Now that we are moving to Omaha, Nebraska in 60 days!! What?!?!? My Dad said there aren't that many days. Life is going to pass by my eyes and all the sudden I am going to be moved. This summer is going to go so fast!!! So for the past 4 and more years I have focused and spent most of my time teaching students.
Here are the things I am going to miss most:
-As I was teaching at someone's house this past week someone's 2 year old little brother was army crawling on the floor this week out of his room. It was really random.
-I love that all the brothers and sisters of my students all gather around me as I teach, they all want to listen and see what we are up to:).
-I love when my students play me something they made up, it consists of two chords going back and forth 20 times, but they are SO proud that they found those two chords and made a song that sounded cool and they wanted to show me.
-I love when my students tell ME the plan and what goals they are excited to do that week. They become the teacher.
-I hated not giving them their "2nd week treat" if they were off by one day of not getting a treat of practicing 2 weeks in a row. Their faces were so sad. So I usually gave a sticker or made them work extra hard in the lesson to earn it.
-I love when they are excited to pick a treat out of the treat basket they always respond with a "thankyou". I always have had very polite students. So sweet. I did have a student that was stealing treats out of the basket secretly, so I had to sit with them while they got their small treat they earned not any more than that.
-I love when a student says, "can I stay just a little longer?"
-I love when they tell me about their Birthday or Christmas It's always exciting. Sometimes telling me other random stories is not so exciting;).
-Most of all I love seeing progress especially when they passed off a book and get to start a new level. The crisp, new smell of the books is so awesome. Sometimes books can get so trashed. One student took some scissors and cut almost the whole books in half. As of right now it's hanging by a thread, they were brand new books to. Well we still use them because I wasn't going to get new books again. They really do tell me that their dogs got to their books, "My Dog ate their homework or they couldn't practice". one student couldn't find a book for like a couple months. They finally found and brought the book and said, "we finally found this outside in our yard." How does it even end up there??
-Everyday at 5:00 in the summer or when it gets warmer a solicitor would come to the door. I felt so bad for the student at the 5:00 time. One time I didn't answer the door and the solicitor was waving in the window to answer, we ignored them:).
-Hearing birds in the chimney trying to get out.
-Seeing a beautiful sunny day turn to snow or rain while I am teaching.
-Recitals were always a blast. They really were so fun.
-At the Master Classes I loved when students became friends even if they weren't friends at school, they got to know each other in the neighborhood.
-The Master Class games, how competitive students are to get the prize they work so hard. Again I had a lot of fun at Master Classes
-I won't miss the hours that I taught. Getting up at 5:00 a.m. 2 or 3 times a week and getting home at 8:00, sometimes 9:00 at night.
-I love with the new Missionary age, I love that my students are going to be going on missions next year and seeing how excited they are.
-When they call me teacher. I don't know why it's so cute.
-I had one student who couldn't remember my name for so long. I think they called me michelle once.
-Their faces when I say "classical music" it's either a smile or a bored look. They either get excited to play mature music or some students HATE classical.
-When I ask them a question about 10 times, then they say "what did you say?" they weren't listening at all:).
-When they discover the "soft" pedal. they love it when they do.
Then they ask about the sostenuto pedal.....they probably will never use that pedal ever...
-I love when they draw a treble clef.
-They know where middle C is, but when I ask what note it is they say they have no clue.
-When I see that they are practicing when it's been a really long time when they have done that much. It's really fun to think, "ok how is it going to be today?" I usually can tell when it's been a busy week for EVERYBODY. Sometimes out of the 10 students I taught that day 1 practiced that week. I just want to hug that 1 student.
-I remember one student came with different books every week.
-teaching on a keyboard that is half the size of a full keyboard.
-I ask them to take off their shoes before they come in, they smell of stinky feet.....
-trading Christmas presents
-playing duets with them were always my favorite.
-having three students names Kate, two students named Ethan, two named Alex, same last name, Some ages have the same name kind of funny.
-seeing the boys all of the sudden come 4 inches taller than the week before
-Some students while waiting for their lesson are laughing out loud while reading our "The Far Side" comic book we have on the table.
-When my mom and dad come in and smile at the student and tell them it's sounding wonderful.
-When a student wants me to play something for them or say "wow you are good" when you do
-messing up as you sightread in front of a student.
-explaining something simple and having them interupt, "no your wrong" realizing I did explain it wrong;) that's only happened a couple of times.
-Having them laugh at the pictures of the songs, I don't know why they LOVE the pictures.
I am sure I can think of more things....I will have to do a part 2 list.
I am really getting more emotional than I thought when I finish. I do have 2 more months, but it just so weird to me that we will have a different life coming soon.
So the reason why I was doing a post was to share an episode on King of Queens and Arthur has decided to give Piano Lessons. I was laughing so hard. Luckily I don't take advantage of getting paid and then wasting time during lessons because I am sure some parents have no idea what we do in the lesson.....I could really do what Arthur does in the video. BUT Piano teaching does not work like that. Parents do see progress and it is A LOT of work, don't underestimate Piano teaching as Marge Simpson said,
(So not true for me.....but it does have some truth:))
Please enjoy......
"Now let's stare at the piano and pretend we are playing at Carnegie Hall":
