I recently had the opportunity to fly in a small two-person plane. One of my coworkers and her husband have a plane and offered to take me flying. Living in Alaska for two years mostly cured me of my fear of flying, but I was still hesitant. I ended up have a great experience and I enjoyed it immensely. It actually made me want to learn how to fly, which is a huge accomplishment for the girl who used to get very anxious on a plane.
This experience made me think about my students and things that scare them. My fear of flying almost made me miss out on what turned out to be a great experience. How often does this happen to our students? What can we do as teachers to help encourage our students to try new things? In my opinion it all boils down to relationships. In order to help our students, we need to first know what causes them to feel fearful, excited, engaged, upset or happy. As a music teacher, who sees students for a short amount of time, this can be a challenge. Regardless of the challenge, I believe it is vital that all teachers create strong and positive relationships with all students. Students can never have too many supporters.
What do you do to ensure that your students try to things?
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