Tag: woodsheddin’

December 5, 2012

December 4th, 2012

Dear Performers,

I love playing guitar and singing for people. I like doing it way more than people like listening to it, but I’ve been lucky enough in my life that people put up with it. Even though I’ve spent a lot of time playing my guitar in front of people, I’ve spent way more time practicing it by myself. Performances are just the icing on the cake. The cake is actually baked through practice, practice, practice.

I had a lot of fun watching the choir concert last week. I could tell the choir members worked hard to learn their songs and perform them to the best of their ability. I know the band and orchestra concerts coming up will be just as good. But remember, all you can do on the night of the performance is put the frosting on the cake. If there isn’t much cake, then no amount of frosting can make it satisfying.

Today, we’ll take our Unit 4 test. If you’ve been working hard in class, doing your homework, and taking responsibility for your learning, you just have to put on the frosting today.

Sincerely,

Mr. Heimbuck
October 22, 2012

October 21st, 2012

Dear Practicers,

Our brains aren’t very good at thinking about more than one thing at a time. When Peyton Manning throws a pass, he doesn’t think about how he’s throwing the football. He’s thinking about coverages and routes and which receiver is open. If he had to consciously think about what his fingers, hands, and arms were doing, he would never complete a pass. For Peyton Manning, throwing a football is automatic. It’s not automatic because he’s a supernaturally gifted athlete; it’s automatic because he’s spent thousands of hours practicing it.

In fifth grade, we learn to do multi-step processes like long division, adding and subtracting fractions with unlike denominators, and multiplying and dividing decimals. Each step of these processes requires a different operation. The only way that we can free our minds up to think about the processes is if those individual operations are automatic. The only way those operations become automatic is through lots and lots of practice.

Luckily, practicing doesn’t have to be boring. The best way to practice is with games. If you’re having fun and doing math that serves a purpose (even if the only purpose is fun) you’re more likely to remember what you’re practicing. But we also have to be smart about how we practice. And we have to know that we’re practicing to reach excellence.

Sincerely,

Mr. Heimbuck
October 4, 2012

October 3rd, 2012

Dear Woodshedders,

Woodsheddin’ is a term musicians use to describe the type of dedicated, independent, and intense practice that being great at a musical instrument requires. I know I’ve spent many hours woodsheddin’ on my guitar. In those hours of practice, my fingers grew stronger, my mind saw patterns on the fretboard, and my ears heard new sounds that I didn’t previously think possible.

To be great at anything requires intense practice. Yesterday, we practiced our multiplication algorithm. We’ll continue that today. To become proficient at these algorithms, you have to spend lots of time doing problems over and over. I can show you the process. I can coach you through the process. I can even show you cool new processes that might better fit your mind (we’ll learn the Egyptian method today). But I can’t do the practice for you. You have to put in the work. And if you do, you will get the rewards.

Sincerely,

Mr. Heimbuck

Tag: woodsheddin’

December 5, 2012

October 22, 2012

October 4, 2012