Practice what you preach

Reflection on learning from colleagues and training

It has been one of the busiest and most demanding weeks I have had for a while. It has been challenging, physically and mentally, I am pleased that I have navigated my way through the week, the work and the UK road systems, and am still reasonably healthy (although pretty exhausted). I have had the support of a good team and despite the long drives, intensive work etc. it has been a really great week.

I have been teaching music in the SEN school I am currently working for part time, and also in a completely new environment for me, based within a hospital setting. There have been quite a few inspiring, interesting, thought provoking, challenging, joyous and genuinely moving moments!  My confidence has grown a little this week, I have enjoyed the majority of activities I have shared with students and colleagues and I have enjoyed trying things from recent training sessions.

In amongst this I actually found time to pick up the violin and begin practicing again. Before I began I decided to follow the advice of my colleague from NMPAT (Julie Wright) and warm up with some useful stretching. I found this very helpful, I felt that it helped me to practice a demanding instrument without causing pain and ultimately this made my practice session more constructive and more fun. Stretching actually helps!

I considered that sometimes I attend training or even draw on my experience as a music student, handing out ‘good advice’ to young people, and not always using this for my own practice and development. Practicing can be so rewarding, as you see yourself improve and this feeds the desire to keep trying and improving. Having tried out several new techniques that were demonstrated in a training session I also reflected that we have a great opportunity to support and to learn from each other.