Home

Home

Start Here

Start

Links

Links

Twitter

Twitter

Facebook

Facebook

Subscribe RSS

RSS

Subscribe Email

Email


Post TagsPosts Tagged ‘Blogging & Technology’




Author: Joel
Posted: June 28
Category: Blogging & Technology

If you haven’t stopped by the actual website for So You Want To Teach? in a few months, er weeks, er days, er hours, you may not recognize it. I have used my summertime to really put in some solid effort into adjusting the layout of the blog. I haven’t done a full-on redesign since March of 2009. Since that time, I’ve added a few widgets here and something else over there, but never really spent a lot of concentrated time really thinking about the layout of the blog. Until recently.

How it all began
Quite frankly, I got bored of looking at the blog each day. I had some stuff there that just really didn’t make sense. It was more cluttered…



Tags

Post Tags
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |


Author: Joel
Posted: May 31
Category: General

I have a few things planned for the summer, but one thing I really would like to do is feature a series of articles by first-year teachers reflecting on their first year of teaching. If you have a blog, feel free to quote liberally from your posts throughout the year. If not, that’s okay! You can write one post or even a handful of them. I’d really like to be able to get these thoughts out there and share them with future first-year teachers.

Maybe you’ve been teaching for longer. Maybe you haven’t. Either way, you are also welcome to submit guest posts. Anything that might remotely relate to teachers is welcome. For ideas from previous guest bloggers, check out…



Tags

Post Tags
| | |


Author: Joel
Posted: February 27
Category: Personal

For the first time since started my blog three years ago, I am going to be taking a break for at least a month. No writing, no checking stats, no emails, no nothing. In fact, I’m pulling the plug on my cable modem as soon as I finish writing this.

This is not just a blog issue, but I am going to be away from Facebook almost entirely for a month. In fact, I deleted Facebook from my phone a couple of weeks ago and noticed a substantial improvement to my productivity at work. My free time isn’t spent checking to see who else is slacking off at work, but rather in avoiding the temptation to slack myself. I’ve been…



Tags

Post Tags
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |


Author: Joel
Posted: February 09
Category: Blogging & Technology

I am leaving tomorrow after school to go to the annual Texas Music Educators Association clinic/convention in San Antonio. I’m not taking my laptop with me and won’t be accessing a computer besides my iPhone, so I will be away from blogging for the rest of the week. I don’t want to spend a long time here, but I thought I would note that Thursday marks the third anniversary of So You Want To Teach?

This has been a fun project. I’ve learned a whole lot about web development, myself, teaching, and the art of blogging through the building and maintaining of this site. It has become more of a burden than I ever imagined, but I do enjoy the…



Tags

Post Tags
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |


Author: Joel
Posted: January 31
Category: Music Education

The world of band directing has changed over the past few years as a result of the increasing pace of technological development.

Back then
Contest preparation when I first started teaching way back in August of 2002 went something like this:

I began by digging through the CDs that I picked up each year at music conventions to find recordings of some of the band music that might be available. Then I picked up my copy of the UIL Prescribed Music List to see what was on the list. At this point, I went back to the recordings and tried to find whichever of the tunes I had on CD so I could listen. If a friend recommended a piece…



Tags

Post Tags
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |


Author: Joel
Posted: January 23
Category: Inspiration

Look around you. How many unrealized plans do you see? How much unfinished business do you have sitting on your desk at work waiting for you in the morning? What about ungraded papers, unread emails, un-thrown-away junk mail?

Maybe paperwork isn’t your problem. Maybe it’s a half-finished basement, a bathroom renovation gone sour, a fence in the back yard that needs to be adjusted. Or you have bill collectors hounding you. Or you aren’t contributing enough (or anything) to your retirement plan. Or you are in debt out your eyeballs. Or you’re still lugging around that extra 5 pounds that you’ve been meaning to lose (or the 75 pounds that has grown as you’ve been ignoring it for the last…



Tags

Post Tags
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |


Author: Joel
Posted: January 18
Category: Blogging & Technology

This evening, I decided to do something I’ve been toying around with since the summer. I finally deleted comments from my blog entirely.

Where it all began
I began this blog as a hobby back in the spring of 2007, shortly after I began to learn more about the potential that blogs held. Life was much simpler back then. For one thing, I taught 6th grade beginning band only. My obligations outside of school were minimal, and the amount of time I spent in front of the computer was similarly low. Life was much simpler back then.

I long for that again.

Where it has taken me
In the fall of 2007, I moved



Tags

Post Tags
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |


Author: Joel
Posted: January 09
Category: Blogging & Technology

I tried the alternative comment system DISQUS for a few months here and have just grown tired of it. Since installing it in October, I have noticed:

  1. A decrease in the number of relevant comments on my blog
  2. An increase in the number of spammy comments that get approved
  3. An increase in the number of complaints about the difficulty of commenting on my blog
  4. A substantial increase in the the time it takes for pages on my site to load

I turned off DISQUS commenting this morning and while I lost a number of comments that have been posted to my site, I also notice that some of the comments posted on DISQUS actually were preserved. I also…



Tags

Post Tags
| | | | | | | | | | | |


Author: Joel
Posted: January 04
Category: Personal

Carol Richtsmeier made me do it. She has pretty much shamed me (guilted me perhaps?) into blogging through my weight loss this year with her. I’m doing it because I want to run a 5K. She’s doing it because she’s tired of dragging along the extra baggage. Well, me too. She’s done all of the legwork and I’ll do some design work when I get a chance, but she’s set up a blog call Can Wii Do It? to track our progress. I suggested there might be others who would be interested in blogging through their journey (either with a Wii or without). If you are, she would probably be the person to contact since she’s doing most of the…



Tags

Post Tags
| | | | | | | | | | | |


Author: Joel
Posted: December 31
Category: Blogging & Technology

Over 10,000 of the visits to SYWTT this year came from nine sources. The top three alone actually sent me over 6,200 visitors. This is incredible, and I need to thank all of you for the help you’ve provided me.

Top referring blogs
These are the blogs that have sent the most visitors my way in 2009. I cannot thank these people enough for taking the time out of their schedule in one way or another and finding something on my site that resonated enough with them to send their readers my way. You people rock!

  1. It’s Not All Flowers And Sausages
  2. TutorFi.com with the post 50 Reasons Why I Enjoy Being A Teacher
  3. Guy Kawasaki with the post



Tags

Post Tags
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |


Author: Joel
Posted: December 31
Category: Blogging & Technology

Over the past (almost) three years of blogging, I have learned a lot more about myself, teaching, blogging, WordPress, CSS, HTML, and social media than I ever really thought I would. Most of it has been good, or at least fun. Some of it hasn’t been all that great, but I keep on keeping on.

As we close out each year, I like to take a sort of retrospective on the past year and look at some of the most popular articles from the year. I’ve traditionally broken this retrospective into three individual posts (2007 Loneliest/Busiest/Overlooked, 2008 Loneliest/Busiest/Overlooked), but this year I’ll do things a little differently and pack everything into one huge year-end blowout.

The busiest articles of 2009





Author: Karen Schweitzer
Posted: December 23
Category: Blogging & Technology

Guest post from education writer Karen Schweitzer. More guest posts by Karen for SYWTT are available here.

Teachers who are interested in furthering their education can find many free education resources online. There are colleges, universities, and education associations that offer free courses as well as informational sites that provide details on earning advanced degrees, certificates, and continuing education credits. Here are 15 free online education resources to explore in your spare time.

Thinkfinity – Thinkfinity provides free interactive webinars, online courses, and instructional videos for teachers and afterschool practitioners. Graduate credit is available for some of the courses.

Teachers Network – The Teachers Network offers a wide range of how-to’s for teachers. Covered topics include finding a teaching position,…





Author: Joel
Posted: November 03
Category: Blogging & Technology

I have been asked to pass along a request. Unfortunately, I had a pep rally this morning and a football game this evening.

I’m hosting the next EduCarnival at my blog (http://imadreamerteacher.blogspot.com/), and there aren’t a ton of submissions.  Since you have a widely read blog, I was wondering if you could post a short thing about how people could still submit today?  It’s too late to do it through the form, but they could email me links directly at imadreamerteacher@gmail.com.

EDIT: It’s now too late to submit…but check out the EduCarnival V2 Issue 11 anyway.





Author: Joel
Posted: October 15
Category: Blogging & Technology

I got my Google Wave invitation the day the first set of invites came out. Today on Twitter, a friend asked me if Google Wave was as amazing as he’s heard it is. My response was something along the lines of:

The potential of Google Wave is still pretty amazing, but the implementation of it so far is not there.

That being said, I have to keep in mind that it is still in alpha testing phases right now, and thought it has been unresponsive at times, it has not yet crashed on me. These two facts are pretty solid for the infrastructure so far!

What is the potential? Well, clearly it has some pretty far-reaching possibilities in the use…





Author: Joel
Posted: September 30
Category: Blogging & Technology

Today is the day. Thousands of new users will be presented with the opportunity to get their hands on Google Wave.

What is Google Wave?
Google Wave is a brand new technology that positions itself  as the way Email would have been made if it were invented today. (Watch the 1:20:12 long video clip)

Imagine a combination between Email, IM, Twitter, Facebook, and Skype all bundled into one. Now imagine it being drag-and-drop easy, live-updated, and being constantly improved. Then throw on top of that an eager community of developers seeking ways to make it even easier to use and more powerful.

Cool, but what does it look like?
I haven’t gotten my





Author: Joel
Posted: September 28
Category: Inspiration

I got an email from a reader this morning and she sent told me that I might appreciate her latest blog post. She writes:

I read your blog.  I also write my own blog.  I started my blog when I wanted to quit.  I spent about a year thinking about that.  I realize now that I don’t want to quit anymore.  I thought maybe my latest blog about why I don’t want to quit anymore would be of interest to you or your readers.

So I jumped on over to check it out. What an inspiration it was, too! Her blog Teacher, I Don’t Get It has been up for a little less than a year. I was indeed impressed by her latest…





Author: Joel
Posted: September 05
Category: Blogging & Technology

I don’t use a whole lot of social media outlets, but I know a lot of my readers do. Over the last few months, I have added a few things to make sharing SYWTT articles easier. I’ve also added some rating type things where you can tell me how bad (or good) an article is. I find that Facebook and Twitter are by far the websites I spend most of my time on when I’m online. In fact, I mostly use Facebook at home and Twitter on my iPhone while I’m out.

Up to this point, I have used them mostly for personal things. I have also noticed, however, that my use of Google Reader and other RSS type things…





Author: Karen Schweitzer
Posted: August 04
Category: Blogging & Technology

This is a guest post from Karen Schweitzer who writes for OnlineCourses.org.

The Internet has tons of online tools, apps, and downloads with the tech-friendly teacher in mind. This list offers 20 free sites that would be genuinely useful to educators throughout the school year:

ThinkFold – ThinkFold is a structured environment for groups to collaborate on documents, presentations, ideas, and plans. This free app is perfect for students and teachers who want to brainstorm, interact together on an outline, and make changes in real-time.

Mindomo – This site provides a versatile mind mapping tool that can be used to organize and store research. Educators can share their maps online or embed them into an existing webpage.

SchoolTool –…





Author: Joel
Posted: July 19
Category: Blogging & Technology

I recently got my Google Voice invitation and decided to set it up. In playing around with the settings this afternoon, I realized that I could set up a widget to connect my readers directly to my voicemail. I don’t know how many people are interested in connecting to me this way, but I thought it might be a nice way to provide some opportunities for increased communication.

Who knows, this may open up a way for me to get some questions from readers. If the response is positive, I might even post the phone number so maybe some of you could share the number with friends who don’t do the whole blogging thing, but have questions about teaching problems….





Author: Karen Schweitzer
Posted: July 08
Category: Blogging & Technology

This is a guest post from Karen Schweitzer who writes reviews for the best online colleges for OnlineCollege.org.

Whether you’re looking for ways to incorporate technology into the classroom or into your daily life, the Internet has the tools you need. There are lots of free web apps and websites designed specifically for tech-loving teachers on a tight budget:

  1. VerbaLearn – VerbaLearn is a comprehensive vocabulary building site that uses audio, video, flashcards, and games. It is a great place for teachers to help students improve English vocabulary at home or school.
  2. Writewith – This free web app makes writing online a snap. Writewith allows you to upload documents, assign tasks, chat, collaborate, and track everyone’s changes and





About

About

Advertising

Advertising

Archive

Archive

Contact

Contact

FAQ

FAQ

Be A Guest Blogger

Guest Posting

Privacy Policy

Privacy


Classroom Management

Classroom Management

General

General

Inspiration

Inspiration

Music

Music Education

New Teachers/Student Teachers

New Teachers & Student Teachers

Stress Reduction

Stress Reduction

Personal

Personal

Reader Appreciation

Reader Appreciation

Blogging and Technology

Blogging and Technology

Why Do Teachers Quit?

Why Do Teachers Quit?

Feed Shark