Ah... the fresh new joy of starting a new academic year at university... and for me a mixed weird experience of being a student at one university and a teacher at another! Well, the student part of me is taking a little bit of a break... I only have one academic unit left to complete and two placements... but the placements don't fit with my performing schedule this year, and so I'm just going to give it a bit of a miss this year and postpone that. Meanwhile, the academic unit is something that I'm also going to put off until later this year as I'm needed quite a bit of time to get my own ensemble up and running. I've sort of lost the drive to study Education anyway... so, there just isn't the urgency to complete the degree.... it will be done when it is done, or maybe not at all... the academic stuff is online, so there isn't any difference as to when I do it or not.

... meanwhile, the academic year as a teacher at a different university has started and I'm continuing in a similar role to the previous year. To be honest, I really prefer this sort of teaching as opposed to school teaching... it is a different kettle of fish (if students were fish...), and I find that I'm happier teaching at the tertiary level to students that have the basic technical aspects mostly under control.

Anyway... we had the student meet and greet and welcome to the chamber music course... the convenor was doing the most of the talking... making very good points about how they were there to learn how to work collaboratively across different skill levels in a constructive manner as that is what they will be doing if they move to a professional musical life. Essentially, that you needed to be not just the cranky diva or the unprepared anchor... Honestly, I thought that was always obvious, but now that I think about it... there were quite a few musicians who never learnt that lesson very well, and would always find it difficult to find colleagues who would want to play for them.

Meanwhile, the rest of us just sat as wall flowers mostly... with a few comments here and there. That was a nice change to last year, when I was the new staff member and had to do a talk about my specialisation and all of that... on the spot! Well, I don't really mind doing that... if the audience isn't too weirded out by some of the odd things that I might occasionally say!

Then there was a later meeting of the teachers to try and nut out how to allocate students to groups... sigh, I'm glad I wasn't really in charge of that puzzle! Its really quite difficult, and the convenor did manage in the end to solve it... but it is quite a huge task, especially with students shifting in and out of the course up to the last minute (and sometimes beyond...).

I've just made the repertoire suggestions for my ensemble... and I'm really keen to start teaching them! Although, that will start next week! There really is something quite amazing about being able to help shape the future musicians... hopefully for the better! I was quite amazed that there were actually requests to be in my ensemble... but, I am really not looking forward to the assessment period. That said, I'm better prepared with that this time... and will be better able to handle that end of things without going completely nuts. Still... I want all the students to do well, but you do have to also be honest with them... it is a bit of a tricky balance to strike. To encourage and nurture, but not smother with kindness and make them blind to reality.

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