Kennan Thompson - Coyle - Ch.10 - Epilogue

Chapter 10 Summary: Coach Martinez keyed in on his connection with his students. He had to build trust with his students before he could get anything across to them. A lot of time this took thinking on his feet or improvisation. Not every student was the same. He also was much like a lot of the teachers we've learned about in this book. Instruction was succinct and timely. What set him apart though was how easily he could connect with anyone. This connection made it so he could get his students to open up and show him what they are capable of.

Application: I want to be a person that students feel comfortable opening with. I want to know what they find easy, what they find difficult, what they love, what they hate. This can help me know how I can best help them. If there is no connection between a student and teacher, not much can really get done. You can work on the surface level stuff all day (you're tight, your alignment is off, your breath is week), but you wont be able to get into the deep stuff (what connects you to this piece? Why are you afraid of those high notes? What does your body feel like when you sing?). From there, we as teachers can find the roots of the problems that will help our students much more in the long run.

Epilogue Summary: In a sense, myelin applies to everything in our life. It applies in education, business, psychology, and is important as we age. If we can focus on deep practice, this will help in every aspect of our life. Over the door of Toyota's Georgetown, Kentucky factory it says "When something goes wrong, ask WHY five times." This mindset helps get over all the superficial stuff. We can say some generic response and not do anything about it, but if we ask multiple times we can't stick with the generic stuff. We have to dig deeper and find out why something keeps going wrong and we can fix it.

Application: In my own practice I want to implement asking myself five times why something went wrong. Not only in my own practice do I want to instill this, but in my students' practice as well. It should come natural to ask myself why I'm doing something wrong. I shouldn't be afraid of making mistakes. I should look at it as an opportunity to be better. I find myself afraid to get critique, but if I have the mindset that I just want to be better, this will help so much more!