10 Design Changes I Did To My WordPress Blog This Month Blogging & Technology by Joel Wagner - June 28, 2010June 30, 20100 If you haven't stopped by the actual website for So You Want To Teach? in a few months, er weeks, er days, er hours, you may not recognize it. I have used my summertime to really put in some solid effort into adjusting the layout of the blog. I haven't done a full-on redesign since March of 2009. Since that time, I've added a few widgets here and something else over there, but never really spent a lot of concentrated time really thinking about the layout of the blog. Until recently. How it all began Quite frankly, I got bored of looking at the blog each day. I had some stuff there that just really didn't make sense. It was more cluttered
5 New Edublogs To Keep On Your Radar Blogging & Technology by Joel Wagner - June 24, 2010May 29, 20169
This Is Why This Site Exists Inspiration by Joel Wagner - June 21, 2010June 30, 20100 Emails like this are the reason this site exists. I am an 11-year high school English teaching veteran in the Los Angeles area. Most of my teaching was done in the trenches of suburban, low-SES "nay-bah-HOODS" and the fringes of, um, gangsta lands. (I teach English ... go figure.) I've had my share of awesome kids, classes and experiences, and I've had my share of kids who practice "learned helplessness" and come to school looking like Snoop Droopy Drawers. Overall, I love my subject matter, and love working with high school age kids, especially helping them to "read, write and think your world" (one of my class mottoes). I wanted to thank you for your no-nonsense, honest site that both
Father’s Day Recommendations General by Joel Wagner - June 16, 2010May 28, 20130 This Sunday is Father's Day. It's not too late to buy that last-minute gift if you haven't already. I read at least four books this school year that were amazing. If your father reads and thinks, these would be ideal. :) I read some others, but some of them were music education related, and others just wouldn't be quite as Father's Day specific as these, so here we go... The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make A Big Difference by Malcolm Gladwell (Paperback available new for $9.35) Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking By Malcolm Gladwell (Paperback available new for $9.35) Outliers: The Story of Success by Malcolm Gladwell (Hardcover available new for $11.72) Outstanding!: 47 Ways to Make Your Organization Exceptional by
10 TEDTalks of Music Education Greatness [VIDEO] Music Education by Joel Wagner - June 15, 2010June 30, 20100 One of the greatest parts of being a band director is that what I do really matters. Beyond the students acquiring a skill of playing an instrument or working together as a team, there is this aesthetic element of education in the arts that is just absent in most every other line of education. I'm not discounting the importance of grammar or math or science or social studies or athletics or technology education or whatever else might be offered. Were it not for those, I wouldn't have the amazing opportunities that I have. Plus, Texas law says that students have to pass all of their classes in a grading period before they are even allowed to participate in extracurricular activities.
20 Year Reflection: What I Have Learned New Teachers by Kathryn Laster - June 14, 2010June 30, 20102 This is a guest post by Kathryn Laster, who teaches math in a suburb of Dallas, TX. She writes: This year was my 20th year of teaching, so my humble opinions qualify as part B of your "call for guest bloggers." I really started working on my formal philosophy as a grad school assignment, and I have been slowly tweaking it for several years. Since this was a milestone year for me, I thought it would be appropriate to really re-think and re-visit my philosophy, and your call for guests inspired me to do so. My brief resume: this year, I taught ESL algebra 1, pre-calculus, and AP calculus AB, and this is also my 10th
The Years Are Building Blocks: Part Five New Teachers by Drew - June 11, 2010June 30, 20100 This is a guest post by Drew, who currently teaches 7th Grade Texas History in the San Antonio area, where he has taught since 2004. Maybe this job doesn't pay enough for those with heavy material needs. But, working here has helped me with the most important part of my life. 10. Family – My comfort level with my material for class has improved each and every year. I spent Friday nights, usually until the wee Saturday morning hours, setting up lesson plans for the next week. I was never able to get ahead on my work. I had two preps and no lesson plans from other teachers to guide me. By November
The Years Are Building Blocks: Part Four New Teachers by Drew - June 10, 2010June 30, 20100 This is a guest post by Drew, who currently teaches 7th Grade Texas History in the San Antonio area, where he has taught since 2004. Shout out to my college roommates for always giving me a hard time about being cultured. Was I full of myself, or what? Nothing goes together better than Austin and music. 8. Music – I actually played Ted Nugent’s ‘Great White Buffalo’ in class because the song tells the story of buffalo from the Native American perspective. I didn’t think much of it until our 3-on-3 basketball tournament yesterday at TAKS celebration. One of the teams, 3 girls from one of my classes, made t-shirts at home and their team name was….White Buffaloes. I wonder if they'll
The Years Are Building Blocks: Part Three New Teachers by Drew - June 9, 2010June 30, 20100 This is a guest post by Drew, who currently teaches 7th Grade Texas History in the San Antonio area, where he has taught since 2004. A wise investment is just that. Find ways to invest in your school and yourself. 6. Next year – To complement our emphasis on relationships at school, I will be leading a field trip to Washington, D.C. in 2011. This requires advance planning and nothing matches the looks I get from the students who will be attending. You can just see the excitement in their eyes. In others there is dread because their parents and siblings will be joining them. 7. Professional Development – My personal fav. I did the first-ever book study with ATPE at www.atpe.org. I
The Years Are Building Blocks: Part Two New Teachers by Drew - June 8, 2010June 30, 20100 This is a guest post by Drew, who currently teaches 7th Grade Texas History in the San Antonio area, where he has taught since 2004. Here I discovered the proper use of multimedia and how proper procedures can help ensure mental well-being. 3. Movies – I have used movies in the past, but mostly to kill time. This year, I wrote some great questions for the movies I used. I suppose I set my expectations higher as far as how I used movies like ‘The Alamo’ or ‘National Treasure 2’. My students compared the information from our textbook to how Hollywood presents historical facts. Kudos to Nicolas Cage for the ‘hysterical’ side of the facts. 4. Procedures – I have
The Years Are Building Blocks: Part One New Teachers by Drew - June 7, 2010June 30, 20100 This is a guest post by Drew, who currently teaches 7th Grade Texas History in the San Antonio area, where he has taught since 2004. At the end of this, my sixth year, I have a few moments to reflect on the road taken. While I am looking at this year with the rose-colored glasses all teachers wear on the last day of school, I urge one and all to take whatever time necessary to enjoy all that you have accomplished this year. But do so as objectively as possible. All teachers have growing pains every year, but don’t let those get in the way of what you did right. In no particular order, here is what I
The Shift Personal by Joel Wagner - June 6, 2010June 30, 20102 The background It took me about three years. I heard rumblings of Twitter way back in the fall of 2006 when I was getting into blogs. "Who cares what you ate for lunch?" So I ignored it. I finally got on in the spring of 2008, but never really got around to doing too much with it until then. Evidently my first tweet was something about an enjoyable weekend. How fun. It was so much fun that I blogged about it. This all came less than two months after I reached a subscriber count of 150. I was excited. Fast forward Now even despite the incredible slowdown of RSS subscribers (and even RSS reading in general) due to Social Media,
Call for Guest Bloggers General by Joel Wagner - May 31, 2010June 30, 20101 I have a few things planned for the summer, but one thing I really would like to do is feature a series of articles by first-year teachers reflecting on their first year of teaching. If you have a blog, feel free to quote liberally from your posts throughout the year. If not, that's okay! You can write one post or even a handful of them. I'd really like to be able to get these thoughts out there and share them with future first-year teachers. Maybe you've been teaching for longer. Maybe you haven't. Either way, you are also welcome to submit guest posts. Anything that might remotely relate to teachers is welcome. For ideas from previous guest bloggers, check out
The Evolution of Marching – 2005-2009 [VIDEO] Music Education by Joel Wagner - May 29, 2010June 30, 20100 As we close out the school year and begin looking toward the summer, band directors turn their minds toward marching arts. This year, I'm going through some history and exploring The Evolution of Marching via YouTube. I'm taking you along for the journey as well. Now we come to the most modern marching shows available. Props continue to be more thoroughly integrated into the show, and the color guard continues to be used to add color and visual contrast, as well as actual actors in a story. Electronics are now integrated into the DCI shows as well, and we see the drum majors of Phantom Regiment's 2008 production being used as characters throughout the entire performance. Many corps are now
The Evolution of Marching – 1999-2004 [VIDEO] Music Education by Joel Wagner - May 28, 2010June 30, 20100 As we close out the school year and begin looking toward the summer, band directors turn their minds toward marching arts. This year, I'm going through some history and exploring The Evolution of Marching via YouTube. I'm taking you along for the journey as well. As we moved into the new millennium, the color guard moved further from the hornline and drumline as far as uniforms, but began to interact much more with the individual members. Where the early 90s has included an occasional soloist interacting with the guard, now large groups of the hornline were doing full out ballet moves and poses throughout the shows. Though it had been before, the marching show is now even more dance- and