Urgent Personal Finance Advice Personal by Joel Wagner - June 21, 2008July 1, 20101 This public service announcement is brought to you by Seth Godin. Read it at once.
5 Things To Do While Taking A Break General by Joel Wagner - May 19, 2008July 1, 20103 There come times in life when we need to find something to do. There come times in life when we need a break. There come times in life when we need to cut back some things so we can find that perfect place. This is one of those times for me. With the end of the year approaching, I am so busy with school and concerts and trips and contests and planning and everything else that goes along with it. In addition, I am playing trumpet in a mariachi now, so that is starting to require individual practice time as well as rehearsals and gigs. Plus, I have been doing quite a bit of preaching in church lately too. So
How to Make the Most of Your Summer Vacation: 7 Simple Tips General by Heather Johnson - May 10, 2008July 2, 20107 This is a guest post contributed by Heather Johnson, who is an industry critic on the subject of university reviews. She invites your feedback at heatherjohnson2323@gmail.com. For those of you who are not on summer school duty this year, you are probably bursting at the seams in anticipation of your three-month break. Yes, you need to get through final exams first, but the end is nigh and you couldn't be happier. There were many altruistic reasons that you became a teacher. However, there is no shame in counting three more amongst that list: June, July and August. In order to get the most out of your highly anticipated vacation, heed the following tips for teachers: Decompress – It might
Stuff About Joel Personal by Joel Wagner - April 23, 2008July 2, 201012 Matthew tagged me. Blame it all on him! With round 3 of TAKS testing coming up next week, we all could use a little break. The rules: The rules of the game get posted at the beginning. Each player answers the questions about themselves. At the end of the post, the player then tags 5-6 people and posts their names, then goes to their blogs and leaves them a comment, letting them know they've been tagged and asking them to read your blog. Let the person who tagged you know when you've posted your answer. Got it. 1) What was I doing 10 years ago? 1998. Wow, I don't really know! Ha. I was finishing up my sophomore
You Think You Pay Attention? What Else Are You Missing Out On? [VIDEO] General by Joel Wagner - March 18, 2008July 2, 20104 Just in time for March Madness Watch this video What did you just learn? How can you relate it to classroom management? Deep, man. Deep.
Whitespace General by Joel Wagner - March 15, 2008July 2, 20106 Have you noticed that People really don't like As I prepare my bands for the UIL Concert & Sight Reading contest that is now less than a month away, I have noticed that they seem to have a big problem with rests. For the uninitiated, rests in music represent silence. If I reduce the amount of noise that I make, my students will be more likely to hear the important things I tell them As I was talking with one of the classes on Friday about the incredible importance of the rests, I made a correlation about how we don't like rests because people really don't like silence. In the visual arts, typography, and graphic
February 2007 Personal by Joel Wagner - February 26, 2008July 2, 20103 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 this point... If you have a blog, you can direct some of that traffic your way simply by writing a good, thought-provoking comment 5 Keys To Educating People February 11, 2007 Classroom Management: The Key To Your Success
Change of Pace — Have You Ever…. Personal by Joel Wagner - February 24, 2008July 2, 20104 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 circumstances and what did you learn from the process?
Slow Down! Personal by Joel Wagner - February 23, 2008May 29, 20166 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 in the classroom I will never be caught up on paperwork But ya know what else I realized? That's part of the enjoyment of the process. If I didn't have anything to do, I wouldn't be necessary. Meaningless tasks don't bring fulfillment, no matter
Apologizing General by Joel Wagner - February 21, 2008July 2, 20103 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 started out the percussion class by having them all sit in a row. I got them quiet and talked with them some. I asked them what some things were that they would change. As I expected, the most common responses
Not The Best Day Ever General by Joel Wagner - February 19, 2008July 2, 201010 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 a stroke, I have been the only band director at my school. This makes my work load heavier, but manageable for the most part. The percussion is the exception because it is a combination of percussionists from two different bands.
Reflections on December and January Personal by Joel Wagner - February 2, 2008July 2, 20103 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 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 somewhere around 300 by the end of the school year, and 600 by the end of 2008. I hosted the 148th Carnival of Education on December 5th, and the 152nd Carnival of Education on January 2nd. I launched my redesigned
New Horizons Looming…Feedback Requested Personal by Joel Wagner - January 28, 2008July 2, 20106 I will begin setting up and writing in a Music Education blog soon. The idea was to include Music Education content on this blog, but I think that might alienate a handful of the readers and that is the last thing I want to do. So when it gets up and running, I will link to there from here and link from here to there. It's exciting! When that happens, the posting frequency over here may dip a little bit, but I will continue to add great content regularly. I have noticed a change in my posting habits lately as well. It seems that I have begun to find myself on a mission to create more edubloggers. I love what
What If… Personal by Joel Wagner - January 20, 2008July 2, 20102 What if you could change one thing about your life that would make you a better person (however you define that)? What if you could adjust one thing that would allow you to experience greater success (however you define it)? What if you could start that change today? What if you encourage others to change the world? What if you make one decision today that will enable you to leave a lasting legacy for years to come? What would that change be?
Loving My Job; Hating My Work Personal by Joel Wagner - January 18, 2008July 2, 20108 Even if you ignore the majority of this article, check out the last sentence. I am absolutely loving school since coming back from Christmas Break. Even so, I am beginning to get burned out. If you want to know why, go read this. He's still not back yet and it's all but certain that he will not be coming back next week either. Still no clue when I can expect him.I wrote an email to my principal today, some edited excerpts follow: I love teaching and I love rehearsing the bands, but I am very tired. The students suffer as a result. More than anything else, that is what breaks my heart about the whole situation. It’s not that I