"Seek first to understand, not to be understood."

I really liked Rita Pierson's TEDtalk, and particurally appreciated her advice to "Seek first to understand, not to be understood."

In working with such large groups of students, my instinct is to always begin the school year by making my classroom and performance expectations clear and leaving very little wiggle room in the way of conversation and socializing, student to student as well as teacher to student.  While this technique ensures proper classroom behavior and good musical accomplishment, the atmosphere is rather cool, and is reflected as such in the December concert.  While the performance is sound, it generally lacks the energy and emotion that is usually demonstrated in the spring concert.

I believe this is because it generally takes me at least a semester to really get to know my students and understand what motivates each chorus.  If I focused more at the beginning of the year on building stronger relationships, student to student, and teacher to student, the technical learning might occur more slowly, but by December the performance would ultimately be stronger with the added energy, emotion, and motivation.