Life Lesson 1: Experience Is The Best Teacher

This article is the first in a series of “life lessons” exploring some of the things that I have learned over the years. In this one, we explore the concept that experience is the best teacher. Life has with it certain milestones that we reach and we stop briefly to analyze where we are going and … Read more

Freedom And 50 Other Things That Make Me Happy

Freedom from oppression Doing what I love and making money for it Freedom of faith The Bible Hymns My family My friends My dogs My home My blog Clarinet Learning The opportunity to learn Dave Ramsey My iPod My laptop Summer “break” Spring break Christmas break Trumpet My students Making music Mariachi Text messages My … Read more

Whitespace

Have you noticed that People   really   don’t   like     As I prepare my bands for the UIL Concert & Sight Reading contest that is now less than a month away, I have noticed that they seem to have a big problem with rests. For the uninitiated, rests in music represent silence. … Read more

Hyper-Focus Fosters Higher Quality Output

Get your commenting skills ready, there’s lots of material to be discussed here. I will be offline for most of this coming week and would love to hear the thoughts of my readers on these subjects. This week, I will be traveling to San Antonio for the annual Texas Music Educators Association clinic and convention. … Read more

Loving My Job; Hating My Work

Even if you ignore the majority of this article, check out the last sentence. I am absolutely loving school since coming back from Christmas Break. Even so, I am beginning to get burned out. If you want to know why, go read this. He’s still not back yet and it’s all but certain that he … Read more

Reader Appreciation: Athena

November is Reader Appreciation Month at So You Want To Teach? Today’s featured reader is Athena. Name: Athena Location: South Texas Occupation: ELA 9th & 10th grade Blog: http://athena81469.blogspot.com/ Tell me some of your favorite things about your job I like the freedom of the job. I used to be in a cube job where … Read more

65 Things You Should Do Right Now To Avoid Teacher Burnout

This past Tuesday, I took a day off of school. This is not normal for me, and I even had to fight my urge to go up to school and make sure things were running smoothly. I even drove up to the school and chose not to get out of the car. Why? Because I … Read more

Reader Appreciation: Eric Turner

November is Reader Appreciation Month at So You Want To Teach? Today’s featured reader is Eric Turner. Name: Eric Turner Location: Tennessee Occupation: History/Secondary Ed Student Blog: Secondhand Thoughts Tell me some of your favorite things about your job I love learning and I love the interaction between professor and students Tell me some things … Read more

5 Ways To Win When Children Test Your Limits

I’m taking a break today from my Stress Reduction series and getting back to some real teaching issues. That’s why we’re here anyway, right? So August and September have come and gone with great behavior. Now the students are beginning to do a lot more testing of the limits. It’s been a while since I … Read more

Anxiety Sets In As The New School Year Looms Ominously Close

The new school year is two weeks and two days away. This time last year, our week of inservices was well under way. Thanks to the Texas legislature, we will not begin staff development until August 20th and are not allowed to begin school before August 27th. That’s fine with me, but I am ready … Read more