| My Reasons for Becoming an MYC Teacher: In 2004 I got the chance to watch a friend teach her Music for Young Children classes for an afternoon. I was so excited by the response of the children that I decided to train to teach the course myself! The materials and activities are age-appropriate and stimulating to young children, and parents are impressed by the amount of musical information that their children absorb in a 60 minute music lesson. My Musical Education: I have Grade 8 Royal Conservatory in piano and Grade 2 Theory plus several years of flute as an elementary and high school band student. I have taken group guitar lessons as an adult and love to sing. I have participated in church and community choirs as well as an elaborate operette, and have even worked as a karaoke animator in Japan. My Teaching Experience: I have a Bachelor of Education from Simon Fraser University and have over 15 years of teaching experience. I have taught grade one French Immersion in Maple Ridge, B.C. and English to preschool and elementary school children in Osaka, Japan. I currently teach adult English as a Second Language classes and work with a variety of students in French Immersion, Spansish and English around the greater Vancouver area. I love children and take great pleasure in seeing the tremendous progress they make in music from a very young age. My Approach to Teaching Children Music: As a piano teacher my main goal is to help children be successful, confident and aware of the beauty and power of music. When children learn to play the piano they develop their mind, their physical dexterity and their social skills. I believe that music lessons for kids offer them the chance to not only learn to play the keyboard, but also to develop teamwork skills as they work as a group to create a mini rock band or quartet. As they prepare for each week's piano lesson, children are honing skills that will serve them well throughout their lives such as the knowledge that practicing, trying again, and learning from mistakes is rewarded with a much more beautiful result. The Winter and Year-End concerts give them the opportunity to share what they have learned to a larger audience and develop public performance skills. Here they can show what they have learned at piano school and are rewarded for all of their hard work learning how to play piano with the recognition of both their own loved ones, and the family and friends of the other children who are taking music lessons. I have found that children are very proud of their success and eager to show others what they can do.
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