In today's episode, Neil discusses how to create a treasure basket of teaching treasure to help your students learn in the best way possible. Discover how accumulating your thoughts on paper can lead to creating some of your best teaching material, how new ideas often come from non-typical students and why they love it when you try out new techniques tailored specifically for them.
KEY TAKEAWAYS
By allowing waste paper to accumulate, things that would have ordinarily been thrown away are able to be utilised for good material. Some of it may be everyday material but sometimes it comes out with a twist. Perhaps you will find a new pattern or a twist on the usual material.
Pieces of material that you have jotted down in the past on pieces of waste paper can actually catch a nuance of something you have been using subliminally below the threshold of your own recognition.
Let's say you have a new idea or implementation you would like to use on students, sometimes it may work and sometimes it doesn’t. New ideas usually come from non-typical students and you may need to come up with new ideas to help support them. Tell them that they are your ‘lab rat’ and you are going to test a new technique out on them.
The first attempt will not often work, therefore you need to tweak it and do a revised version of the new technique. The early versions will end up in the treasure basket and that is where the teaching treasure is kept.
You may find that your students love it when you try out new techniques designed to their needs as it makes the lesson solely about them. You are not just using a bog-standard approach to teaching, it is using their thoughts and processes to tailor the content to them. It is collaborating creativity because you are coming up with ideas, throwing them out there and they are giving you feedback on your new technique.
If you are not catching this, you may be missing out on a source of solid teaching gold. If you are planning to write on what you do as a teacher then this is a no brainer. Capture your output, especially on paper and especially those brilliant ideas in their raw form. The paper part is vital as it will sit in the basket looking at you and invite you to mine some of that gold. It is tangible and visible and it won't vanish.
BEST MOMENTS
“It turned what I thought was trash into treasure.”
“There might just be a shift in perspective from ourselves.”
“Those early versions go into the treasure basket.”
VALUABLE RESOURCES
Listen to The Tutor Podcast on the Apple Podcasts (https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-tutor-podcast/id1369191372)! Build Your Online Course Week 1: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/build-your-online-course/id1369191372?i=1000477109724
Course Planning Week 2: Who Am I?: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/build-your-online-course/id1369191372?i=1000477109724
Who are They? (Know Your Punters): https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/who-are-they-know-your-punters/id1369191372?i=1000478984529
Read the Weird Things Guitarists Do book by Neil Cowmeadow, which is available now on Amazon. Link - https://www.amazon.co.uk/Weird-Things-Guitarists-Do-Misconceptions/dp/1519026579/
Contact Neil via this website - com!
ABOUT THE HOST
Neil Cowmeadow is a maverick peripatetic guitar teacher from Telford with over 19 years’ experience in the business of helping people. Learn how to start, grow and love your business with Neil’s invaluable advice and tips without the buzzwords and BS!
CONTACT METHOD
info@neilcowmeadow.com
