A couple of weeks ago fourteen students I teach took part in completing practical examinations on clarinet, and alto and tenor saxophone. The grade of these examinations ranged from third through to seventh.
The results have come in with 2 As, 2 B+s, 4 Bs, 1 C+, 4 Cs, and 1 D. In general I was quite happy with the results, especially with over half of the students scoring a B or higher. The examiners were fair and justified in their feedback giving both the students and myself some things to think over and improve.
Technical work again placed high on the priority list. While there was an improvement on paper, there was still crucial feedback to show that mastering this aspect is still vital. It wasn't only the crosses next to some of the technical work, but comments such as "hesitant" and "under tempo" showed that further work is required. Another year, and I am hoping that there will be fewer of these comments made as different strategies are used to approach this from both teacher and student.
There was only a minor gripe I had. Some of the comments and feedback made by the examiners during the whole ordeal can be at times subjective and potentially throw a student off their game or have them feel completely self-conscious about what they are doing. And then to not see any of this feedback written down on paper leaves both the teacher and student to wonder if this has had any bearing on the final grading. Apart from this, I was happy with how the examinations were conducted.
The second part of my eisteddfod recap should hopefully be coming soon. I've put this off for the moment because of the ongoing discussions with the teaching profession, and this other part of the recap will be what I hope will provide some further discussion in terms of how the teaching profession could be approached.
Anyways, that is my break done. Not bad for an entry that's taken 30 minutes. ;-)
