Explain how your experience affected you as a person
It affected my career goals because it solidified the fact that I like to work with children and that I find it very fulfilling to help them learn and grow.
how did you change?
I gained a lot of confidence from having to use my verbal communication skills each week and make sure I was an expert on each topic before I gave a lesson on it. It gave me a lot of practice communicating in a variety of situations with my students' parents as well, which made me feel more confident in dealing with professional situations in future workplaces.
how do you see the world differently as a result of your experience?
I see the world differently because I see a lot of potential to learn in everyone I meet because of how quickly my students were able to grasp the concepts I taught them. I expected them to take longer to understand, but when I explained concepts clearly they rarely needed them repeated more than a couple times, and they caught on to each review game very quickly.
how did this experience impact or reveal your character?
It revealed my desire to connect with others because I quickly formed unique connections with each of my students, even if they had struggles. For example, the 8 year old boy with ADHD who often needed to physically move around while I spoke in order to maintain focus, and the 3 year old boy with developmental disabilities who didn't like to clap rhythms but would happily tap them using his two dice that he carried everywhere.
was this a meaningful experience? why or why not?
This was definitely a meaningful experience because I formed so many new relationships with my students, their families, and my own mentor Emiline who helped me through the process.
what new knowledge or skills did you learn from this experience?
I learned how to concisely explain many musical concepts to complete beginners with no prior knowledge and limited vocabularies and reading levels. I also learned how to construct personalized lesson plans for individual students, and how to gently correct student behavior if they lost focus or tried to distract me when avoiding a difficult piece.
what would you do differently if you were to start over?
If I were to start over, I would practice my introductions to the parents more because I was very shy and unsure of myself in the beginning, and while I'm glad they all gave me a chance, I would like to set a stronger and more confident first impression in the future.