joel In the recent blog post 10 Habits of People Who Always Have Great Ideas, Ideapod author Lachlan Brown highlights 10 characteristics of creative people. I encourage you to go read the article. As I was reading through the list, I was struck by two thoughts: “Hey, those are all habits I cultivate in my life!” and … Read more
Research abounds regarding the incredible benefits of music education. The University of Florida has put together an infographic called “Why Music? The Many Benefits of a Musical Education.”Among the benefits listed Benefits to the brain and general learning skills The benefits listed include verbal intelligence, reading skills, fine motor skills, abstract thinking, vocabulary acquisition, and memory. Benefits … Read more
Do you ever feel alone in your quest to become a teacher? Well, the truth is that finding a teaching job can be lonely, but it is not a unique experience. Over the next few weeks, I will be curating Resource Posts that will serve as a springboard for digging deeper into specific topics that have been … Read more
Most teachers came to their first teaching job with some beliefs that we have since learned were not true. This article explores ten of those teaching myths.
Well, I hope you’re having a nice productive weekend and are ready to get a new week started. I know that we have some international readers, but in the United States, we are celebrating Independence Day this weekend. While you have some time left in the weekend, here are some cool things you can fill it with. A … Read more
Great teachers Many people live their lives without impacting more than a few hundred people. Teachers often make that kind of impact over the course of one year. This kind of responsibility can be intimidating, and is one of the main reasons that I continually encourage my readers to strive toward being great teachers. This infographic below looks at … Read more
By far one of the most successful early posts on this blog was 6 Motivation Techniques. I wrote it in March of 2007, as I was approaching the end of my fifth year of teaching. Now more than nine years later, I realize I was onto some good ideas, but I was off base. In … Read more
Another school year has come and gone. For many of us, it was a year of a few huge successes, a few colossal failures, and a whole lot of in-betweens. This article discusses how those colossal failures can propel you toward being a much better version of yourself. Every failure is an opportunity I love … Read more
Summertime is in full swing. That means that many new teachers search for their first job, and many more experienced teachers look for a new job. The interview is an inevitable part of the job hunt. For many pre-service teachers, a teaching job interview is the first real job interview they have ever had. But interviews often lead to rejection. The good … Read more
You want me to teach what? Imagine my surprise the first day of my job one year when I found out that I was teaching Music History and that there was no curriculum for the class, no budget for it, and no textbook. The class was used to fulfill the fine arts credit that student needed to graduate, … Read more