The Fourth Year: Entering The Special Place Personal by Joel Wagner - July 31, 2007July 5, 20100 In the Band Director world, the fourth year in a school district is a special year. When I got my first job, I remember that it was my boss' fourth year in that school district. Everything at the high school is more special during the fourth year than it has been in previous years. I think this concept also applies to most high school coaches as well as elementary elective teachers. Why? There are a number of reasons that this is a special year. The first is that I have been to every high school football game and marching competition that every student in the high school band has been involved in. This year's seniors have gone through
Weekend Wrapup 07/30/07 Blogging & Technology by Joel Wagner - July 30, 2007July 5, 20101 This is my second installment of the weekend wrapup. I wanted to focus on some great articles I saw this week that relate to writing and blogging. Mystery Teacher has written about the lack of good writing and grammar that has become so common throughout our society. Using the English Language lately? Copyblogger has an article about editing. I don't edit enough. When I do edit on this blog, it is usually after I have published. We could all use help on getting anyone to read every word we write. Eric writes about the seeming lack of college education majors who blog. I wonder if this is because people are scared to start a blog for fear of not
4 Similarities Between Strep Throat And Classroom Management Classroom Management by Joel Wagner - July 27, 2007May 29, 20165 I went to the doctor today. It was the first time I've been in over a year and a half. I have strep throat. And it's summer. How lame is that? Enough with the complaining, As I was sitting here this evening wondering why my visitor numbers were a bit lower than they have been lately, I realized that I didn't write anything on here today. Then I tried swallowing again and was reminded of my strep throat. That's when I began to realize the similarities between me going to the doctor and me learning how to handle a classroom full of children. I waited until the last minute I can deal with congestion. I can deal with coughing. I have been
The Purpose Of A Personal Mission Statement Personal by Joel Wagner - July 26, 2007July 5, 20109 Last summer, I read The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People. The book radically impacted me and helped me to begin becoming much more organized. This week, I was talking with a friend about his auto repair business. I asked him why he had to be at the shop all day every day. He told me it was because when he's not here, the guys who work there don't do a great job of greeting the customers. I remembered reading Stephen Covey's account of a great customer service experience he had in a business. Upon asking why it was that they had such a welcoming environment, he found that the company had a mission statement. On top of that, each
Rethinking The Systems Music Education by Joel Wagner - July 25, 2007July 5, 20100 I have spent much of last week and this week with one of the high school band directors thoroughly analyzing our marching fundamentals for the high school band. Though this really doesn't apply directly to what I do during the school day as a middle school band director, the process we have been through to rethink our entire marching system can be applied to a lot of things that I will do in the classroom this year. I think it can also be applied to your world as well. The Process So what exactly have we done to make these changes? Here's a basic outline. At the end, I'll show how it will apply to my routine, and see if
All Work And No Play Makes Joel A Dull Boy Personal by Joel Wagner - July 24, 2007July 5, 20107 I live in a relatively small town that is more than 20 minutes from the next closest smaller town, and more than 2 hours from the next closest larger town. I try to get involved in the community here, but I also want to maintain my own privacy. As a band director in a small town, I automatically achieve, at least minimally, some sort of celebrity status. It is difficult for me to go to the grocery store or a restaurant without seeing at least one family I know. I try not to let that really bother me, but one of the nasty side-effects of that is that I end up spending WAY more time at school than is really
Weekend Wrapup 07/23/07 Blogging & Technology by Joel Wagner - July 23, 2007July 5, 20101 As the school year looms closer and closer, I am going to establish a blogging routine. The plan is to drastically reduce my blogging from every day as I have over the summer to three times a week. Beginning today, each Monday will feature a "Weekend Wrapup" where I'll point you to a handful of blog articles that have caught my interest in one way or another throughout the course of the prior week. As I get the process more refined, it will take shape. I am playing catchup now following the Texas Bandmasters Association convention, but I thought I would go ahead and start the habit. Mister Teacher over at Learn Me Good has written Quein es muy macho?
To Shut Up Or Not To Shut Up? That Is The Question General by Joel Wagner - July 20, 2007July 5, 20105 So I wrote Shut Up And Teach! yesterday and have gotten mixed reactions from it. Some have argued that my points were good while others have complained that I am advocating tying the hands and muzzling educators to prevent them from fighting for social justice. People have even gone so far as to write articles in response. Whatever the case, I enjoy the conversation that has developed. This tells me one of two things. Either: I am completely wrong and totally out of line I am at least partially right and hitting too close for comfort Investigating the arguments I am completely wrong and totally out of line These arguments include the facts that some school
Shut Up And Teach! General by Joel Wagner - July 19, 2007July 5, 201010 I get so tired of hearing teachers complaining about No Child Left Behind. I get so tired of hearing teachers complain about administration. I get so tired of hearing teachers complain about parents. Shut up and teach! It's a simple concept, but some teachers seem to derive greater joy from feeling victimized than they do from feeling victorious. After all, it's much simpler to complain than it is to create solutions. I am convinced that if I took the skills that I use in teaching beginning band, that my students would excel. I want to share a few things that really seem to help my students learn the material well. Keep in mind that as they enter 6th grade, many
The Total Resume Makeover General by Joel Wagner - July 18, 2007June 19, 20163 It's the last half of July, you're looking for a job, you have no interviews lined up, and school starts in a month or less (or 40 days if you live in Texas). You have all the skills and experience in the world, but simply get no phone calls. The old adage goes, "If you keep doing what you've been doing, you'll keep getting what you've been getting." So change something. Let's see if maybe your resume needs a total makeover. Change something! I am amazed when I look at most resumes. They generally look bland, boring, and banal. As Louise Flethcer writes: Your resume is a marketing brochure, not a product catalog. It has to say just enough to make the sale
15 Tips To Stay Positive Inspiration by Joel Wagner - July 17, 2007July 5, 20106 I recently read an article entitled Is Positive Possible? by Samantha on TeacherLingo.com. In the article, she writes in part: Why are we so depressed? Why do we only feel needed and understood when we are griping together? I think about this a lot. It is as if we are all addicted to the frenzy, the wretched wreck of it all. "Who said this? Who is quitting? What are they making us do now?" If you say anything good-everyone looks at you like you've got to be kidding. My response to her was: Dave Ramsey says "If your broke friends are making fun of your financial plan, you're on the right track." Similarly, if your miserable colleagues are making fun
How To Polish Your Resume To Rack Up Job Interviews General by Joel Wagner - July 16, 2007June 19, 20160 Polishing The Resume So you have just graduated from college and ready to enter the teaching field. Or maybe you are in the midst of your final days, weeks, or months of college education and want to know where to start. Or maybe you are simply looking for greener pastures. The deal is, nobody gets a job unless they first have a job interview. That's pretty obvious, right? So how do you get a job interview? There are a few ways, but the focus for today will be getting out the old resume and preparing to be interview bait. Some sticking points to remember are that everybody else applying for the job has a resume also. Yours has to jump out of
8 Steps To Building A Better Blog Blogging & Technology by Joel Wagner - July 15, 2007July 5, 20102 This really has nothing to do with education. I wanted to take a chance to stop and address some things that happened this week in my life and the life of this blog. Every day in the past week except for Tuesday, So You Want To Teach? saw more than 50 visitors. It's not like that constitutes a high-traffic blog or anything, but I see healthy, steady growth and want to look at some of the things that I have done to see this growth. Add content I started the blog in February, but only posted three articles a month until we got to the last week of May. Those articles are pretty good and help to form the
Tools For Success Why Teachers Quit by Joel Wagner - July 14, 2007July 5, 20104 Last weekend, I began considering Why do teachers quit? As someone who is very interested in maintaining a strong educational system, and someone who wants to see children get the best education possible, it is an important question to me. As we continue pondering this, we want to begin this weekend looking at some ways that we might be able to keep teachers from quitting. If there is a problem, find the underlying source Simply realizing that teachers quit is not the answer. Simply treating symptoms may solve the problem on an isolated basis, but it doesn't really begin to scratch the surface of where we really need to be working. So we need to dig a little deeper and
Habit 5: Community Habits Personal by Joel Wagner - July 13, 2007July 5, 20101 This is the fifth in a series of articles entitled 5 Habits of Highly Effective Teachers. Community Procedures How do you interact with your community? I know for many teachers, this is a frightening proposition. Reading some things that other teachers post, it seems that most teachers who live in the same community wherein they teach either participate in public activities either in fear, out of seeming ignorance, or with balance. this is probably my weakest area and something I am seriously working to get better at. If you have any suggestions, I'd love to hear them. Participating in fear This is probably the category I often find myself most associated with. These people avoid most public places. They do