Welcome to Education: Now Change Your Plans To Fit OUR Schedule Music Education by Joel Wagner - March 31, 2009June 30, 20104 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.
Last Minute UIL Concert & Sight Reading Preparations: 10 Things I Am Doing To Try To Get Sweepstakes Music Education by Joel Wagner - March 29, 2009June 30, 20108 This Thursday, I will be taking my Middle School band to our UIL Concert & Sight Reading contest. For those who don't understand how the band world works (and even for those who don't understand Texas UIL), here's sort of how it works. How UIL works I will be taking them to perform a concert program of three pieces that we've been working on since February. Following the concert, we go to the sight reading contest. In that, each band is allotted a certain amount of time to look at a brand new piece of music. As a director, I can spend the first part (four minutes for my band) talking them through it and pointing out key changes, accidentals,
Recession 2009 And Its Impact On Teaching Why Teachers Quit by Joel Wagner - March 23, 2009June 30, 201027 When I entered the field of education, I was well aware that I wasn't going into teaching because of the prolific amount of cash I could accumulate from the career. I entered education basically because it's a good thing to do and it's something that I absolutely love doing. Last week, I posted a question about when the right time to relocate to a different teaching job might be. I received some great responses (in the comments, through Twitter, and in email). However, some of the comments sort of caught me off guard. A few of the comments referenced the Recession of 2009 as being a reason I might want to stay in my current teaching situation (despite the social
Student Teaching 2009 Update New Teachers by Joel Wagner - March 22, 2009June 30, 20100 By this point in the semester, some student teaching programs are wrapping up. Others are just about halfway through. Whatever the case, I think most of our student teacher readers are coming to realize that teaching is not quite what they expected it would be in many regards. I think many of them are beginning to realize that they will really miss (some of) the kids after they finish for the year. G. Broaddus recently noted that he has been quite a bit more busy this semester than he anticipated. Unexpected events have taken place. Just under a month ago, he realized that daily blogging is a big commitment. It's okay. His blogging has definitely been valueable for him, as
Seven Years Later: 7 Things I Would Do Before My First Year As A Teacher If I Knew Then What I Know Now New Teachers by Joel Wagner - March 21, 2009June 30, 20107 My Twitter friend @MissCalcul8 recently posted on her blog soliciting help from her readers about how to prepare for her first year as an official teacher. She has been subbing some this year. I thought it was a great question, so I wanted to post my responses here as well as send you over to her blog to offer up some more suggestions (and perhaps subscribe to her RSS feed!). So without further ado, here are 7 things I would do before my first year as a teacher if I knew then what I know now. Figure out a classroom management plan (with or without rules) that works well for you. Make friends like crazy with other teachers. If
When Is It Time To Relocate? Personal by Joel Wagner - March 20, 2009June 30, 201018 On the one hand, I love my job. I absolutely love the kids I work with and am on pretty good terms with the rest of the band staff. On the other hand, my life is pretty boring. I have never been a crazy partier or anything (I don't drink alcohol or much caffeine for that matter). I don't go out to clubs and can't stand the bar environment. But in a relatively small town (less than 50,000 people) that is over an hour from the next closest reasonably sized town, life can get to feeling pretty isolated. A question I have for those of you out there who have been in this type of situation: When did you feel
Spring Break Is Here…What to Do, What to Do… Music Education by Joel Wagner - March 18, 2009June 30, 20105 Well, I'm sitting here in a motel room in San Antonio. I am trading some of my time with a band director friend. I came here to teach trumpet and horn sectionals yesterday since I'm on spring break this week and he had it last week. In turn, he's going to come in next week and clinic my band. Basically what that means is that he's going to rehearse them for two hours and tell them stuff they can do to make it better. It also gives me a chance to step back and listen more closely. When I'm conducting and everything, I hear things, but not everything. This is why I record my band regularly. As an aside, if you
Information Overloaded? 10 Quick Tips To Tame The Tide Stress Reduction by Joel Wagner - March 16, 2009June 30, 20102 Think back 5 years. March 2004. It feels like an eternity ago! For me, that was when I really hit the wall. That was when my head director told me that my contract would not be renewed. I resigned in lieu of nonrenewal. I spent the remainder of the semester learning like crazy. In fact, that is the experience that eventually formed the inspiration to begin this blog (read more here). But that's really not the point of this email, the thought just struck me and I realized how quickly time passes and how much I've grown since then. 5 years ago, there was no MySpace (until August 2003), no Twitter, no Facebook. Nada. Blogs were beginning to take off
Standardized Reading Testing General by Joel Wagner - March 15, 2009June 30, 20106 I have a very simple question for the language arts teachers out there. A little background first When I was in school and took the TAAS reading exams (as well as the SAT), I quickly discovered that I am a fairly slow reader. I also don't get a lot of the specific details when I read a passage. I have since worked on developing that skill and have made some definite progress. What I learned worked best for me was to read the questions before I read the specific passages. This way I could skim through the assigned passages and know what I was looking for. Sometimes the questions were so specific that they didn't require any reading of the
The Hunt For The Missing Carnival Blogging & Technology by Joel Wagner - March 10, 2009June 30, 20104 Turns out I’m not the only teacher out there who gets so busy teaching that he overlooks his blog somewhat. Perhaps you can relate. Oh, I’m sure you can! It happens to us all. We get bogged down with so many things in our life that the unimportant things shift to the back. Hopefully. Sometimes if we’re not careful, we let the important things shift to the back-burner. That’s an altogether
50 Online Reference Sites for Teachers New Teachers by Karen Schweitzer - March 10, 2009July 28, 20167 Finding time to go to the library or conduct research for the classroom can be downright impossible for a busy teacher. Fortunately, there are plenty of reference materials on the web that can guide educators to lesson plans and other resources that can be used in the classroom. This article presents 50 online reference sites that would be useful to almost any teacher. Karen Schweitzer is a writer for TeachingDegree.org, a site that specializes in information on teaching degrees. Here are 50 online reference sites that would be useful to almost any teacher: General Reference Sites The Educator's Reference Desk - The Educator's Reference Desk is an extremely valuable online reference site for teachers. Specific features include lesson plans, teaching tips, and information about