Year-End Achievements List
Found in: Student Recognition, Students
Unmani, Australia
This is a long post so I do myself justice. Yesterday was my last lesson of this incredible year and now we break for a few weeks. Over the years, I have evolved some ideas for the last 3 lessons or so, with the main aim being a graceful, heartfelt close to the year. The sequence has as always come from places like this fb group where ideas are so generously shared. I added one more component to the final lesson this week which I will keep as long as I teach SM. I looked back over my lesson notes for 2020 and listed a compilation of the achievements, head spaces, public playing, valleys and hills, various genre development starting with last January.
I presented the list in different ways in the final lesson depending on the age…on a whiteboard, read out loud etc. THEN I asked how they felt hearing all of this. That’s when so much was revealed….self appreciation, self validation, understanding of the LTR, amazement they had done so much, appreciation of all the genres and on and on. This was so worth the time I put in. Some wanted it emailed and I include a couple of emailed samples below. One is a girl who claimed territory like there’s no tomorrow the other a man in his 60’s . I noticed the power of the inexorable truth of the lesson records (so the self esteem/appreciation was incontrovertible). I asked them all if there was anything I missed and more wonders were added from their own personal process this year. We reflected on how good it was to take a rest from always moving to new challenges and take a moment to appreciate. Below are the samples. Thanks everyone for your passionate creativity that feeds mine.
IRIS ACHIEVEMENTS 2020
FOUNDATION .Iris has learned PIECES from Lullaby TO SQUID (Thats Deep R, Billy, Sonata)
ARR.V fOUNDATION. iris understands the difference and highlights in PL with 2 different colours
Iris has successfully performed LOTS of duets.
KATE AND IRIS agree that Iris is finding and showing the ‘beauty in the music’
Iris understands and demonstrates often without an adult reminder…the concept of SSMEC
Iris is solid and comfy on her chords to…(will find out in the holidays)
Iris has played large chunks of the Big Danny Boy
Iris has accompanied others while singing including herself
Iris has chosen her own private accompaniments and can sing and play. e. g. All Is Found
Iris has begun taking adult responsibility for her learning..
MY ADULT STUDENT BELOW
PUBLIC PERFORMANCE..showed courage in having a go and letting go of perfection.
PIANO PARTIES. played self driven reading pieces such as The Entertainer
BLUES ..learnt a sophisticated semi improvised Blue piece with a walking bass — Walk at 11
PLAYLIST. pruned back to an effective maintenance level…
PLAYLIST..showed understanding of efficient use of time in practice…better use of brain and space for more pieces
PANTHER..got it down quickly
READING TFMM is all but complete.. will revisit in 2021 as live online (or live duets)
INDEPENDENTLY used app. such as Ireal for more accomp. fun
ACC. understands and regularly uses chord inversions
UNDERSTANDING of the place of melody in music IS.much stronger..willing to let go of perfection AND SING which helps this understanding
OVERALL more confidant (Graeme’s words)
Joan H. Canada
How many students do you have? I’d love to add something like this into the Cmas cards I’m sending out but not sure I can pull off 40…..I’m thinking that represents more than a few minutes of time per student! Fantastic for them to receive this. I’ve started providing a 1 page assessment (like a report card) for students when they complete a Foundation – thanks to a post from another teacher earlier this year who shared evaluation templates for F1-9. And I find that takes quite a bit of time!
Unmani, Australia
yes it was time consuming. I’ve got about 25 students atm. Processwise, I’d like to emphasize the power of it being the spoken word directly to the eyes of the student even online (I’m 100% online). The sincerity and gravitas rings through and giving them time to respond while I wait quietly …that process seems to take the self esteem up several notches and was well worth the 10 minutes of final lesson time.
Original discussion started December 10, 2020
