Suzuki Institute | Christine Goodner: The Suzuki Triangle Blog, Author, Speaker, Podcaster

3 Ways to Keep Students Motivated & Inspired

“Education is not the filling of a pail, but the lighting of a fire.”

-William Butler Yeats

Happy New Year! I love the feeling of a fresh start that the new year brings. I am coming back from a couple weeks off feeling refreshed and with a renewed commitment to help keep my students motivated and inspired this year.

As a teacher I feel strongly that my job goes beyond teaching the mechanics of playing the violin or viola. If all my students get from me is some technical knowledge about their instrument then I don’t think I’ve really done my job.

One of my first jobs as a teacher is to instill a love of music in my students, once that has been established it is much easier to expect them to work hard. Working hard at something we love is a totally different feeling than working hard on something someone else loves. How do we get this to happen?

Helping Students Get to Institute

Suzuki Institute

This summer I have spent a week at both the Oregon Suzuki Institute and American Suzuki Institute (Steven’s Point) and they were amazing weeks of music, connecting with colleagues and fun! I want to encourage my students to attend next year and have been thinking about how to help make it a part of my studio’s culture that a group of us always go.

When my calendar of events goes out to families this fall I plan to put the week of Institute on the studio schedule with a note that a group of us will attend. I understand that a lot goes into making something like this work and I want to help make it as easy as possible

The Power of Community

One thing I always say in my studio is that although practicing individually for lessons each week is very important (and the only way we can really improve our playing skills) it is not really what music is all about. I believe it's when we get together with other people to make music that the magic really happens. The Oregon Suzuki Association recently had an annual meeting and teachers were asked something along the lines of "What made you…

Attending an Institute as a Teacher

I recently returned from a great trip to Seattle to attend the Japan Seattle Suzuki Institute. It had been a few years since I attended an Institute to take training (I have gone to observe only lately). It was such a motivating and re-energizing experience for me! I had taken a few years off to take long term training with a teacher trainer in my home city and then was just busy with life, so it took a concerted effort…