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I have the interview portion of my pedagogy accreditation exam tomorrow morning (written was last week). Please send me your good-piano-teacher vibes!

I have learned so much from this forum -- what to do and what NOT to do -- and am so grateful for a community of teachers to share ideas with. Thanks PW teachers!!

Hi LadyChen,
I'm sending good vibes your way.

It would be interesting to hear about your experience with the interview. So I hope you post an update.

I've been on break for a couple of weeks, and am just now catching up. I hope your exam went well. Let us know.

John

Well.. I'm not really sure how it went -- it was a little bit bizarre, to be honest.

The RCM pedagogy program is split into three different certificates -- elementary pedagogy (method books to grade 2), intermediate (gr 3-6) and advanced (gr 7-10) and each cert has two exams, a written and viva voce (combination of interview and practical). I've already completed the elementary and intermediate certificates, and, my teacher brought in a colleague of hers who is also an examiner for a lesson last week and she went through my teaching repertoire with me and gave me ideas of what I could expect to be asked. So I felt very prepared walking into this exam. And left totally confused!

We spent the first half of the exam discussing METHOD BOOKS, which was thoroughly covered in the elementary pedagogy certificate, so that was a bit odd. It also threw me a bit off when the examiner asked me some pros and cons of a certain method and then told me she disagreed with my opinions. Then she asked a vague question about how to teach technique, and I asked, "Do you mean, at the advanced level?" (since it was supposed to be the advanced pedagogy exam) and she said no, she wanted to know how I introduced technique to beginners. At around the 40 minute mark she finally asked me to play some pieces from my teaching repertoire list and then asked questions specific to teaching that repertoire, which was more what I expected, but we only had 5-10 minutes left at that point.

I never thought I would be thinking PUL-EEEEZE ask me about teaching legato thirds, or impressionistic music, or octave and 4-note chord technique for students with small hands!! but I was!

I was able to answer most of the questions confidently, since I'm teaching all beginners now anyways, but I feel a bit disappointed that I wasn't asked about the material that I've been studying for the last year. I'm also very nervous that she didn't seem to agree with half of what I said.. yikes.

This seems to be the main problem with the exam system though -- if you get an examiner who decides they don't like you, you're pretty much screwed. Especially at this level when you're being marked on very subjective elements.

So I really don't know what to expect for my mark -- the waiting is going to kill me!

That sounds rather ominous. Hopefully, she was just putting you to the test. I might have been tempted to ask her why she was asking me about beginning pedagogy when the exam was for advanced. It may have been a foundational question just to confirm your overall knowledge.

Lady Chen,
Thanks for sharing the details of your experience. I'm disappointed that it wasn't a positive experience. And I'm wondering about all the elementary quizzing taking up your exam time. Surely they know you already earned the first 2 certificates.

I hope you let us know the exam results when you get them.

Lady Chen,

Is it possible that the examiner was confused about which exam you were taking? Only reason I can think of . . .

I guess I was panicking over nothing -- got an 82. I'm very relieved and its a great way to start the fall teaching season.

Congratulations on your exam result!
It seems like you had to wait a long time; it must have been nerve wracking.

Well done, Lady Chen!

Way to go!
By the day, did you get a chance to play a street piano in Toronto?

Cheers

Haha no, I never came across one. I didn't go deliberately looking though. Saw a show in Stratford featuring a few old classmates, so that was nice.