Watch, Practice, Learn Almost Anything — For Free [VIDEOS] General by Joel Wagner - March 12, 2011May 30, 20160 The principal at the middle school where I used to work emailed us a link to a great website. It doesn't really apply to band or music education, but there are a TON of topics covered on this site. So what is it? The Khan Academy is an organization on a mission. We're a not-for-profit with the goal of changing education for the better by providing a free world-class education to anyone anywhere. All of the the site's resources are available to anyone. It doesn't matter if you are a student, teacher, home-schooler, principal, adult returning to the classroom after 20 years, or a friendly alien just trying to get a leg up in earthly biology. The Khan Academy's materials and resources are
Bill Gates on State Budgets, Education, and Economic Hardships [VIDEO] General by Joel Wagner - March 5, 2011March 5, 20110 The good news: Texas is ranked #1 in the country as far as education spending goes. The bad news: Many school districts are on the brink of cutting numerous jobs to keep their budgets in line. * Additional bad news: Texas is #50 as far as Medicaid spending goes. The worse news: Not all of you are fortunate enough to live in Texas. I see news articles posted on Facebook every week about the impending job cuts that are in the plans for next year in the Dallas and San Antonio areas. I'm sure this is a pretty universal thing this year. I know the budget shortfalls have been a big problem in recent years, but I guess I have been more or less
The Value of A Great Teacher General by Joel Wagner - March 3, 2011March 3, 20110 Back in January, NPR's Planet Money podcast ran an episode entitled How Much Is A Good Teacher Worth? On the episode, they argue that the difference between the best teachers and the worst teachers is huge in terms of earning potential of the students over the course of their careers. While some of the findings may be questionable as far as correlating grades and test scores with future success, as a general rule, I think the concepts do hold true and definitely worth a listen. On today's podcast, we consider a plan to dramatically grow the U.S. economy. The plan has nothing to do with banks, stimulus, tax cuts or the Federal Reserve. Instead, the plan focuses entirely on — public school