Biggest mistakes/misconceptions of new teachers

[Bob]

What are they?

I see myself focusing on less material, not moving quite as fast (because it IS fast to the student, but not me), adding more review, being more concerned that the student enjoys the learning rather than "forcing" the next concept on them.

Anyone training teachers in here?

[jeremyjchilds]

Wow, wierd

I posted this exact topic two days ago, but for some reason, it did not go through. Well anyways,

I would say that the biggest mistake I made was to be too focued on progress to spend enought time building musical depth.

[sarahlein]

What about introducing the new concept without the student knowing the "new concept" as such!
For example, let's say you have a  beginner student who plays pieces with mainly whole, half and quarter note values and you'd like to teach him/her the eighth, dotted half, dotted quarter, even the sixteeth note values.
 How would you go about it without overwhelming the student? Just think about it.
 Is there a way to do this in an appealing way that you and your student can, at the same time have fun using it?
Be creative and let us know what you come up with.
I have some ideas but I will post them after you had time to reply.

[ludwig]

Kids will be kids, one of my biggest mistake is blaming them for not practicing when the parents are as responsible if not more. I always find the kids with the more dedicated and helpful parents progress faster than the "leave it with you" parents...

Introducing new note values is difficult, but kids love playing dotted notes, syncopated patterns/ostinatos etc...They love the complexibility ONCE they get it.

Clapping is always good, have them clap a steady beat in minims or crotchets, then do simple dotted patterns against it (dotted crotchet plus semiquaver, or for beginners, even minims against crotchets), you can always add more difficult things this way gradually. Once they experience it then introduce notation, explaining what they represent.
You can also use familiar words for concepts, such as tafateifi etc...or for triplets, pineapple or accent on second beat in groups of 3s or in 3/4 time (mazurkas)-banana etc...Cauliflower for group of fours etc...
I also teach simple conducting shapes for unusual time signatures and accents in groups within the bars for teaching, get them to conduct a piece they'll be learning while I play it, counting at the same time...i.e for 5/4 3+2 patterns, I teach down left left right up and they have that picture in their heads when playing that piece with the accents on 1 and 4 etc...this will also help their aural skills alot, where they have to distinguish between simpe/compound and duple/triple time in a short melody....

there are many other ways but i think i'll finish my rambles here :p for now

[anda]

what (i think) was my biggest mistake when i began teaching: i focused so much on having them play musically, on sight-reading (and other long-term stuff), that some of them almost failed their finals! and to tell the truth: i'm still searching for the"best" balance between short-terms "TODOs" and long-term necesarry acquisitions.

[Dazzer]

When i did some parttime teaching for a short while i made sure to focus half the lesson on theory. (someone else did the aural part). The logic is , if the theory isn't there, how can one perform the practical?

Of course, i've not been trained at all so i might be doing it all wrong... haha oh well