It's definitely been a crazy and unprecedented past few months....with the global pandemic of COVID-19 affecting almost every aspect of our lives, we've all had to adjust our daily routines somewhat drastically. For us educators, it has been no different. Since late March, I've had to mostly convert physical in-person lessons to virtual webcam lessons, with a few families opting out entirely, hoping to resume when we're allowed by our state government (I've personally decided to resume in-person lessons on May 12th, same day retailers are allowed to open back up here in Ohio).
Originally, I was admittedly a little disorganized in the first several days, even though I already had experience teaching an out-of-state student via Skype for 2 years. What helped me effectively teach this student is that I was able to purchase the trumpet books he has been working out of and follow along with him, designate assignments for the next week, etc. But that idea is a lot more complicated when you have 23 other students who each might be doing completely different books, all at various levels. Thankfully I had the idea for parents to send pics/scans of their children's music to me either ahead of time, or during the lesson. That helped TREMENDOUSLY! Another thing that students, their families, and I had to overcome was the positioning of their devices to get the best angle and perspective of their hands and fingers, especially when playing piano. I had spent a few minutes at the start of almost every lesson navigating the parents to find that perfect spot that would allow me to correct the students' technique and analyze any pitfalls in their performance. Technical issues of course have been a major hurdle as well, from slow internet speeds (in the beginning I had "late 90's" speeds, before I broke down and switched back to my old ISP with much better speeds) to bad audio quality, video calls dropped for no apparent reason, etc. But I think one good thing that has come from this is that it has encouraged me to be more concise, clear, and structured during the lesson. Perhaps this comes from the ability to see myself in the corner of all of these webcam platforms, and therefore adjust how I interact with the students. Perhaps it's an innate drive to reassure the student that even though I'm not there with them physically, I'm more than 100% there with them in spirit, and I want to encourage each student to drive forward with their passion of learning music. So yes, there have been many challenges that have presented themselves during this strange time of doing everything online, but I think we can all learn and grow from this time as well. And this has been a great reminder that music connects us all, through even the darkest times. Hang in there world, we can get through this!
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About this blogHello world, this is your friendly musician friend and teacher, Joseph! This is where I share my thoughts and feelings about anything and everything music-related. Enjoy! Archives
September 2022
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