Preparing yourself to teach...
The student will be looking to you for ideas, inspiration and encouragement. If you can do nothing else, at least try to calm yourself.
Who you are is everything. As Ben Zander says, "who am I being that my children's eyes are not shining?"
I try to go into my teaching room around 20 minutes before my students arrive. I need time to prepare for that person who will come to me for guidance and inspiration.
On a regular basis, taking up a spiritual practice like meditation, prayer or yoga will help to make you work more consciously when you are with a student. I try to do contemplative prayer regularly. This is sitting still, in silence, with my mind and heart open to the Divine.
"Prayer is not a psychological trick to make us feel better; in prayer God reshapes our wills and enables us to find peace."
- Justin Welby, Archbishop of Canterbury
"Many teachers are afraid of losing their authority by changing or even contradicting what they have once said. A teacher's authority is not based upon words, or position, or even consistency, but on what he has to give. A teacher is not a lifeless thing, but a human being who has to grow and change himself, and he should not try to conceal that fact..."
- Emanuel Feuermann, cellist
- Always greet the student by trying to make eye contact. You'll get an initial sense of how the student is feeling at that point in time.
- Always be grateful that you have an opportunity to influence someone's life in a positive way.
"We are not human beings having a spiritual experience. We are spiritual beings having a human experience."
- Pierre Teilhard de Chardin
Before the lesson, I read my notes about the student I'm going to teach. After each lesson, I always write down something about what I've worked on with a student or I write down the main focus of that lesson. I also write what I intend to do at the next lesson or what I will begin with at the next lesson.
I give myself breaks so as not to teach too many students one after the other.
The student who walks in the door is unique, and on top of that, is ever changing. Preparing my mind/heart helps me to be a constant, supportive leader and helps me continually analyze
- what motivates this student?
- how is the student responding to me today?
- am I off on a tangent and should I change tack?