Texas Bandmasters Association 2010: Miscellaneous Thoughts Day 1 Music Education by Joel Wagner - July 27, 2010July 27, 20101 This week, I am in San Antonio for the Texas Bandmasters Association convention. I attended some really good sessions and took a few notes on my iPhone. Without spending a lot of time to expand on these notes right now, I thought I would post them so maybe someone else can benefit from them. After the convention, I'll sit down later and flesh them out a bit more. Here's Day 1. Raise your level of absurdity. If something doesn't sound stupid, you won't address it.Come up with a warmup rotation. Same concepts per day of week. Lip flexibility, scales, tone production, articulations, intervals/listeningSame with journals. Music appreciation, rhythmic dictation, music/rhythm copying, free writing, theory exercisesAll bad behavior is fear-based. Fear
20 WordPress 2.7 Plugins You Can’t Live Without Blogging & Technology by Joel Wagner - June 6, 2009June 30, 20105 I have gotten questions from time to time about what plugins I use on my blog. I've posted some plugin lists in the past, but sometimes plugins are no longer supported by their author or else the functionality is duplicated in later WordPress versions. So here are 20 WordPress 2.7 Plugins You Can't Live Without. Advanced Excerpt Excerpts allow more articles to show up on the home page, while still not allowing too many links (Search Engines don't like more than 100 links on a page) or too much clutter. Advanced Excerpt lets me customize how many words or characters appear before the cut as well as letting me choose which HTML elements to strip from the code entirely.
Find A Motivator (Total Teacher Transformation Day 5) Inspiration by Joel Wagner - May 7, 2009June 30, 20102 This is an article in the Total Teacher Transformation series. Click here for a complete table of contents. Yesterday we looked at making phone calls and using parent pressure as a motivator for classroom management. Today, we're going to go with a slightly more high-brow alternative, and one that tends to be more effective over the long run. Hopefully by now, you have begun to exercise a little more control in your classroom. I was telling a friend the other day that when I teach, it's sort of like I'm acting. I assume the roll of Benevolent Dictator of the classroom. I mentally tell myself that I am in control of the classroom, and I make sure that the students know that
06-07: What To Change Next Year General by Joel Wagner - June 5, 2007July 5, 20100 As we begin the summer vacation, I am looking back on what went really well this year, what didn’t work so well, and what needs to change for next year. Below are some of the changes that I intend to implement next year:Create a peaceful work environmentI have already changed the office setting in the new school where I will be. I have a clear desk my computer. and strive to keep it that way. I have a very calming desktop wallpaper and a clean desktop on my computer.RELAX MOREI seem to take things too seriously much of the time. I get bent out of shape when people don't do what I want them to do. Instead, I will do