I’ve been thinking lately about trying to have each day be a sort of theme day. I don’t intend on posting every day (that’s not realistic for me at this time), but I would like for things to be a bit better aligned. So for instance, if I write a list article, I’ll schedule it for the next available Monday. If I have a blogging article, I’ll schedule it for the next available Wednesday. Or something along those lines. Here’s the ideas I’ve come up with:

Monday
Music Monday – I am a band director. I haven’t posted a whole lot about teaching band. I would like to overcome that and really begin to place a bit more emphasis on the whole music teaching thing. Or even on various music-related concepts. I wonder how many people out there would be interested in music history-related stuff, or even in learning more about just some of the things that us music folk take for granted. I’m constantly surprised by how amazed people are when they come into my band hall and see what all we actually do.

Examples

• The Art of Teaching Beginning Band
• Last Minute UIL Concert & Sight Reading Preparations: 10 Things I Am Doing To Try To Get Sweepstakes
• Overhaul Your Clarinet Section
• Positive Steps To Fix A Problematic Band

Tuesday
Teaching  Tips Tuesday – These will usually be lists, but more in-depth. These articles will be focused more on the specifics of how to be a better teacher. These will include classroom management issues,

Examples

• 10 Keys To Unlocking The Best Possible Student Teaching Semester Ever
• How Do I Keep My Students Quiet?
• How Do I Keep My Students Learning?
• How Do I Keep My School Administration Happy?

Wednesday
List day – I use lists quite a bit in my writing, but these would be simply lists. No further development or anything, just lists of related items.

Examples

• 101 Reasons To Be Thankful
• 50 Classroom Management Tips I Have Learned This Month
• 50 Reasons To Love Your Job As A Teacher
• 65 Things You Should Do Right Now To Avoid Burnout
• Make A Two Year Commitment, And 100 Other Great Teaching Tips

Thursday
Technology Thursday – I sort of started this today. I posted a question on Twitter last night, and copied the question to the blog this morning. I’ve been collecting answers throughout the day and will post the results later on. This would also be when I go über nerd and just throw out some blog design tips (CSS/PHP style), or maybe even an occasional Facebook debate.

Examples

• 8 Ways Blogging Makes Me A Better Teacher
• 10 WordPress 2.7 Hacks That Make My Blog Totally Rock Out
• Poll: Why Do You Teach — In 140 Characters
• Twitter Guide for Teachers

Friday
Flashback Friday – With nearly 400 articles in the archives here, I know that a lot of the great material gets overlooked by most of the new readers. One thing that is discouraging to a lot of newer bloggers is to write great stuff and not get any comments. I was there. I would love to see some conversation resurface on some of those older posts. Each Friday, I’d like to dig deeper into a specific topic and find some of those articles that really relate to that theme and bring them back up.

Examples

• The Essence of Hope
• Flashback Friday
• Help! I’m On The Verge of Burnout!!! Do I Quit Teaching Or What Do I Do?
• New Teacher Survival Kit
• Survival Kit For Teachers Looking To Relocate

Weekends 
Free-for-all – Instead of going off-topic every day sometimes as I tend to do, I’ll keep the off-topic stuff limited to weekends. These may also include addressing reader questions, or whatever else I feel like. Sending you out to other blogs to meet some new people, job-hunting things, whatever I feel like. Guest posts may also happen on weekends.

Examples

• Are Classroom Rules Needed?
• Make Love not War – How to Control an Unruly Class
• The Total Résumé Makeover
• Where Do You Want To Teach? Navigating U.S. State Educator Certification Criteria

Joel Wagner

Joel Wagner (@sywtt) began teaching band in 2002. Though he had a lot of information, his classes were out of control. He found himself tired, frustrated, disrespected by students, lonely, and on the brink of quitting. He had had enough. He resigned from his school district right before spring break of his second year and made it his personal mission to learn to be a great teacher. So You Want To Teach? is the ongoing story of that quest for educational excellence.