Clinicians Music Education by Joel Wagner - January 31, 2008July 2, 20102 In the band world, we have a whole concept of bringing in a clinician. This is basically a chance for us to get another, more experienced teacher to come in and tell our kids all the same stuff we've been telling them in a different way. Until this morning, I hadn't realized how easily this kind of thing benefits me as a teacher and how something similar might help pretty much every teacher out there. I am fortunate in that my current situation has forced me to spend at least a couple of months by myself working with two bands and a mariachi. Our district has put in and found some money to bring in a retired band director for
Update: Double Your FeedBurner RSS Numbers Overnight Blogging & Technology by Joel Wagner - January 29, 2008July 2, 20100 My recent tutorial, Double Your FeedBurner RSS Numbers Overnight, has been featured as one of 71 tutorials in Daniel's Blog Writing Project at Daily Blog Tips. Daily Blog Tips has over 8,500 subscribers and is among the top 500 blogs in Technorati's ratings. If you wanted to help me out by going to the site, clicking on the article (toward the bottom of the blogging section at the top), and linking to both my article and his, I would be happy. Heck, while you're there, check out some of the other great tutorials! Some like these: Zero to Rhythm in 12 Days How To Eat Healthy At Fast Food Joints Tutorial: How to print blog articles the smart way
100 MusEduBloggers by 2009 Music Education by Joel Wagner - January 29, 2008July 2, 20102 I have been blogging about teaching for a while. I came across a post by Joseph Pisano (the original post is here) where he is trying to get at least 100 Music Education Bloggers blogging about music education or music technology. Part of me has been wanting to jump into the MusEduBlogging world, but it wasn’t until this morning that I decided to take the plunge. I have learned a whole lot about blogging over the last year and so I hope to be able to use the knowledge I have gained to try to make this site one of the premier sites in the MusEduBlogging world. Yes, I just created that term. A Google search for both MusEduBlog returns
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
Double Your FeedBurner RSS Numbers Overnight General by Joel Wagner - January 27, 2008May 29, 201612 This article is part of a Group Writing Project about Building RSS Numbers. I recently achieved the milestone of having 150 subscribers (I'm still hanging out in that area). In reaching that, I realize that many bloggers use Blogger to host their blogs and FeedBurner for their RSS syndication. That's a good combination (I much prefer WordPress, but Blogger can be simpler to set up). This post will serve as a simple tutorial to allow people in this situation to double their subscriber count overnight. If not overnight, then quickly to say the least. I've noticed that a lot of the bloggers who have this setup seem to have low subscriber counts. I noticed that Learn Me Good is still hanging out around
The Top 10 Rejected Meanings of TAKS Inspiration by Mister Teacher - January 25, 2008June 30, 20103 This is a guest post by Mister Teacher of Learn Me Good. Mister Teacher teaches third grade near Dallas, TX. Greetings, faithful readers of So You Want to Teach? Do not attempt to change the channel! We have taken control of the vertical; we have taken control of the horizontal; we have taken control of clichés and tag lines from old 60’s sci-fi television shows. Joel has graciously offered me the opportunity to write a guest post here on his blog. So I suppose I should take a moment to identify myself. My name is Mister Teacher, and I have a drinking problem. No wait, now's not the time to say that. Let me
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
150 Subscribers Blogging & Technology by Joel Wagner - January 15, 2008July 2, 20102 Thank you so much to everyone who has subscribed. You people are awesome! I want to challenge you to invite one person you know who is either a great teacher or an aspiring great teacher to check out So You Want To Teach? for themselves. Email Updates Did you know that email subscriptions are available? Even if they aren't familiar with blogging, you can sign up to receive the updates via email. Could you sign up with your school address, and begin sending articles around to your colleagues? I want to see how quickly we can build our "class size" to 200. Will you help me by inviting one friend? :)
8 Ways Blogging Makes Me A Better Teacher General by Joel Wagner - January 14, 2008July 2, 20109 I have found this year that I have been making a lot of progress on my own personal teaching style. It's my 6th year to teach, and I begin what could be seen as the downhill slope of teaching. Now that I am pretty adequate at getting children to be and stay quiet throughout class so that I can teach them, I run the risk of slacking off and stagnating in my teaching technique. The whole if it's not broke, don't fix it mentality could very easily take over. But that's not the case with me. Why not? I believe that a lot of it has to do with my own personality of one who pursues excellence. But I think
Self-Sufficient Students General by Joel Wagner - January 11, 2008July 2, 20107 Recently, one of the other teachers sent the following email out to everyone at my campus: Self-sufficient – able to take care of your own needs without help from others Colleagues, over the next several weeks I will be using some of my sponge time to explore the idea of self-sufficiency in school and at home. We have already learned the definition and brainstormed some examples. Now I am soliciting ideas from you. If you had to name one or two ways in which you wish your students were more self-suffcient, what would it be? If you have been successful in teaching your students to be more self-sufficient in school, what method did you use? My personal
Power Teaching: A Revolutionary Teaching Style [VIDEOS] General by Joel Wagner - January 8, 2008July 2, 201010 This is some amazing stuff here! Anyone have any experience with these Power Teaching techniques? This stuff looks like it has some real merit. 1st Grade 3rd Grade 4th Grade 6th Grade College Philosophy
Highlighting Some Recent Comments General by Joel Wagner - January 7, 2008July 2, 20101 I have fallen behind on the blog lately, but that is because I am actually trying to move forward some more in my personal life. Sometimes sacrifices are necessary parts of progress. I wanted to take this opportunity to highlight a few of the great comments that I have received lately. I am interested in hearing more about how some of you run your classrooms effectively. This can include specific teaching techniques, classroom management (which we have gone over quite a bit in recent months), and socially. I also am interested in hearing how you handle administrative issues that seem to pop up from time to time. Out of the middle of nowhere, Jane wrote a lengthy and thoughtful comment
Science Education The Way It Should Be [VIDEO] General by Joel Wagner - January 5, 2008July 2, 20101 Check this stuff out! Are there any of you out there who actually do cool stuff like this? If so, let me know. If not, then find a way to do one experiment/demonstration like this each month for the rest of your teaching career. It will change lives.
Old School Classroom Management Classroom Management by Joel Wagner - January 3, 2008July 2, 20100 It still works. Check it out at NYC Educator. I wish I could say I handle it the good ol' boy way all the time. I don't. What I have discovered is that as I get older and wiser (ha), I handle misbehaviors better. The key is coming up with a contingency plan and knowing how you will respond to certain behaviors.