Teaching Anywhere:
Creative Environments for You & Your Students
Though applied lessons at UTA usually occur in my office and private lessons on the weekends usually happen in my music room at home, I've definitely learned the power of being creative and flexible when it comes to teaching environments!
The picture above includes me helping one of my students through an 8am recording session. That morning, I remember being particularly tired, but I knew how important the project was to her! Instead of letting fatigue rule me, I perked up at the thought of a nice iced Americano at Starbucks, put on some fun socks just for the heck of it, and headed to Arlington with the attitude that this was going to be an enjoyable and meaningful event.
As I sat in the comfiest position I could find and gently prompted my student through the session, I learned that no matter how early the hour and no matter how serious the lesson, there's always a way to make it feel great for me so that I can be my best for my student!
The picture above shows a creative solution to a partner lesson that was interrupted by a fire alarm. When I first heard the grating sounds of the annoying disruption, I thought to myself Geez! This is a terrible time to miss out on a lesson!
Once outside however, my students were game to just keep going! There were people all around us, but we continued with our lesson and meaningful progress was made that day.
I learned that no matter the location, there is always a way to keep teaching and connecting with my students!
This last picture was taken just a few days ago at the TMEA Convention in San Antonio. With a busy schedule this semester, make-up lessons are hard to come by, so my student and I found a corner just outside the convention center to have an out of town lesson!
At first, it was tricky figuring out how she was going to read the music (neither one of us had a music stand with us). If you look at the creative solution we figured out hopefully you will learn what I did that day!
No matter how limited the teaching environment may seem, there is always a way to make it work!
Looking forward to posting more about teaching in the future, but for now...
Happy Teaching!
Terri Sánchez
