I view myself primarily as a facilitator of learning, rather than as an expert who simply delivers information to students. The teachers I have had always, presented their subjects in a way that caught my interest, clarified difficult topics and led me through complex areas, and put knowledge into context so that its relevance was apparent. When interacting with students, I am always conscious of their different learning styles and rates, what they have already learned and what they will need to learn in the future.
Feedback from students has been vital to my teaching approach now. The pacing of lessons and rehearsal really set the tone for success. Personal contact with students is essential to my approach, especially in lesson groups. Many need encouragement to talk to their teachers, so I emphasize my availability for informal discussion and my willingness to help them sort out any problems they have with what they are learning. My experience as a teacher is greatly enriched by this contact with students, for it allows me to get to know them on more personal level and achieve an excellent rapport with them.
It is my job as their teacher to set the expectations high; higher than the student may think they can achieve at first. Whether or not the student actually achieves the expectation at face value is not the point. The journey to reach those heights is how the student will be most successful in discovering, the art that is music and themselves. I provide the student with every bit of information and opportunity that I can to guide them through their journey. But ultimately, the job of all teachers is to take the student to the point where they don’t need us anymore, and they are independent life-long learners. In addition, I strive for my room to be clean, neat and organized and expect the students to respect the organization of my classroom and follow my classroom procedures daily.
"Music is a world within itself, with a language, we all understand."
-Stevie Wonder