I am Aimee Nishimura and I maintain a cello teaching studio at my home in Branchville. Many of my students' study in the Sparta and surrounding school districts and come to my home studio weekly for lessons. The current self-quarantine and stay- at- home mandate meant it was no longer possible to teach lessons face to face. So, I decided to move my cello studio to an online platform! My students and parents all jumped on board with the idea and it has been going much better than I expected.
Students still maintain their normal scheduled lesson each week but instead of meeting in person we meet over Zoom (www.zoom.us). I also created a Google classroom for my cello studio. With Google classroom I can assign my students weekly recording challenges. Each week the students must perform a piece, Etude, or scale that we have been working on and post for the other students to view and give constructive feedback. Finally, the google classroom platform also allows me to post videos of inspiration to my students of other cellist performance. I have found this seems to be motivating students and exciting for me to see all their hard work! Although teaching online isn’t “ideal” I have been excited and proud of the dedication and flexibility of students and their parents. In this time of uncertainty and instability, music is a constant we can all go to for comfort and solace. If any cellist has an interest lessons feel free to contact me at aimeenishimura@gmail.com.
-Aimee Nishimura
Branchville