can't really take her suggestions for practice requirements of students and tell them that is the minimum or they are out. I would also love to move to hour lessons as the default time, but it simply won't work in a school where 2 kids need to have lessons in a 50 minute class period.
The good news it that I highlighted something on nearly every page of the book, and this fall, I'm starting 3 new things that I learned (and modified somewhat) by reading this book.
First, I'm sending out a letter to all the parents at the beginning of the year. Parents are already somewhat involved because I make them sign my policy signature form and all emails I send go to students and parents. This new letter tells parents specific ways that they can get involved in and help with their child's learning process. I'll share that letter in a separate post.
Second, Blanchard has some great ideas for motivating students to practice. One idea is to make cookie bets with students. That won't work for me since I have issues with gluten, chocolate, and sugar which basically makes cookies pointless. But I did like the idea of me having to do something in return when they meet practice goals. My Practice Challenge 2014-2015 grew out of that.
Third, and probably most important, I love Blanchard's Music for Life notebook system. In her version, the students have 2 notebooks: one in which she writes assignments and other things they discuss in the lessons, and a second book where the students re-write those items sorting into categories (fingering, phrasing, music history, etc.) for quick and easy reference in the future. I've made a few changes and adaptations to make it work better for singers, and this fall, all students will begin work on The Voice Notebook. We're starting small. Right now, students are getting a binder and making sure that lesson notes (their handwritten notes or my notes that are emailed to them and saved on my Music Teacher's Helper website) make it into the binder each week. You can see the general outline in this post.
Blanchard pushes her students hard, but also realizes what is most important. Here are a couple of quotes about this that I love.
Our mission statement as music teachers should read: "The welfare of students comes first."
Is the family life chaotic? Is there a functional adult at home to supervise? If the child does not have a sound home life, then the teacher must prioritize. What is more important? The child's performance at the lesson or your relationship as a caring adult with that child? Choose to save the child and not the concerto.
My studio and my students are unique. My studio today and the students I teach today are different from what they were even 10 years ago. I can't just take someone else's plan, that works marvelously for them, and try to make my studio work the same way. That's why I think it is so important to keep exploring and trying new things. Although my basic teaching philosophy hasn't changed much over the years, my teaching and the way I interact with students continues to evolve. And that's exactly how it should be.
