I made one of my students cry today.
Well, kind of. He's a particularly emotional kid to begin. High highs and low lows. He gets overwhelmed easily, especially if he's tired, hungry or worn out. And he was all of those things today. They came straight from school where they'd been taking the TAKS test for two days straight. Starting in 3rd grade, kids are required to pass the TAKS to move onto the next grade. It's heavily stressed here, and I've actually had students cancel lessons (3rd and 4th graders!) so they could study. Weird.
Anyway, we were working on his recital piece. I admit it is a challenging piece for his skill level. He was tired and stressed out. I was a little stressed because Dean was screaming his head off in the computer room with Matt, so I probably had a little edge to my voice. I kept telling him to stay focused, look at my hands, pay attention, just take it one measure at a time. I could tell he was in his Eeyore mode, and about half way through I said, "Forget it. We can't work on this anymore. You're too worn out. Lets just play some music games." I don't know if the tears came from his frustration or relief, but a few slipped out. He enjoyed playing on my large staff mat, and kind of cheered up a bit.
I was always up for a challenge, but I'm finding those students to be rare. It's hard to find the line between high yet realistic expectations and overambitious/outrageous expectations. Any ideas on how to successfully do that?
4 comments:
Wow life can be stressful! But ADORABLE picture of Dean! SOOO Cute!
if you find a good answer to that questions i would be interested as well:) teaching can be so hard I think because you want them to learn something and sometimes it just doesn't work especially if you have other kids in the house:) cute picture of Dean by the way
You might ask his mom if you can give him a snack on days that he comes straight from lessons. An apple and a cheese stick would do wonders.
I had a student who couldn't concentrate. I asked his mom if I could give him half an Isagenix shake every lesson. It was a miracle! He could actually concentrate. This kid was hyperactive, but ALL kids need a snack about 3 PM.
If you don't want to provide it maybe you could have his mom send half a peanutbutter sandwich.
Good luck!! Mom
I can vividly remember walking home one day from piano lessons just sobbing. Really, i just wasn't cut out for it. good luck. I like the snack idea, then he would have something to look forward to :)
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