Boonshaft’s Blog
#53. Still I Am Learning
Fact: I want my students to relish learning new things. Fact: My students will often model and imitate the things I do. Fact: My students should see me...
#52. Confidence
James Russell Lowell asserted that “More men fail through ignorance of strength than through knowledge of their weakness.” That is probably true, but I...
#51. Be A Turtle
As teachers, we often find ourselves wrestling with whether to "stick with the old tried and true" or "try something new." But it’s scary to try the...
#50. Don’t Do It Again!
Have you ever repeated a passage several times in rehearsal only to find that it starts to get worse? One theory to explain that is that after a student...
#49. Persistence
Calvin Coolidge stated, “Nothing in this world can take the place of persistence. Talent will not: nothing is more common than unsuccessful men with talent. Genius...
#48. Curiosity
The older I get, the more I am convinced that piquing the curiosity of our students is one of the most, if not the most, important results of teaching....
#47. The Earlier The Better!
When students sense they are playing poorly, they can become like mules: very hard to move forward, very willing to stay put. But, we all know that if we...
#46 …if you knew you could not fail?
I often think of a question posed by Robert H. Schuller: “What great thing would you attempt if you knew you could not fail?” How liberating it would be...
#45. Nonverbal Signals
At your next rehearsal, try using a nonverbal signal to represent something you want students to do, or not to do. Then, for the first few times you use...