This week, I went to San Antonio for the Texas Bandmasters Association convention. I attended some really good sessions and took a few notes on my iPhone. Without spending a lot of time to expand on these notes right now, I thought I would post them so maybe someone else can benefit from them. After the convention, I’ll sit down later and flesh them out a bit more. Here are the notes from Days 2 and 3.

• Meet with parents prior to testing 5th graders
• Parent orientation at beginning of year 4-6 weeks into school year
• Take a class period to discuss procedures
• Teach basic reading skills and introduce counting system early (8th notes asap)
• Open cases on the

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This summer, I began playing golf. I’ve actually wanted to learn for a while now as I have a handful of friends who enjoy the game. Over the last few years, I have expressed that interest to some of my friends. Last spring, one of my friends saw me at church and told me to come out to his truck. When I got there, he handed me ten golf clubs.

So last summer, I went to a couple of driving ranges a few times and learned from some of the good golfers in my life. One of these men in particular has really been helpful. It’s great that he also happens to be the best golfer I know, and I…

I was supposed to have my Pre-UIL concert tonight, but we were informed yesterday afternoon that the 7th Graders would be having pre-registration that night instead and they need to use the cafetorium, and gym. Of course! By the time I left school at 5:45 this afternoon, parents were already showing up and trying to go into the band hall. Evidently they had meetings scheduled in there tonight also.

Lemme tell you, I can’t wait to get to the band hall tomorrow morning and figure out what they’ve done with my chairs and stands that I had set up for our 7am rehearsal!

So in my last article, I mentioned that I require pass-offs and also that I cut students….

1. Freedom from oppression
2. Doing what I love and making money for it
3. Freedom of faith
4. The Bible
5. Hymns
6. My family
7. My friends
8. My dogs
9. My home
10. My blog
11. Clarinet
12. Learning
13. The opportunity to learn
14. Dave Ramsey
15. My iPod
16. My laptop
17. Summer “break”
18. Spring break
19. Christmas break
20. Trumpet
21. My students
22. Making music
23. Mariachi
24. Text messages
25. My iPhone 3G that I’ll be rewarding myself with next week
26. WordPress
27. The color blue
28. Enchiladas
29. Cheesecake
30. Texas
31. Drum & Bugle Corps
32. Preaching
33. Teaching
34. Accomplishing things
35. Creating things
36. The feeling of being organized
37. Water
38. Horn
39. Making progress
40. Learning to play golf
41. IHOP
42. Winter
43. Rain
44. Clouds
45. Happy memories
46. Abstract Art
47. Shostakovich
48. The look on someone’s face when they are learning something
49. The look on someone’s face

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This article is part 4 of the series Questions That Will Save Your Career. Please read the other articles in the series.

1. How Do I Keep My Students Quiet?
2. How Do I Keep My Students Engaged?
3. How Do I Keep My Students Interested?
4. How Do I Keep My Students Learning?
5. How Do I Keep My Students Away From Me?
6. How Do I Keep My School Administration Happy?
7. How Do I Keep My Sanity?

What do you do to keep students learning?
We have come to the central part of why we entered into the educational field. Sometimes amidst the classroom management issues, paperwork, extracurricular assignments, professional development, and all sorts of other considerations, we can easily lose sight…