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Old 11-15-2006, 10:00 AM   #6
heathererandolph
Dojo: Kokikai Aikido Boston
Location: Boston
Join Date: Sep 2006
Posts: 121
United_States
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Re: Up and downs. Teaching / running a dojo

I don't know if you have surveyed your students but it might be helpful to hand them a questionnaire several times a year so you can get feedback from your students. there might be some hidden problems you can correct that are not related to the grading. See if you can get in touch with the students that left and get some feedback from them also if possible.

Training has to be fun in some way for students to want to continue. I detect a certain negative attitude from you when you say "I'm left feeling somewhat let down by their attitudes toward the grading its self, I don't feel I have their 100% trust in my opinion as their instructor to nominate them for examinations by our shidoin." They let you down, they don't have trust, etc... are all negative comments. For the sake of the students you still have, you need to be upbeat and proud of their accomplishments. Forget about the students that left.

After all, a lot of people leave Aikido, for various reasons. No one has complete control over a student's success or failure. Testing, as we call it, can bring out many different emotions from students. If they left because of fear of testing or because they decided they did not want to be that serious about Aikido, that's not your fault! Testing is usually part of the study.

I think you could consider some preparation, in order for your students to feel more confident while being graded. Ask you students how they feel the grading went and what they would like to do about preparation in the future. Because you are a new teacher, it would pay off to try to analyze the situation unemotionally. The most important thing, is be positive. Wipe those negative thoughts out of your mind and realize this is a learning process for you as well as your students. They are going to emulate you.
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