The Allocation Of Attention Personal by Joel Wagner - July 6, 2009June 30, 20107 Here is a brief summary of the last 19 months of my life. In December of 2007, I was getting ready for work one Friday morning. I got a phone call from one of the high school assistant band directors. He told me that the other middle school director I work with had a stroke and was at the hospital. This was a huge blow to the band program as he has been in the district longer than I've been alive. It also made for a difficult month for me that included taking two bands to the Christmas Parade the next day, taking each band to four elementary concerts on consecutive days the next week, and preparing both bands for
10 Things You Can Do To Spend Less Money This Summer Personal by Joel Wagner - June 30, 20097 A friend from college recently posted the following on her Facebook status:How do teachers not spend so much money over the summer???I threw a quick response in my typical list-type style, but then I realized these things might benefit some of my readers as well. So here's the list I gave her:Go to dollar movies (actually first run movies are $3 where I live)Find a friend who works on the country club and go play golf for free on his days offPractice guitar (for church) and trumpet (for mariachi)Go to the park (disc golf is cheap)Budget and use cash for all purchasesOur bowling alley has $1 Tuesdays and buy one get one free on Mondays -- there may be similar
Almost Finished Personal by Joel Wagner - June 2, 2009June 30, 20100 We are halfway through the Total Teacher Transformation series. I've been pretty much forced to take a break from it because of the busyness of the end of the school year. It will resume next week. This week, I plan to do a wrapup of the 08-09 school year. I just thought I should drop all of you a note to thank you for continuing to visit and link to my blog and also let you know I am still alive...
Really Cool Personal Finance ebook Personal by Joel Wagner - May 9, 2009June 30, 20100 Do you teach economics? I challenge you to use this in your class. Everything You Ever Really Needed to Know About Personal Finance On Just One Page Okay, it's actually a 49-page ebook that explains the one page, but it is well worth a review. It is tragic how many of us got out of high school without truly understanding simple financial concepts. You know, Spend less than you earn, live frugal, earn money, live with the future in mind (avoid credit cards), and follow your dreams.
Joel’s Simple Homemade Salsa Recipe Personal by Joel Wagner - May 5, 2009June 30, 20103 All right. This is completely off topic, but since today is Cinco de Mayo and since I have lived on the Texas-Mexico border for about five years now, I felt like it was an appropriate time to share with you this incredible salsa recipe that I learned after I moved here. The coolest thing about it is that it is all fresh and natural ingredients. At least they are simple to find for me living here on the border. You may have to shop around for a few of them, but it's so worth it! Ingredients Tomatoes (about 4 small) I usually use one can of stewed whole tomatoes, but you can go with fresh ones as
Twitter And 35 Other Ways To Kill Productivity Personal by Joel Wagner - April 28, 2009June 30, 201010 Here are some quick things that you can do with now that will help you fall further behind in your workload. MySpace Facebook Check your email Edit your blog design Check your blog stats Catch up on RSS Watch TV Watch a movie Take a nap Drive around aimlessly Daydream Window shop Listen to music Take a walk Go to the park Go out to eat with friends Spend your lunch break talking Call a friend Call your mom Read a fiction book Read a magazine Fly a kite Sort your clothes Watch a baseball game Play a video game Surf the internet Read blogs Write in your blog Write an email Text Chat Comment Blog Sign up
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
Falling Behinder Personal by Joel Wagner - January 28, 2009June 30, 20103 Despite my best efforts, my computer has crashed. It's old and the thing was running pretty slowly. I have reinstalled Windows and am in the slow process of getting things back up to speed. But -- needless to say, I am not going to be able to get the weekly review of the Student Teaching thing done. Looks like that will be a sort of double thing for this weekend.
Falling Behind Personal by Joel Wagner - January 25, 2009June 30, 20105 I have an admission. If you've emailed me in the last year or so, you may have caught on. The thing is...I am behind. On like everything. With work, church, and mariachi, I tend to remain pretty busy. But when I'm home, often I will sit here looking at blogs, playing catchup in Google Reader or my email, checking my blog stats, checking out Facebook, chatting with friends, and doing all sorts of time-wasting things. These things are all right in and of themselves, but when combined, they lead to me neglecting things such as basic housekeeping, laundry, filing my bills, cooking, and even sleeping. Then I find a burst of energy, sit down, start sorting through my emails, and
Personal Questions Personal by Joel Wagner - January 18, 2009June 30, 20104 Calebteaches got me thinking about this today. How old are you? Do you have a girlfriend? Do you have a MySpace? I love working with middle school kids. When I was teaching 6th grade, I got a lot of these weird questions. Now that I'm working with 7th & 8th graders, I get less of them, but the rumors become more elaborate. A couple of weeks ago, one of my 7th graders asked me if I was going out with a band director at another school in our district. I told her no. But as I thought about it, I realized this is probably the best rumor that I've ever heard floating around about me. Much better than the typical
18 Again Personal by Joel Wagner - December 30, 2008July 1, 20100 I saw a great post on The Yellow Board today. The author asks a simple question: This is a little "out there", but let's say you could go back in time and and meet yourself when you were 18. You could tell yourself one thing, and zap, you were back to the present. What one thing would you tell yourself, even if it changed the present? I thought about this and decided I would let "me" know about Sept.11,01. What about you? I hope you don't tell yourself not to be a band director or to buy stock in Microsoft. What would help the world or others instead of just you? My response would be, "Avoid debt entirely." If I
Since You’re In The Kitchen… Personal by Joel Wagner - December 22, 2008July 1, 20100 This has very little to do with education, but the concept is brilliant and bears sharing. Foodista is a cookbook with a wiki approach. Some of the cool features include: User-generated and user-edited recipes Easily link to recipes from your blog Click on an ingredient, and find recipes that include that ingredient For instance, here is a link to a recipe for Christmas Pudding. Feel free to explore the site while you have some time off for the Christmas Break!
Just How Important Is Excellence? Personal by Joel Wagner - December 13, 2008July 1, 201011 I love competition. I thrive on competition. I love being able to get a group of kids to create a powerfully musical performance. These are tremendous things. But I have come to realize that this is not the most important thing we can do. If we lose sight of why we are in education and focus solely on winning (having the most kids pass TAKS, getting more kids in the all region choir, having an undefeated volleyball season, or whatever), we miss out on an opportunity for some of the greatest education we can provide. As a band director, I struggle to ensure that my pursuit of musical excellence does not overtake my desire to provide a high quality education
A Modern Retelling of an Ageless Classic [VIDEO] Personal by Joel Wagner - December 2, 2008July 1, 20101 I love the visual effects employed here. Note the extensive use of whitespace. Greatness! Oh yeah, the message is incredible too.
101 Reasons To Be Thankful Personal by Joel Wagner - November 27, 2008July 1, 20100 Salvation by grace alone, through faith (Ephesians 2:8) Heaven Opportunities to preach Playing music Writing music Creating music My pastor My church Having the best job in the world My students My students' parents My hearing My intellect Air conditioning Heaters Running water Health Health insurance Life insurance Paychecks Freedom from discrimination Freedom from starvation Freedom from religious persecution Freedom from torture The Declaration of Independence The Constitution The United States of America Gospel For Asia Waking up this morning Stars Mountains Flowers Sunlight Moonlight Birds singing Silence Tacos tapatios Making salsa Breakfast tacos Oatmeal raisin cookies Pineapple empanadas Singing at the top of my lungs when nobody is looking or listening Google Calendar Google Reader My readers Comments