When I'm in the classroom, teaching, I sometimes feel like I can't breathe.

I wish they would just understand, on some profound level what I mean,
study and then do it better than me!



Flipped classroom, peer to peer - innovative or the way we are designed to learn?

I'm sitting in the classroom now, writing down my thoughts after lessons,
as I'm a bit frustrated by today's outcome.

Sometimes I'm too impatient and too much in love with the subject, maybe.
My students need someone who tells them bit by bit what to do.

But I think that would somehow be lazy and not really learning anything.

I wish they would surprise me, have ideas, questions, try out something on their own, build a group of peers and help each other.

But why can't they be more like I was? Their own teachers, burning with the wish to understand deeply and passionate about the subject?




On my way to becoming a flutist I can't remember any step by step progress, I just knew.

Do you remember how you learned to speak your mother language? That's the same as flute playing to me. My mother tongue.

Maybe I'm more of a performer than a teacher. I'm more of a child with the ability to learn anything without a book of grammar. I'm more like the child that observes the world and learns its rules while playing in it. If you never played, never failed, just followed some step by step rules, is that the same?If you wish to know click the link below.


This is what I love but can't teach.

music is a dream expression of life

It's obviously my own inability to break down flute playing into bits and pieces and add them, like I was constructing a house. That is usually the way we think of learning, brick by brick.

Theoretically I could just follow the books by authors who did this work for me.



But I wish to create art from the first sound my students make.

It should become part of them, being seduced by the beauty of it and in awe of their own ability to produce it.

Playing music is getting back the control of time, your time, your life.
You decide how it's divided, lived, the mood and energy of every moment you play and those of silence within it, shortly before and after your sounds, if those moments pass slowly or fast.

You decide with your breathing, there is nothing more fascinating than creating your own beautiful time in life with music. It is scientifically proven that the frequency of the brain is much higher when you play music than when you think.


This energy flow is also called being in the zone, flow or forever box. The most beautiful thing about that is, that your audience can get their too. With you, to the same high speed energy, while listening. So why would I waste too many words to my students, we should play and share energy.

This also works with pets, proven only for dogs through scientific research,
and for cats at my home ;)




The power of music to me cannot be taught bit by bit, it is more like one deep breath that may take a lifetime.

You know everything from the start, but are still a beginner at the end of your journey

I love what I do (playing and performing) and feel that I just learned it by breathing, it was as natural as learning how to walk or how to talk.
As with those basic things in life, I just wanted to try, I saw others do it, I liked it, because it gave me more possibilities to act upon the world around you (walk and talk).


Walk and talk

So we are motivated and wish to learn it from a very profound level inside us.
It's an intrinsic need, not governed by textbooks or passages, it is not a competition with a finish line or an exam with a mark.
It is, in fact, falling in love with life, first.

Being able to touch, manipulate (in the sense of changing something with you hands and only later with your mind), express, connect, communicate, create and start all over again from a more powerful place, with more options to do those exact same basic things on a higher level: touch, manipulate, express, connect, communicate, create.
There is not too much of analyzing and evaluating in this cycle. It would be disturbing.
It appears to be merely a side effect or help to do some of those things more and better.



Art is life, life is art

So how do you teach something so close to life itself. I feel I should be a moderator, or assistant, rather than a guide. I should assist my students in their discovery and give them more things to chew on. To me, it is not helpful to break everything down into tiny little steps to be followed one after the other. Students should be their own teachers, teachers should provide a wide range of aspects and assist the student. (a little Montessori)

And much like here in WA. Some of us have immediately their website ranked, affiliate links running and make their first sell in 3 weeks.
Some of us love expressing themselves every step of the way, in their own chaotic order (me, for example), to allow the new parts to become part of them and integrate them well in a new self before move on.
I myself enjoy experiencing how new knowledge changes everything in me and around me.

I feel alive when sharing my new insights (some more interesting, some a lot less...) with you and connecting. Hopefully, I will get to the affiliate money making part later on (I hope).



Life is learning and learning is best done in a spiral upwards

But I also truly enjoy helping people, maybe teaching, but in a different way.

What a perfect way we have found here in WA, you teach and learn simultaneously, share and connect all the time. You walk up your own spiral life path and often get back to the same questions and problems but with solutions from a higher point of personal development.
WA has changed my way of teaching in class. I provide badges of accomplishments, make them connect with each other, I offer a wide range of technical challenges to be tackled and difficult or easy repertoire at any time. We can always grow on any musical piece or challenge. Of course, there is this ideal way of the steps, but I mix them up a little.Still have to find out the most effective way of doing so...

Onward and upwards, always

I hope you found some value in this post.
If you did, please let me know by liking it
and commenting below!

Thank you so much, fellow bloggers and life-lovers

Cheers,
Janie



PS: Sorry, there are no headers in this post.

PPS: Can anybody tell me how to put headers in this blog???
The H1-H3 buttons don't work, why???

Thanks