New Theme – SYWTT 2009 Blogging & Technology by Joel Wagner - February 28, 2009June 30, 201010 I have been working together with developers at Dizzain.com to create a brand new, professionall designed) theme for So You Want To Teach? We are just about finished and plan on launching it sometime in the first week of March. I’d like to take this opportunity to ask you, my loyal readers, to leave your email or RSS reader, go to the website (www.soyouwantotteach.com) and let me know
SYWTT Celebrates Two Years – A Brief History (2008) Blogging & Technology by Joel Wagner - February 28, 2009June 30, 20100 2008 was the first full calendar year that I ran this blog. It saw its ups and downs, and in some senses, it was a sort of anticlimactic year as far as my personal blogging habits went. Nevertheless, So You Want To Teach? continued to flourish. January began with my hosting the Carnival of Education. That was also the kickoff of my new WordPress theme, which I had personally designed and kept playing with throughout the year. To this date, I still have not seen a blog theme even remotely similar to it. But I will be putting the SYWTT 2008 theme to rest sometime next week. More info on that later. As I mentioned in the last article, the
SYWTT Celebrates Two Years – A Brief History (2007) Blogging & Technology by Joel Wagner - February 11, 2009June 30, 20106 A Matter of Priorities During my first two years of teaching, I discovered that I had a whole lot of information, but the students just weren’t listening to me or learning from me. It is not, mind you, because I was giving them wrong information. It was, however, because I had placed the priorities in the wrong order. When we have the proper perspective, we will end up teaching far more than we ever imagined we might teach. And so began the very first post on the blog that would turn into So You Want To Teach? That was posted two years ago today, on February 11th, 2007. Over the remainder of this month, I will be looking back at
February 2009 Music Education Blog Carnival Blogging & Technology by Joel Wagner - February 5, 2009June 30, 20101 In case you missed it, the February 2009 edition of the Music Education Blog Carnival is up over at The Collaborative Piano Blog. The carnival is still going strong after its 8th edition, and it's exciting to see it perpetuating! Join in for the March edition. July 2008 - So You Want To Teach? (22 submissions) August 2008 - MusTech.Net (14 submissions) September 2008 - Amy M. Burns (16 submissions) October 2008 - Teacher in a Strange Land (16 submissions) November 2008 - Composing Like Mad (13 submissions) December 2008 - Discover, Learn, Play (12 submissions) January 2009 - Theresa White’s Education In Music (15 submissions) February 2009 - The Collaborative Piano Blog (26 submissions) Don't forget to submit your favorite blog article to the March
Sometimes Quitting Is The Best Thing You Can Do! Why Teachers Quit by Joel Wagner - February 2, 2009June 30, 20100 I am featured as a guest blogger over at I Want To Teach Forever as a part of his 52 Teachers, 52 Lessons project. I recommend going over there, reading the article, and adding some comments. Sometimes Quitting Is The Best Thing You Can Do!Quitters never win? Au contraireThe old school adage is that quitters never win. Unfortunately, that trite saying is too simplistic. Sometimes quitters are the only ones who win. Consider these examples:In an auction, the one who doesn't quit often ends up with an overpriced item.The boy who doesn't quit pursuing an uninterested girl often wastes a lot of time, burns bridges, misses out on other opportunities, and alienates the girl and her friends in theprocess.In Vegas, the woman
Classroom Out of Control? JD2718 Has Some Great Comments Classroom Management by Joel Wagner - February 1, 2009June 30, 20101 Okay okay. So I'm a band director. Why would anyone listen to me anyway. I'm just an elective teacher. My friend JD2718 emailed me and told me about some stuff that he does in his math class. So even if you ignore my advice about classroom management, maybe some of his advice about keeping students engaged will apply to you. Hop on over and check out Teaching off topic 3. By the way, I have ADD so my kids know that if they ask me a question about my dogs or what I did over the weekend or pretty much anything else, I'll get off topic. But even when I do stay focused, I find ways to bring some off-topic