This past week was my very last day of teaching flute lessons at the Fanny Edel Falk Laboratory School. Lately, it seems as if I have only been writing about the "endings." Nevertheless, I have no doubt that there will be many new beginnings.

Out of all of my experiences during my undergraduate career, teaching flute lessons was probably my favorite. I have always had the upmost appreciation for my music teachers who I believe taught me everything I need to know about life and much more. My father started my brother and me out on piano at the age of six years old. In fourth grade, our parents encouraged us to try out an instrument; I ended up playing the flute and my brother played the saxophone. Little did I know that this one moment of deciding to play an instrument would completely transform my middle school, high school and college experience. Along with academics, music became my inspiration, my passion, my second language and my stress-reliever. I not only learned the importance of patience and dedication, but I also became a team player. In addition, I learned failure was inevitable, but at the end of the day what matters is how hard you try and how much you are willing to sacrifice to make beautiful music. The process is more important than the product. 

I could sit here and write about how much progress my students made or how on the last day of flute lessons one of my students surprised me by memorizing Ave Maria complete with vibrato at only 10 years old. However, by discussing this I would be focusing more on the product than the process and it has been the process not the product of their playing that has taught me the most. I began this year with 10 unique students at varying ages and varying music abilities. At the beginning of the year my mentality was this: everyone needs to improve. Interestingly, I soon learned that "progress" is different for everyone. I thought that progress was simply "learning the notes" or "mastering pages in the Accented Achievement book." Yet, for some students I began to realize that I was not seeing this kind of progress. What was wrong? Was I failing? Why weren't my students improving?

The answer? They were. I just was too busy to notice. Not all of my students made purely music gains. Some of my students learned to become more confident in their playing even if it meant making mistakes. Some of my students learned to embrace the concept of sight reading and actually came to enjoy it! All of my students exceeded my expectations this year. They brought me joy and vibrant smiles every Friday and for this, I will be forever grateful. For those of you who are training to be teachers, it is important to remember that the process (how you go about doing things) is always greater than the product. The challenges and the road bumps are where the lesson will occur.