If I had the ambition, a word missing from my vocabulary since I retired, to start another career it would be as a teacher. I did get the chance to teach some training courses at work. It was probably the best part of my working experience, although I am not sure if my “students” were as happy with my instructions. 
I am very interested in hearing about anyone’s experience with teaching, or training.
From a Christian Science Monitor article, by Stacy Teicher Khadaroo, about music teacher Markku Kaikkonen, director for the Special Music Center Rasonaari, where students with learning disabilities get to express their love of music.
http://www.csmonitor.com/2009/0429/p47s01-lign.html
Helsinki, Finland – Jamming on keyboards, bass guitar, and drums, four young men fill a basement room with harmony. The only unusual items here are the colorful squares, triangles, and circles up on a magnet board. The symbols are stand-ins for conventional musical notes – the keys that have unlocked music for the students here.
The Special Music Center Resonaari has a humble, cozy setting – a converted two-story home in Finland’s capital. But for the 170 people with intellectual or developmental disabilities who take music classes here each week, it’s a place where their talents, not their special needs, take center stage.
For music teacher Markku Kaikkonen, the director, it’s also the nucleus of a “cultural revolution.”
“Our pupils, many of them, have lived in the margin of society. But now, with the help of … music education, they are coming closer and closer to the center of society,” Mr. Kaikkonen says, leaning forward with excitement, his brown hair hanging loosely about his shoulders.
The effects spread far beyond the students, Kaikkonen says. They change attitudes among families, neighbors, and the audiences who see them perform.
Figurenotes, a system of notation and teaching, has been developed and tested over the past decade by Kaikkonen and codirector Kaarlo Uusitalo. Students learn to play by matching the symbols to keys on a piano or frets on a guitar. Colors indicate notes, shapes show the octave, and arrows show sharps and flats. It’s a simple way to convey all the information in traditional notation.
The Figurenotes method has spread to Japan, Estonia, and Scotland.
“What they’re teaching us is that people with learning disabilities are capable of doing so much more in terms of their musical ability than what we previously knew,” says Brian Cope, artistic director of Drake Music Scotland, a charity that uses Figurenotes in both mainstream and special education.
A link to the Special Music Centre Resonaari site, some English, but mostly Finnish:
http://www.resonaari.fi/?sid=83&tid=104
A video of a slightly different band of “learning disabled” performers :
8 comments
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May 26, 2009 at 1:21 am
lovewillbringustogether
When it comes to learning music i often feel like i am learning disabled
One of the best ‘jobs’ i had was earlier this decade when i was volunteering for a place known as the Lifelong Learning Centre.
Amongst other duties i would teach a small class of mostly adults (from all walks of the community) in Database Design, Word-processing and in Internet usage (mostly first time computer users or those with little computer experience).
It was sometimes personally challenging and i was amongst the ones who learned the most i feel, but it was indeed a very rewarding time in my life and, i hope, in theirs.
Feedback is VERY important to a teacher who wishes to become a better one.
And preparation is essential, as is a rapport with your students.
<B
May 26, 2009 at 7:41 pm
edfromct
As you say Love, teaching is a great way to learn. It is vital that the teacher engage the students, if only to make sure they haven’t fallen asleep.
It is when the students starts to ask question the teachers doesn’t have a good answer to, that the learning experience really begins.
When I was training I had a lesson plan, but I would throw that out the window if the students were just getting bored.
It was always interesting how when you ask the students if they understood you, and they all shake their heads, yes. Then ask them to show you how it’s done, whatever it is, and you see this sudden look of panic.
If they can’t actually run the program, a computer class hasn’t done them any good.
May 26, 2009 at 12:02 pm
Joe
Hey Ed,
I have a background in science and have taught a few classes in astronomy and astrophysics. I have also volunteered to help teach reading skills in the past. Teaching is kind of like going to the gym. You don’t necessarily wake up wanting to do it, it’s a pain while you’re doing it, but when you look back at it, you’re really glad you did it.
With that being said, it can still be really fun. I love being able to explain anything and watching for that spark in a student’s eyes when they really understand what I am saying.
May 26, 2009 at 7:56 pm
edfromct
Hi Joe, as you say when you see that spark of understanding from the students, then teaching becomes real fun.
You taught Astrophysics! Now I am really impressed. I really love science. Physicist however deal with concepts that in general I lack the imagination to understand to any great degree.
I love listening to people like Michio Kaku. He does such a great job of explaining concepts that even I can grasp them, at least on a fundamental level.
May 28, 2009 at 3:10 am
Rain
Hi Ed, that is really great the way they are teaching music to the learning disabled.
I used to teach fitness classes to kids at the gym. I absolutely loved it. We would get pre-choreographed routines to the latest pop songs and we would teach them kickboxing and aerobics and play in the pool.
At the moment I am going to schools and talking to kids about career choices. I love it too. Children usually have such a different energy and are so eager to learn! I find though (and this comes back to the learning disabled kids) that it is usually those with the least that benefit the most. In tha private schools I go to the privileged kids will usually give me a little bit of attitude because they’re all seemingly going to take a year off and travel the world while living off their parents money- nothing wrong with that, but when I go to the disadvantaged schools and see how they hang on my every word and how eager they are to study further, even though most of them can’t afford it- it makes you think.
May 28, 2009 at 4:41 pm
edfromct
Rain, good luck on picking the right career. I can tell from your comment how much you enjoy teaching children, so you couldn’t go wrong there.
That fitness class does sound like fun, although I am not to sure I would want to be in a room full of kids kickboxing,
You are right “those with the least that benefit the most”. Also with kids you get that immediate feedback. I agree it is a lot more fun to teach young children. When it comes to teenagers I think I would pass.
I have a cousin, Peter, born with Downs Syndrome. He is about 35 now, mentally around 10. Of my aunts six children he is the one who gives her the most love, and support. The others don’t see, or talk to her, much.
June 21, 2009 at 11:41 pm
jack
Awesome. And for those of you who might need a reminder of the joy involved in teaching music to young people with disabilities, or perhaps just a good dose of further inspiration, you might want to check out this video — ahamoment.com/pg/moments/view/203 — it’s a beautiful story of one musician’s “aha moment” when he realized how rewarding teaching music can be. I think you’ll like it.
Thanks,
Jack@ahamoment.com
June 22, 2009 at 4:23 pm
edfromct
Hi “Musical” Jack. Thanks for stopping by, and taking the time to comment.
I went to the page you linked to, http://www.ahamoment.com/pg/moments/view/203 .
That was a very thoughtful story about the developmentally disabled young boy who was confident of his own ability, to sing in a talent show, even when his parents were very hesitant.
Teaching the young must be a great experience, especially if we keep our mind open to how much teacher and student can learn from each other.
I will check out some more “Aha” moments on the site. Thanks again for the link.