Coffee With Ray

by Nick Ambrosino

Do You *The single word change that will instantaneously turn intimidating challenges into invitations for success? *How to eliminate the one feeling that puts a screeching halt to achievement? *The 3 Most Effective Questions to ask your students that will immediately turn them into independent learners? Through the eyes of a simple piano teacher, learn the strategies to remove any self made learning obstacles so that you can achieve all you put your mind too. After ten years of teaching piano, Matt had become completely disillusioned with his career choice. Teaching was increasingly more frustrating, students were more difficult to motivate and coping with the stress had become much more challenging. He was on the verge of quitting until he decided to have a cup of coffee at a café suggested by his GPS. That’s where he met Ray and that’s when everything started to change. An engaging, funny and thought provoking parable, written as creative non-fiction, Coffee With Ray will introduce readers to revolutionary ways of communicating that will help make students become more accountable and teachers more skilled at facilitating learning. Whether you’re a teacher, student or parent, after reading Coffee With Ray, your understanding of and your approach to learning and success will never be the same.

116 pages, Paperback

First published December 8, 2013

About the author

Nick Ambrosino, has been a leading expert helping teachers, parents and students of all ages, in the field of human potential and excellence, since 1986. He started his career as a public school music teacher and then launched his own private education company in 1988.

Nick is a renowned learning specialist, coach, and speaker for his work with thousands of students, teachers and parents, on creating explosive growth in accountability, productivity and self-esteem.

Reviews

[Dori Stowell · Rating 5 out of 5]

This simple, yet powerful book gave me so many ideas on how to better "coach" my piano students to achieve their goals. This book was so captivating, that I was unable to put it down when I first got it! In fact, I had to force myself to set it down, so I could stay with my book club! I plan to re-read this book several times as it is changing my own teaching mindset, and warrants a second and third read-thru.

[Sebastian · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great book. There have to be more story/textbook combinations. But now if I think of it: Isn't every good book something to learn from?

[Sara · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's a quick read, and should be on piano teachers' to read list. My favourite quote, "But I don't just want to make them better piano players; I want to assist them in being better people, people with the skills to accomplish whatever they dream about."

[Noreen · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really enjoyed reading this book. It is a book where you will want to takes notes and internalize the messages

[Valerie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Much food for thought. I highly recommend to anyone that works in an educational setting, not just piano teachers!

[Renee Calvo · Rating 5 out of 5]

A wonderful book for all educators!

It has a wonderful flow of life lessons as you read through each chapter. It's a quick and easy read, but it has moments to ponder and apply to your own teaching. It's a great story to read for inspiration as you begin a new school year or just need encouragement during the semester.

[Rory Armstrong · Rating 4 out of 5]

Following Plato, this uses the Socratic method of storytelling where the wise old man debates and enlightens someone; and course corrects them.
There are a few other modern examples of this which I've enjoyed: The Goal, The Phoenix Project, Tuesdays with Morrie, and The Music Lesson.
It's an effective means to communicate ideas in a broad "have you considered this perspective" way focusing on a particular domain whether that's Factory managers, Project managers, or Musicians as in the examples above.

Coffee with Ray is in the same tradition focusing on educators, and specifically music teachers. For context, I am neither, but as it was a short book and highly regarded in certain quarters I felt it was worth a read anyway.

Some takeaways:
- When reviewing or criticising something use AND rather than BUT as the person on the receiving end will generally disregard everything before the BUT which is usually not the intention.
- For students there's three zones: boredom, learning, and frustration. If they're bored then help them to figure out a more challenging application to raise them to the learning zone. If they're frustrated then help them make it easier so it's lowered into the learning zone (but not so easy it's boring). The learning zone should be scary enough to entice and motivate, without being so scary to intimidate.

So it's worth a quick read AND be aware that the writing isn't always excellent AND it serves the purpose.

[corey reynolds · Rating 5 out of 5]

Coffee With Ray Review

Coffee with Ray is a phenomenal story told in a short number of pages. This book explains the importance of understanding, trying new things, empowering others, and how to provide validation. As a future teacher I found this book insightful, funny, and unique in how it presents small changes to make that can have a huge impact on students and others. I would recommend this to not just teachers, but others looking to change their outlook, perspective, and way of thought.

[Elisabeth · Rating 5 out of 5]

I highly recommend this unique take on shifting one's perspective as an educator. It was a quick read, but I need to go back through and take more detailed notes on some ideas that I jotted down. Even if you don't teach, but work directly with people in any way, this is a good read.

[Andi · Rating 3 out of 5]

I agree with all of the principles in this book but found it to be a bit cheesy. I have studied many of these ideas in different ways and would’ve appreciated some simple diagrams or visual of the concepts to have rather than the story of Ray.

[Amy]

Not a review; just a statement that I'm not particularly loving the term "a simple piano teacher" in the blurb.

[Tom Gewecke]

Good encouragement for teachers, who are tasked with motivating others. There's space in the margins for note taking. I only hoped it would speak more to self-motivation, but perhaps I have to read certain passages again.