25 P racƟce is one of the most crucial aspects of the making of a musician. Great pracƟce skills and a regular habit bring the moƟvaƟon we need to perform with ease and assurance but those skills need to be learnt and developed over Ɵme. Unfortunately, pracƟce can also seem challenging and solitary, especially during those dark months of the pandemic that seemed endless! Those were the feelings and thoughts going through my mind during Christmas 2020 when I felt that I needed to reach out to my students and to the wider Suzuki community to bring some light and a sense of camaraderie through our common goal. From that, the 100 Day PracƟce Challenge was born. What started by my posƟng a video a day of my own pracƟce quickly grew and resulted in more and more people joining the challenge. We had some great guests talking about the different aspects of their G ive a Child a Teacher is a special Fundraising Campaign organised by the European Suzuki AssociaƟon (ESA) each year to raise funds to give more children the opportunity of a SUZUKI™ educaƟon in Europe, Middle East and Africa. For the second year running, Guillem Calvo, SUZUKI™ Violin Teacher, together with a team of ESA SUZUKI™ Teachers organised another 100 days PracƟce Challenge to raise funds through sponsorship. · Commit to pracƟce daily for 100 days. · Have fun pracƟsing and visit Guillem’s website for some pracƟce Ɵps! · Get sponsorship from parents, family and friends for each day of pracƟce or a total sum for the 100 days. Teachers from all over the ESA region got involved. Their efforts were supported by regular videos recorded by Guillem and his team giving Ɵps, thoughts and encouragement to all the children parƟcipaƟng in this big challenge. Parents, family and friends were all very generous with their sponsorship and together raised over £1,200 for Give a Child a Teacher! This money was donated to the SUZUKI™ Teaching Trust (STT) which is a charity concerned with making SUZUKI™ Teaching in music available to children in Europe, Middle East and Africa. The STT do this by giving financial support to SUZUKI™ Teacher Training projects in countries where there is a need. The STT have helped to give SUZUKI™ Teachers to children in - CroaƟa, Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Russia, South Africa, Turkey, Ukraine and Zimbabwe. Give a Child a Teacher 2022 - 100 days Practice Challenge Jones and Mabel Arribas Belizón. It was such an honour to be part of such a great team! In addiƟon to the pracƟce videos, in 2022 we added weekly meeƟngs on Zoom where teachers, children and parents met to pracƟse together and joined in for some warm-ups, stretches and chats in between our pracƟce. This brought the community even closer together and created new friendships that went much further than during the original challenge. From this beauƟful experience, I have learnt so much and not only have I been given inspiraƟon and moƟvaƟon to conƟnue with my own pracƟce but this has been strengthened by connecƟng with teachers and families across borders. I therefore just want to show my graƟtude to everybody who organised and parƟcipated in this challenge together. Thank you all! pracƟce and many families sending videos and pictures of their own pracƟce at home. It was so beauƟful. We felt so connected. There were no barriers as we were all pracƟsing with others no maƩer how far apart we were. From Europe to the Far East and the Americas, many children joined the cause. Furthermore - out of this joint experience, we decided that we wanted to raise monies for the inspiring campaign Give a Child a Teacher, organised by ESA. And then, the most amazing thing happened: the following Christmas I was approached by some of the Suzuki Teachers about undertaking the challenge again in 2022! It had such a great impact on people’s lives and the sense of belonging it fostered was so strong that we decided to repeat the challenge once again with a group of inspiring SUZUKI™ teachers from the ESA region. These included Gerda Thorn, BriƩa Roscher, Sarah McKenzieGive a Child a Teacher 2022 Guillem Calvo
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