I finally get my own class!!!!

Hello to all

welcome to another of this weeks blog.

This week i am mainly discussing my orchestra teaching in kirkcaldy. Of course i will speak about college and other relevent activities.

This week at my orchestra teaching i got to perform one to one tution with some students. It was an amazing experiance. I learned so much from the children. I began by warming up with them and afterwards i conducted a peice for them to play before beggining our usual rehersal. We worked through the exercises without any problem on there behalve but i have to admit i was a bit scared that the children may laugh at me as before i was just playing alone with them in band rehersals where as now i was there teacher for the evening. However i had to overcome my fear of confidence and just teach them what i had. I believe that it was a fantastic experiance.
Ontop of having to teach the children the original teacher was watching me like a hawk to see how i was doing. He always had a smile on his face so i just presumed that i was doing swimmingly well. When we went for a break i spoke to the teacher and asked how i did he said that i had a good job especialy under pressure. I was so happy and thrilled to hear him say this.
I learned a great deal that evening. It has helped me with my graded unit because i have learned to become more confident under pressure and being able to work under pressure are two skills needed to become an instrumental instructor. Its also helped me with my graded unit because i can use the materials used in the lesson to put as evidence in my port folio.
The best bit of it all was that i get to teach the children for 30 min every week from now on.

At work this week i was challenged by having to work with a new member of staff. At first she seamed a bit funny but as time grew and a few conversations later i was happily speaking to her. It taught me that first impressions werent always right and people deserve a chance. This relates to my graded unit because i need to learn to work with difficult students but give them a chance.

This week at college has been a quite short as i was off ill on wednesday but i pulled myself together for thursday.
The band is going strong, we are pretty much at performance standard just a few tweeks to adjust but the majority of it is there. Oh and we came up with a name........ Dylan peppers lonely hearts club band. What a shame on poor dylan. Also this week i finished my digital audio peice. I am becoming a bit more creative with myself which is always a good sign.

In this week piano lesson i had a short assessment which i passed very well. I need to be able to play piano to become a instrumental instuctor as i need to play accompaniments for students. which is a skill i am developing.

Finally i also finished a book on chopin this week is was very instresting to read about his life and the things that inspired is work. I belive this helps me with my graded unit because it gives me a fairer understanding of musical composers and styles of the times to have a diversity on my playing.

Thank you for reading

Zoe Johnston

Geust speaker - Lorenz Cairns

Hello to fellow followers and others who may be reading, its time for another blog. This week i am going to be speaking about Lorenz cairns and the effect his words have had on me. Of course as normal i will speak about college and other activities which are helping my achive my graded unit, but to start of Lorenz cairns.

Lorenz Cairns is the head of the music department at perth college. He went through many diferent carrer choices to achive where he is today. Firstly lorenz can from a family background of music through his father. He played bass and loved singing. He went to alot of rehersals with his father where he would get the chance to play and one day he was offered an audition to the Royal acadamy of Music where he eventualy stayed for 1 year. After this he decided he wanted to play his bass more and ended up traveling the world for 5 years playing. Lorenz explained to us that he learnt so much as a session player, some of which are working under pressure, time keeping and consiistance. He then realised at 32 he didnt want to be a session player anymore and went on to become a west end singer. Lorenz had decided that he wanted to "be all that he could be" and learned how to do so through always thinking ahead. Where do you want to be? What do you want to do next? Lorenz eventualy toke the posistion he is currently in had has loved every minute of it. The feeling of motivating and teaching students is such a warm feeling to him. He belives that if you wish to be in education as a teacher you have to be prepared to be out of your comfort zone, accept and rise to challanges and most of all listen.

Lorenz has taught me that i dont know how far education will take me but if i can sustain my carrer i will go far. I beieve that i am an extremly good listener and i know i want to help grow childrens minds. I also belive that i can motivate children to learn new things and encourage them to study hard. Through all of this knowledge i believe i will become a very good teacher.

As lorenz said "you've got to want to be that step forward and then take that step forward"

This week i toke my first exam in piano which i passed very strongly but i know i am under way of being able to achive my goal of playing grade 3 music by the end of this year. I need to be able to play piano as a teacher and i need to play up to grade 5 standard for university. I feel i am on track for this achivement and will succed.

In college this week it was the same old really. i began to start more research into my presentaion on the beatles. It is quite tiresome but work has to be done. I also learned to manage my time better with studying and in practicing. Time keeping is an important atribute to become an instrumental instructor. It wasnt something i was strongly good at but i am improving dramaticly.

Well this is all i can say this week, Tune in next week to see what ive learned and achived.

Zoe Johnston

so this weeks blogspot..... i cant think of a title

What a bad title to start this weeks blogspot but hey....

This week i started of by upgrading my current CV. I decided to put more information about my music abilities into it. My CV can be used in my portfolio in graded unit to show i can organize my self and that i am self motivated, which is two of the requirements of an intrumenal instructor.

Also this week i improved so much on my trombone. Gavin was so impressed with the practice i put in.............. lol. I developed my technique on my lip touning and my breathing. Im so proud of myself. I also began to have faith in myself because i was finding hard to practice and i felt it was affecting my playing and i began to feel i was letting my self and my college band down but i picked it up and brough myself back.

This weeks graded unit class was a one to one with the leacturer about our progress on our planning document. she was very pleased about what i had done but she suggested that i link the SWOT analysis to fit each colum. I toke what she had to say and i made the changes and continued on with my document. I am nearly finished but we have like one week left to finish it. (I better hurry)

College this week has been good. I am learning to communicate better with people and building my confidence as a performer and as a student of the college. I know that it is a requirement of the job description and it is something i need to improve alot in.

Sorry it such a short blog this week, Not much i can say anymore

catch ya next week.

Zoe