Robyn & Jamila's Excellent Journey

I don't think my dad reads my blog but just in case he does--Dad, you'd better sit down for this one.

Any one who has known me for more than a few hours knows that I am a huge fan of pop music. If you just finished that sentence by saying "boy bands" out loud, you're on the right track. ;-) This is the story of how two young women overcame unbeatable odds--lack of transportation and lack of funds--in order to witness a wonderful event... an 'N Sync concert. Or was it Backstreet Boys? [blasphemy!!!] Read on, friend.


Once upon a time, in a magical place called undergraduate school, Robyn and Jamila were boy band fans. They saved up their money and bought a couple of tickets to see one of their favorite groups, 'N Sync, at the Charlotte Coliseum. [Now, this is where the story gets fuzzy, so I might have some of the facts wrong. But I've lost touch with the one person who could fill in the blanks*, so here goes nothing. Also, I'm switching to first person.]

My parents couldn't take us to the Charlotte concert but could take us to another concert, in Raleigh. They said to sell the Charlotte tickets and they'd take care of the Raleigh concert plus transportation. Sounds like a good deal to me! So we tried to sell the tickets online. No luck. We lowered the price a little. Nothing. We spread the word on message boards and whatnot. No one was buying these tickets. So we made the only logical decision at this point: To go to the concert anyway, without telling the parental units.

Now, keep in mind that we're two college students with no transportation (well, I think Jamila had a bike but...). "No sweat!" said Jamila, who took advantage of one of those college discount membership things that I miss so very much and went to work at getting us from Greensboro to Charlotte and back.

When the day of the concert came, we were stoked. Not nervous that our parents would find out or wondering how in the world we'd managed to pull this off. Just very excited!!! Our first mode of transportation (that's right, there will be several) was bus. We walked to the bus station from campus and started our adventure. Once we were in Charlotte we got a cab to the coliseum. The show was AWESOME (I think it was the No Strings Attached tour). Once the show was over we hit the ATM to get a little more cash. That's when we learned that we'd both overdrawn our bank accounts.

Oops.

How would we get to the train station for the final leg of our trip? Hitchhiking? Thankfully we didn't have to go that route. Instead we got a ride from a guy and his little boy, who'd also been at the show. Yeah, you read that right--we got a ride to the train station from a total stranger. You know, the people you're not supposed to talk to, let alone get into their vehicles and go places. But God was watching our sorry little butts that night because we made it to the train station safely. The best part: I think the dude was driving a van. Sounds like the beginning of an episode of CSI, doesn't it?

Now, I'm not one who usually falls asleep when traveling. I just can't ever get comfortable whether I'm in a car, on a plane, or anything else. But on that train ride from Charlotte to Greensboro, I was out cold. Maybe it was the punch the dude in the van gave me (KIDDING, geez!). Anyway, once we got back to Greensboro we got a cab back to campus. And I managed to not tell either of my parents about that trip until a few years ago. The cat finally came out of the bag when my Mom and I were discussing never having taken a train trip. I told her "Well, actually..." and filled her in on the whole thing. Mom's response? "Don't tell your father until you're 62 years old!"

So, for those playing at home, let's recap all the modes of transportation used:

1. Foot
2. Bus
3. Cab (twice)
4. Good samaritan/Axe murderer
5. Train

If there are no more journal entries after this, it's because my dad read it and I'm now locked away...


*I unfortunately lost contact with Jamila before I graduated so I don't have her side of the story for verification purposes. Jamila, if you're reading this, I MISS YOU! Let me know you're alive and well and still love boy bands...

The Joys and Challenges of Teaching Children

How many of you teach music to children? I currently have 5 kids: two girls, ages 11 and 14; and three boys, ages 6, 7, and 8 (or thereabouts). I'll be focusing on the three youngest for this discussion. I’ve never taken an elementary ed course, though I did sit in on quite a few when my mom taught it. But I mainly go on what I’ve observed over the years—I’m a people watcher so I observe behavior and how people interact and save the good stuff in the back of my head. I also go on instinct and my own interaction with children, usually at church or family gatherings (I've never had a babysitting job—crazy, I know).

Over the years I’ve learned several important lessons about children. First, they are more sensitive than I thought. Such generalizations won’t apply to every child, of course. But I’d say my kids definitely fall into that category. One student—we’ll call him T—gets upset and frustrated fairly easily. I'm not a "meanie" or a slave driver by any means but he has teared up a couple of times in his lessons. He once missed a lesson with no advance warning and the next week his mother explained that he got so overwhelmed when looking at what he had to practice that he didn’t practice at all. She asked if I could lessen the amount of homework I give and I happily obliged. I don’t wanna give this poor child an ulcer over Mary Had a Little Lamb!

This leads to my second realization--children are resilient. I kind of knew this already, but it's amazing how quickly then can bounce back from a low point in a lesson. I worked with T a couple of weeks ago on things he can do when he gets frustrated during practice time. I gave him three options: He can 1) take a deep breath and try again, 2) play a song that he likes or can play well, or 3) put the violin down and do pinky pushups with his bow (he's really good at them). There are many variations on this, of course. Last week was awesome because if a lesson went downhill I just had to mention Harry Potter coming out on Wednesday. Then I played a bit of the theme on my violin and they thought I was the coolest ever.

Last, I’ve seen evidence of something else I already knew: Kids are fast learners. They really are like sponges and if you have their attention you can teach them so much! The possibilities are endless when a child is truly excited about learning something. Another student, D, began his study with a friend of mine. She’s moving and she referred his father to me. D is my youngest (6 years old) and he’s very bright. He shied away from using the bow so my friend let him focus on pizzicato. I start kids on the bow as soon as they know their strings and understand common time (read: count to 4 over and over). I let them pluck first before going to arco for a while but moving on to the bow is very important.

So near the end of D’s first lesson I asked him if he would like to play a song with his bow. He explained that he didn’t like it so he had plucked, and I asked him to just try it. I have learned that this is a huge risk—we were only 5 minutes away from finishing and the whole thing could’ve gone terribly sour. I want kids (all my students!) to leave their lesson feeling like they’ve accomplished something, you know? But I took the risk and decided that I’d let him pluck his favorite song if the bow didn’t work out. But it did work out and he didn’t even need much coaching! Of course the bow wasn’t straight but he got a decent sound and—the best part—he enjoyed it. His little face lit up and suddenly it was as if he could see the world of potential he’d just discovered! Cutest thing ever.

When teaching children I have to remember all these things I've mentioned plus their attention spans! I could go on and on and tell more stories but I’d really like to hear from you all. What are some of your experiences with younger students? Methods and approaches that worked, ideas which backfired horribly, etc.? Leave a comment so we can all share in your learning experience. Thanks!