My Students Surprise me Again

This morning was the end of year concert at the music school. It started at 9.30 in morning, so I asked my students to be there about 15 minutes before, but when I got there around that time, they were already there!

Recorders were to perform second after the first group of flutes, so I gathered all my students together in one of the classrooms and tried to go through all their songs before we were to go up on stage. I have to admit, I was quite surprised at how well some of the students were playing! I have to admit I was a little nervous over the week thinking about how well they'd do.

After a bit of a pep talk, it was finally time for the kids to head to the hall to perform! I lead them to the seats on the side of the stage, and got each group to come up and perform one after the other. Some groups had a student who wanted to introduce the group themselves, while I had to do it for a few of the classes.

There were no major catastrophes. There were a few little mistakes, but I'm sure the cuteness factor covered it! I pretty much teach the youngest students at the music school, all the little kids who have never played music before! I was extremely proud of the way my students played, the way they were able to count themselves in, and keep going even if they stuffed up...a little!

I led them all back to the classroom to give them reports and a little prize afterwards. I gave them each a lollipop, a pencil, a little packet of Oreo's and a little notebook. I think I spoiled them!

I returned to watch the rest of the performances. I just missed Rebecca, Nadine and Joylynn (who attend my church) perform flute, but I guess I can re-watch the video! Before I knew it, the violins were up! My brothers and I were the last violin group to perform. We had Arthur (another violin teacher who often comes to help out) helping us which was good.

The guitar students were the last to perform before prize-giving. It's always a joy to see some of my old students performing, even if it's another instrument they're playing! I just hope the time I spent teaching them helped contribute to where they are today!

A few of my students actually won awards for other instruments too! My top music theory student, who won the top recorder award last year won the top flute award this year only after playing for one year!

I guess one of the benefits of being a music teacher are the presents you get from students (just a side thing of course!).

After the concert, my brothers and I met up with the music teachers at a nearby cafe for a coffee and a bite to eat. It was really good having a chat to them, as my teaching timetable this year didn't allow me to schedule a morning tea at the same time as all the other teachers! It was quite interesting talking to them about teaching, students and all sorts of other things!

Oh well, that's my seventh year of teaching down. Looking forward to the next!

An Early End of Year Concert

Today was the big End of Year Concert at the music school I teach at. It's not really the end of the year as there is still Term Four to go, but because of renovations to the school hall and the November elections, it was decided to bring it forward to the end of Term Three.

I've been preparing my students for the past three weeks, trying to get them ready and so I was probably more nervous than they were before the concert! 

I asked them all to get to the school half an hour before the concert as I wanted to have a run through with them. The recorders would be the first to perform, then the flutes and then the violins. 

I got half of them to practise with Aonghas on the keyboard while I practised with the other half of them just to save time. 

We only just had enough time to have a group photo before the concert started!

My first year students started off the concert, performing Easter Bunny, Playing in Parts and Two Birds Together. I was a little worried about them as one of them went camping and so missed last week's lesson. The most pleasant surprise was that they played very well!

My first second year class then performed Puff the Magic Dragon, Triplet Round and Little Brown Jug with Aonghas on keyboard. They also did very well which made me very proud, as they must've practised heaps over the past week!

My next second year class performed Donna Nobis Pacem, I Like the Flowers and When Johnny Comes Marching Home with Aonghas on keyboard.

My last second year class (who I've taught the treble recorder to) performed Scarborough Fair, Putta Nera Ballo Furlano and The World in Union (to get in the Rugby World Cup spirit!). The tunes involving all four of the different recorders sounded really neat!

To finish off the recorder section of the concert, I got all my students to come up to perform It's a Small World. Even though I had practised the song with everyone only once earlier this morning before the concert, they managed to pull it off! I was so proud of my students!

After the recorders were done, the flute students performed. Rebecca, Joylynn and Nadine who go to the same church as me all performed, and I also saw some of my ex-students which was really cool!

The violins finished off the concert. Nadine also learns violin so she performed with her class, and our class performed last.

It was really good to see all the students performing today and I was so proud of my recorder students! I had a lot of positive comments from parents and other teachers so I can relax a bit now, and just hope I don't lose too many students to other instruments next year!