My violin/viola studio recital was on Sunday. What fun to see a year's improvement in my students. I played too, this year, and that was fun. It could have been stressful, playing for all of my students who know what good technique is--but I put on the forehead and the quiet stomach, and everything flowed.
Then on Monday I graduated my latest class of beginning tango dancers. Out of 4 sessions, this class was the one with the highest number of people who don't think of themselves as "movers". But they really were looking good yesterday, leading and following the cruzada like pros. I was so proud.
This is a graduation of sorts for me, too, though less well-defined. After a year of teaching high school, violin, and tango, I definitely feel that I've settled into my role as "teacher". And each of those teaching experiences has been extremely helpful in improving my general teaching skills. I was born to teach, it seems. This is the summer I'll be getting organized, starting to formalize my violin teaching technique and thinking about how to formally assess students and help them set goals. I'm looking to accomplish that for the computer and violin curricula. Tango will have to wait for a bit, but I am thinking about it in odd moments.
This teacher is tired, too. Very tired.