The Circle

Author: Marta Djorovic

One of the hardest things in a group lesson is to get the kids to form a circle. The first time my team and I said, "Now, everyone create a circle!", all 34 children went to the same corner. The team tried to spread the students out, but it was quite a struggle since some them refused to move while others were going in circles not knowing what to do. It was a complete mess with lots of confused children moving around, but we were eventually able to get all the students in place. My team and I thought repetition was a good idea, so we asked the students to get in a circle each time we visited. Although it was still a difficult task for the students, my team and I tried counting down from 10 so the students would form the circle quicker and it worked! The students were starting to understand without guidance from us and soon enough, we gave them less and less time to form the circle. Their record of forming a circle is now 5 seconds!

This experience, for me, is a visual representation of the impact we have on these children and a confirmation that we actually teach them something over time - skills, such as organization, that is essential to becoming a capable human being. Even though we go in to teach music and violin, what we are really doing is building habits, teaching skills like organization and work ethic, and empowering the children to figure things out on their own through trial and error.