Resilience 2020: Nicola Rich

Tuesday 7th July - Report on ESTA CPD online course.

I am so grateful for the Nannie Jamieson Nutshell Fund bursary I received for the latest ESTA CPD online course. It was so lovely to get together with other teachers at this difficult time of teaching online and share experiences and ideas for the future. The sessions on “Resilience for changing times” made us all re-think about how to change or alter what happens as we come out of lockdown and to re-evaluate our time, energy and focus and asked questions such as… should we continue teaching - should we reinvent ourselves in some way? Do we enjoy what we do and can we make that better? Can we explore different ways of teaching online or offline? What are our strengths and weaknesses and how can we develop or change those? They were positive sessions that I found very helpful. The Feldenkrais sessions were a wonderful way to start the morning and to relax and think about our bodies in a new way - some of the shoulder and hand exercises I have already implemented into my own teaching and found useful. The upper strings sessions by Simon Cartledge and question time with Simon Fischer gave some great insights into different ideas on how to help our pupils with their understanding and learning of playing the violin. Simon Cartledge  had some wonderful exercise ideas to appeal to pupils, such as the “Happy woodpecker” - positioning a 2nd or 3rd finger on the string and tapping the bent top to find where the best resonance is. I have since used this as a fun way for my pupils to see if their hand and fingers are in the correct position. It is most satisfying to find the correct sound! Both teachers gave some great challenges to traditional ways of teaching and made me start to think more outside of the box and that maybe what we have always thought of as “the right” way is not necessary always right - it’s a lot about understanding your pupils and how they work in finding the key to unlock their potential as players. I found them very encouraging. All in all it was a great few days of learning and sharing.

Nicola Rich