Five Minutes. That's It!

This past Monday, I was able to do teach the first trumpet lesson to my professor, Brandt Schneider, who did a wonderful job playing the 4^th/5^th grader. As a woodwind person, I had a fun time trying to think of ways to create a lesson plan for the trumpet. I’m very grateful for asking for advice from my brass friends. However, my lesson plan had too many objectives when I should have kept it to one. It was unclear to my audience who was watching, my “student,” and even myself. Therefore, I need to pick one logical objective that my students can take away from it, in the future.

It’s funny to me how I got feedback about how quiet I was when I’m at my internship school, I’m definitely more energetic and alert. Even at my job (I teach private clarinet and flute lessons) I always ask my students about something that’s going on in their lives before we get started. During my lesson, I was quiet and less energetic. I’m not sure if it was the fact that I was the first one giving the lesson or the fact that I was tired during the day, but when I finally teach lessons in a public school setting, I will be mindful of how much positive energy I’m showing to students.

For the next time I teach a lesson to a student, I’ll keep it short and to the point. If that is something I believe in as a prospective teacher, then I better make sure that I keep myself held to that idea. There’s a way to fix it. Janet Robinson first showed me this acronym at the internship orientation during her lecture. She taught us, K.I.S.S. It stands for “Keep It Simple, Stupid!” This means that I should use simple words that my students will easily understand and for myself to remember what we’re talking about.