Short Term Teacher Development Courses 2025

The Teacher Development course at ISM 2025 will be offered in hybrid format with participants online and in person.

July 19-20, 2025          Every Child Can!                                                            Paule Barsalou

July 20-27, 2025          Violin Volume 1                                                              Paule Barsalou

July 19-25, 2025          Violin  Volume 2 & Teaching Strategies               Elayne Ras

July 19-25, 2025          Cello Volume 2 &  Teaching Strategies                 Susan Gagnon

July 19-25, 2025          Piano Volume 3 &  Teaching Strategies                Gail Lange

There is no registration fee for the ECC course.

Registration fee is $80 for teacher development courses.

If doing more than one unit, pay registration fee only once.

Please register early. Teacher Development Courses will be cancelled if enrollment is insufficient. Please wait for confirmation that the course you are registered for will take place before purchasing your airline ticket.

Teacher Training classes are offered in English, in a bilingual context. Efforts will be made to accommodate unilingual Francophone participants.

These courses are part of a comprehensive teacher training program coordinated by the Suzuki Association of the Americas (SAA). They are effective in helping the novice teacher get started and provide on-going professional development to the established teacher.

A minimum age of 17 and a high school diploma are requirements for entering the Teacher Development Program.

There are two categories of enrollment: Participant and Auditor.

Participants must submit to the SAA a good quality recording of their performance of required pieces from the Suzuki Method repertoire. The audition can be submitted online (any video format will work) or by mail on DVD. Audition deadline is 1 month before course start date. Late submission fees are due after this date. Processing time varies from 2- 4 weeks in most cases - auditions submitted online have a much quicker turn around time. Results from late submissions may not be available by start of course. When a course is taken and completed, it will be registered with the SAA.

Auditors are not required to submit a recording to the SAA and do not have the option of registering the unit. The SAA strongly encourages Participant status.

Observers are welcome to attend all institute activities except the Teacher Training Courses. Please check Observation section for fees and conditions. 

Important information concerning Teacher Training courses:

Please consult the SAA website for more information on Teacher Training. www.suzukiassociation.org

Instructions concerning auditions can be found in the Teacher Training section of the SAA website. 

You may call the SAA toll free at 1-888-378-9854 for more details.

SAA Audition application forms with instructions can be downloaded at the Teacher Training section of the SAA website. You may call the SAA toll free 1-888-378-9854 for this form.

Prerequisite to training

Every Child Can!® (ECC) is a prerequisite for Participants and Auditors prior to taking Book 1. Participants in the Every Child Can course do not have to be members of the SAA and do not have to submit an audition to the SAA. Participants and Auditors must be members of the SAA for Book 1 and beyond.

Course Order

Books 1, 2 and 3 must be taken in order.

As of January 2025, Teaching Strategies is a required course for Unit 3.

Required Course Preparation

All workshop participants are asked to prepare the repertoire to be studied to the point of fluent performance. Memorization is not required but is recommended. Additionally, participants should be conversant with the ideas presented in Dr. Suzuki’s Nurtured by Love.  All participants will perform in class. Strings are expected to provide their own instruments and a portable music stand. It is recommended that participants bring a recording device and a notebook to all sessions. 100% attendance is required in order to register the course. 

For the Teaching Strategies Course:
Video Recordings:

• Each  participant brings 2 recordings of 6-10 minutes each. At least one of  the recordings should be of an individual lesson. In some situations,  longer lesson clips may be shown. 
• If a participant is not  currently teaching individual lessons, they need to contact the trainer  to set up an alternative, such as teaching a student from the trainer’s  studio, from another teacher’s studio, or teaching an Institute student.

Recommended Criteria

• Student working on Suzuki repertoire, with the teacher actively teaching (i.e. more teaching than student just playing) 
• Student playing from memory 
• Student and teacher are in camera view, if possible, and parent is present 

Participants may bring any recording they choose. Some possible options are those that:

• Show challenging situations 
• Include a topic they are having trouble getting across 
• Best represent them as a teacher 
• Show a group class 
• Show an entire lesson (if time permits)

Technical Specifications:

• Recordings should be edited to 6-10 minutes.
• If  participants cannot edit their videos, they should have the exact start  and end times noted. In some situations, with advance permission from  the Teacher Trainer, longer lesson clips may be shared.
• For  online and in-person classes, it is recommended that participants upload videos to Google Drive, Dropbox, Vimeo, or YouTube,  and after  double-checking the links, send them to the Teacher Trainer. This allows  the trainer to compile all the participants’ links.

Class Content:
Each Teaching Strategies class session is similar to a “pedagogy masterclass” where the  participants watch their recordings together, receive positive comments  from the trainer on what they did well, and then be given a suggestion or two on something they could improve.
 

COST (Registration not included, except for ECC: $85 CAN / $65 USD)

ECC : $235 CAN / $180 USD

Violin - Volume 1: $850 CAN / $660 USD

Violin/Cello/Piano - Volumes 2 & 3 (Teaching Strategies included): $790 CAN / $595 USD

REGISTRATION FORM - CLICK HERE