Well, you get the idea, there are many possible words to describe the concept of community. What is community anyway? Why does it seem so important that we have so many words to describe it? Community is shared agreement and similarity of some kind. We agree and share a common, similar purpose. It seems to be in our human nature to do so. Yes, there are some of us who prefer to spend large amounts of time thinking inwardly about our outside world, but generally most of us belong to some aspect of community.
My university students refer to themselves as a “family” within the music school community, because this term implies that my students will reap the benefits of family. The students serve as big brothers and sisters to incoming freshmen. The students urge each other to do their best, and the students absolutely bond together in the face of obstacles found within the academic community.
My studio students generally refer to themselves as a studio family, as I think of them. The concept of family thins a little as the children age, because families and teenagers begin to distance themselves from each other, which can all be part of the natural growth process. Families get busy with other children and other activities, and sometimes the studio family connection takes on a different significance and plays a role that is less important to the family.
What got me thinking about the concept of community this
week is my discovery of some old newsletters I had written for my studio well
over a decade ago. As I read through the newsletters and re-familiarized myself with their content, I realized that the newsletters served a purpose much like my
blog does now. The newsletters provided a forum for me to express my thoughts
related to a major purpose and the success of my enterprise to fulfill that
purpose.
I made another important connection between my newsletters
then and my studio success at the time. During the newsletters era, I recall
that my studio shared a true bond of community. I saw this bond reflected in
the subject matter of the newsletters. The topics I included in the newsletters
helped to bring all of my studio families into a studio community, where we
shared our commonalities as they related to studio teaching and teaching our
children in particular. I remember that we did many things as a studio family
during that period: we traveled to institutes together, we had studio picnics,
parties, and pool parties; we participated in community events as a performing
group; and studio families had sleepovers and other special events in arenas
outside of the teaching studio.
My parents shared their experiences. New ideas about review
or practice motivation were shared in the newsletters, and I acknowledged in
print which parents were offering the suggestions. Parents shared poems and
successes and offered to serve as mentors to parents who were new to the studio.
We maintained a calendar that listed studio events, concert opportunities
(symphony concerts or other recitals), and composer birthdays.
The students submitted their achievements in the studio and
in practice, such as completed graduation recitals, 100 days practice club
milestones (and 200, 300, 1 year and more), 500 club spots (500 repetitions), and talent show performances. I included any and all achievements. I was tuned in
to possible submissions. I maintained a folder in the studio, and if a parent
or student mentioned something to me, I asked them to quickly scribble it down
on a newsletter submission form. Then I added these submissions to the monthly
newsletter.
The difference today between my blog and my earlier studio
newsletters is that I do not broadcast the names of specific students in the blog unless I
am given special permission to do so. I try to keep the identities of my
students and their families protected. I still write about the same general
topics related to teaching and parenting as I did back in the newsletter days;
what is missing though is that close connection in the studio that the
newsletters provided.
This week, give some thought to how you can build a
community within your studio. Going through this process of reflecting on a
sense of community within your studio will help you to identify any areas of
your thinking that might not be serving your community well. For example, if
you are doing something for the money, this may not be a shared purpose with
your studio families, and you may find a disconnect between you and the concept
of a studio community.
Here are some key points that I think are important to build
a sense of community:
Define your purpose. Why do you have a studio? What are you
trying to accomplish? Is this a purpose that will be shared?
Share your purpose. How will you communicate your purpose to
your studio? I used my newsletters at one time to share my purpose. I also used my studio policies and procedures statement to define my ongoing
purpose in teaching at the studio. My introductory new parent letter is very
clear about my teaching purpose. My parent course is very upfront about my
teaching, studio, and studio parent expectations. This is one sense of
communication, but how will you communicate within the studio on a regular
basis? I have a connection provided by the http://musicteachershelper.com website that
allows me to email all my parents or students at one time with the click of one
button. The site also allows me to maintain a small website that provides me with
a place to list announcements that are related to the studio. I think a monthly
newsletter along with a monthly calendar might be an easy and small way to
provide connection and communication within the studio family.
Build connections. How will you connect your community
members with each other? How will your studio families stay in touch with each
other? Can you build a contact list? Can you provide a lesson calendar that all
families can access? Can you provide a gathering place for families during group
classes and suggest possible parent activities during these times? I am working
on a studio T-shirt idea, and I plan to provide each of my students with one. I
may carry this idea over to the university arena as well.
Encourage involvement. Enlist your studio family members to
be a part of the studio. Can you enlist the assistance of your studio family
members to arrange performance opportunities, such as local nursing or
retirement homes, community venues (libraries or schools), or special events?
What special skills, talents, or abilities do your studio members represent?
One of my studio parents is helping me to design some awesome T-shirts, and I
have another who is designing a special music coloring book for children that
is related to the mother’s special art field. This mother’s daughter helps us
to come up with some pretty cool phrases for T-shirts. At the last spring
recital, I listed short biographies for each performing student in the recital
program.
Provide shared challenges. Do you have goals to suggest? Are
there some challenges that could be joined studio-wide, such as practice
challenges on a weekly or monthly basis or as part of some other time frame (31
days of Halloween scales, 12 days of Christmas Twinkles, Thanksgiving Turkey
Twinkles)? Scheduling a performance event can provide a shared challenge, as
students in the studio will be working together to be ready for the event.
Acknowledge achievement. Do you have a place to feature
students who have achieved a milestone? We have a practice chart in the studio,
but we also have places to hang children’s artwork, children’s pictures,
completed practice incentive charts, certificates, ribbons, etc. Whenever I
award a special certificate of accomplishment or achievement to a child, I
offer the child the option of taking the certificate home or hanging it in the
studio. Very seldom does a student opt to take the certificate home.
Be open and vulnerable. Most important in my opinion is
learning how to be open and vulnerable to your community. Sometimes teachers
and parents get caught up in the “being strong” mode, and we forget that this
mien actually erodes the sense of community. Community is about shared
agreement and similarity. If one person is always strong and never in need of
anyone else’s help, then there is no sharing or connection here. Like other
things, being open and vulnerable is something that can be learned and
practiced until it is an ability. Learn how to ask for help. Learn how to share
your concerns appropriately.
This blog has been a new community for me. I still have the
same purpose as a teacher that I had decades ago. Now, instead of limiting
myself to my teaching studio, I have opened up the possibility of building a
world-wide community that shares the same purpose of teaching our children to
be better human beings and using music as the vehicle to accomplish that. Along
this journey, we are also learning how to be better parents and teachers so
that we can be more effective in working to achieve our purpose.
This blog is about to turn two years old. I started it at
first as a self-discipline exercise. I like to write and have always done so
since I was a child. However, life and profession pull me in different
directions frequently. I started the blog as an exercise in consistency. Also, I
wanted to write down some of the things that I taught so that I could use them
as reference materials for my students and their parents. My first post was
October 27, 2010. Since that time, I have reached readers from over 103
countries. About 7,000 viewers visit each month as of this writing. Along the
way I have met many other teachers and parents all over the world who have
wrestled with the same teaching issues that I have, and we enjoy sharing our
experiences, our struggles, and our solutions with each other. I hope that this
community grows and grows over the next year, because I think our noble purpose
is exactly what our world needs to share more of today.
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