On February 11th, 2007 I wrote the first blog post that is included in the archives of So You Want To Teach? I didn ‘t actually set up the blog on this domain until June, but I thought that since the blog was now over a year old (at least as far as some of the content), I’d go back and take a look at some of the old stuff. By the way, none of them have any comments at…

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Idea stolen from Chris Thomas

Have you ever:

• Changed a personal habit? What was it and how did you accomplish it?
• Lost more than 30 pounds? How did you do it and how did it make you feel?
• Paid off over $10,000 in debt? What steps did you take and how did the process affect your views of borrowing?
• Done something you never thought you could do? What and how?
• Done or said something you regret? What were the

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I realized some things today

• There will never be enough time to do everything I want to do
• There will never be enough money to do everything I want to do
• There will never be enough people to do everything I want to do
• The music will never sound good enough
• Kids will continue to fail their classes, no matter how important I tell them that passing is
• Parents will never be happy enough with everything I do

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So on Tuesday, I wrote about an incident I had where I was awfully sarcastic with a student and it upset him. I received some great comments. The conversation is continuing over there. If you haven’t chimed in, now would be a great time to do so. And better yet, subscribe to receive comments so you don’t have to keep going back to check and recheck.

So what did I do? How did I respond on Wednesday?
Well, basically, I…

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Today was a pretty good day in parts. In fact, most of my classes went really well. Except for my percussion class. It has been bad since the middle of December. This is slightly abnormal for me, but the following post is a narrative with a question and plea for help at the end.

Why is my percussion class getting out of hand?
Because I have two different groups of students in there. Since the director I work with had…

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I returned home from the Texas Music Educators Association clinic and convention this weekend. It was different TMEA experience for me than what I have been accustomed to in the past. One of the primary reasons for this was because I desperately needed the vacation more than I have in the past.

If you’ve been following my blog, you know that the band director with whom I work had a stroke in December and has now been out for 8…

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Get your commenting skills ready, there’s lots of material to be discussed here. I will be offline for most of this coming week and would love to hear the thoughts of my readers on these subjects.

This week, I will be traveling to San Antonio for the annual Texas Music Educators Association clinic and convention. I’m excited. That convention marks the beginning of the heavy push as we prepare for the UIL Concert & Sight Reading contest, which will be…

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Newby writes:

I have noticed lately in a couple of your posts you mentioned how terrible your first couple of years of teaching were. As a new reader, I have gone back into your archived information to learn more about this blog but have not come across why you had such a hard time. What made your first years so difficult? As a teacher with more years under your belt, do you think those experiences helped make you a better…

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My life has changed quite a bit since December 1st. Today, I want to look back on some of the things that have happened in the life of this blog, as well as some things that have happened in the life of Joel.

Blogging changes

1. The number of readers continues to climb (164 as of Friday). It seems that the number is doubling every three to four months. If this growth continues, I’ll be looking at a readership of

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Lately, I have noticed a larger number of prospective and newer teachers leaving comments to my various articles. This has helped inspire me to offer what advice I can in a (hopefully) weekly question and answer forum. For lack of creativity, we’ll call it “Ask Joel” and begin next week. Any question is fair game, whether it’s about about teaching, classroom management, band directing, blogging, or whatever else! Email me and let me know your questions. I will choose from…

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