Skype and a whole new world

"We are actually in the islands between Norway and Sweden..." quote from actual student's mother this morning over our Skype lesson. It's a wild rise to be a Suzuki Violin teacher living in Brooklyn, NYC, and teaching at a rigorous Talent Education Suzuki School in Connecticut 5 days a week. Teaching requires all the same disciplines as studying your instrument, focus, skill building, deep passion, and love of learning. Note, that I did not say "love of teaching." Teaching is actually all about learning. Learning how to impact someone in a positive and fun way. Learning how to help young children express themselves through classical music. Learning how to communicate trust, wisdom, and guidance, while seeing them once a week. Most of all it's learning about yourself, your weaknesses, your strengths, and how to work past them to help others learn about their own. 

Many people have been asking me about my remote lessons, mostly through Microsoft's Skype, and I always tell people that I love it! Then they ask me why? How can I love teaching over the internet, when you can be right there with a student hands on, touching, and fixing, every little thing that is driving you mad, their driving off the road with their bow, their pinkie's not on top of the stick, their wrist is as flat as a PANCAKE!! UGH!!  So instead of focusing on all these little things, using Skype allows me to have a greater perspective. I can see the whole child, the body posture, the setup, the bigger things that matter more.  It also allows the child to see it themselves in the little screen at the bottom corner. It's a tool for self-correction! How brilliant! I actually never thought it was possible, or a very efficient substitute to in-person teaching. I always LOVED seeing my students going to visit their homes and teaching them one-on-one, I knew other people had done Skype lessons before, but I had always thought, "No I'd never lower my standards to teaching over Skype." How wrong I was! 

Quickly here is a list of the things I have come to love about what Skype lessons can help build for the Suzuki Triangle:  1. builds parent- child cooperation 2. sneak peak into home life for the teacher 3. engages technology as a learning tool not just entertainment 4. Staying connected with the teacher even when far away from home

So as I looked around the screen I asked what the student had been doing on her vacation. She said, "Sleeping, and....swimming... and practicing violin."