Meet Teresa Veltman, Stouffville Piano Teacher

Student Testimonials:
 “Right from day one my daughter started playing fun songs that we could all recognize. She loves it so much that I have never had to remind her to practice. She has been taking lessons with Teresa for 5 years now and can pick up any piece of music and figure out how to play it! She has also started writing and composing music on a regular basis. I can't say enough about the Simply Music program and Teresa as an instructor.”    Teresa Maskery

"Teresa is a great teacher. She is very patient and positive with her students and very passionate about music, and her students' accomplishments. Our daughter is 9 years old with no previous music knowledge, and was playing songs within the first few lessons. Simply Music is a program that allows students to enjoy their learning as they quickly build their confidence with a method that has immediate results. Our experience has absolutely surpassed our expectations."
Michele Cote

“Our daughter, Alyson, has been taking Simply Music piano lessons with Teresa for nearly 5 years. Through Simply Music, we have seen our daughter's confidence and creativity flourish. Teresa has taught Alyson to play many arrangements, the accompaniment to songs, and she encourages her students to create their own pieces. I especially enjoy listening to Teresa's music students perform at piano recitals held at a local coffee shop.”
Susan Grant

“Teresa has taught piano to Brittney for 6 years. Her gentle style of teaching has increased Brittney's self esteem in not only music, but in life. She has encouraged Brittney to approach challenges with confidence. This has led to Brittney's success in developing her talent and composing skills.”
Kelly McNabb, OCT

.http://www.concertpitchpiano.com/

Summer Group Lessons to Keep Your Playlist Alive

Summer Group Lessons to Keep your Playlist Alive!

The goal is to review students’ playlist in a fun, interactive setting. In addition to playlist review, students will work on accompaniment, composition and reading projects to deepen their learning, according to their level.

The class will be structured to keep everyone busy for the full hour, no matter which level, using games, worksheets and partner activities.

Parents do not need to attend.

Eliminate review time in the Fall and be primed to start with new learning!

7 Class Dates Throughout the Summer:

July  11,17,24,31

August 7,14,28

Time: 6:30-7:30

Come to all 7 or just 1. Discounts are offered for buying multiple classes at once.  Classes are 1 hour in length.

Price list:

1 Class:      $30.00 

2 Classes:       $40.00

3 Classes:       $55.00

4 Classes:       $65.00

5 Classes:       $70.00

6 Classes:      $75.00

7 Classes:       $80.00

Maximum 6 students per class.  Minimum 3 students to run the class.

Teaching Fine Arts

We need to reverse the trend of schools killing creativity.  The way to do this is to continue to teach Fine Arts.  I have noticed that Art is often the first subject to be dropped when there is too much to cover in  other subject areas.

A wonderful resource to teach children how to become artists is Mona Brooke's book,  Drawing with Children.  http://monart.com/about/books-by-mona/. 

This is an invaluable resource and moves beyond the model of everyone making the same craft.  It encourages creativity while giving the skills to succeed.  Students will experience success early on as they learn the elements of line and how to see basic lines in anything they want to draw.  

Schools and Creativity...Do they mix?

 Ken Robinson, in one of  the "Ted Talks.com" lectures  makes a compelling argument for how schools have historically educated the creativity out of children.  He argues that children are innately creative. They start kindergarten being highly creative and artistic and willing to take risks.  After a few years of education, they have learned to conform and to be afraid of making mistakes, and therefore afraid of experimenting.

Please see his lecture at this link:
Do Schools kill Creativity?

I believe there is a great deal of truth in what he says.  Schools are institutions managing a large number of children.  They have their mandates  set out for them by national  consensus.  In Ontario, teachers are bound to cover the expectations of the Ontario Curriculum.  I think that many educators, today, including those of us who are aspiring educators, feel that schools as institutions certainly have their limitations.  Many classroom teachers have 25-35 students under their tutelage.  They face an enormous task in trying to meet the needs of each of these people. It is easy to feel disillusioned as a teacher candidate when considering the magnitude of the role.   I sense the malaise among my fellow educators.  We are all aware of the problem, but our job is to work within this system, flawed as it is.

I have been asking myself what role I could play to nurture and inspire creativity within this system. I love the arts and I also love mathematics and science when students are encouraged to explore and problem solve, and experiment without simply being given the formula.  I am coming to the conclusion that we educators must be aware of the critiques that have been put forward about education.  We need to see the validity in those arguments in order to make a change.  Now that education has been exposed for  the way in which it curtails creativity, we can seek ways to reverse that trend.  Now, the difficult part is to not get discouraged and defeated, but rather to look for ways to shine a light when creativity is being expressed.

I already see evidence of teachers nurturing creativity within public schools that I am familiar with.  At my children's local school, they are putting on a production of the play, "The Outsiders."  My son has a part in this play.  My daughter, Sara, had the inspiration to start an arts based club, "Kids' Club"at lunch recess for children in Grades 1-3.  She has plans to read great books, do drama activities and  crafts each time.  Sara asked permission of the principal to start this club, and to the principal's  immense credit, she agreed right away.  Sara's classroom teacher volunteered to be the supervisor without hesitation.  This demonstrates to me that educators, today, are willing to support initiative, effort, and creativity by students.  I am encouraged that there is a place for creativity in schools.  We just have to work at it.

Shifting Education "Out of This World."

Last week, two teenagers from Scarborough demonstrated the incredible potential of what can happen when technology and passion meet.  These two boys are getting international attention for their project which sent a Lego Man (holding a Canadian Flag) into near space.  Their Lego man contraption captured photos of its journey which showed the curvature of the earth.

They knew approximately where it would land by using a website which predicted the trajectory of weather balloons based on weather conditions and where it was launched from.  They launched it from Newmarket and retrieved it from a field in Peterborough. These students did not do this for a school project. They did it for fun. These two boys, from Agincourt Collegiate, have shown that learning absolutely takes place beyond the walls of the classroom. It can even take place beyond this atmosphere!

Thestar.com - VideoZone- High schoolers send Lego Man into space

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