Six Music Classroom Management Strategies Music Education by Joel Wagner - June 8, 2016June 15, 20160 I recently came across an article by Rachel Maxwell and Jessica Corry called Six Music Classroom Management Strategies. As I read through the list, I noticed many similarities to topics that I have covered frequently. If you find yourself teaching in a music classroom of any sort in the near future, I highly recommend checking out the original article. Teach, Model, and Reteach Routines Use Nonverbal Signals Keep Rules Simple Organize Your Space Play More, Talk Less Consistent Expectations
5 Reasons I Loved Teaching Middle School General by Joel Wagner - February 9, 2014July 3, 20161 This past summer was a whirlwind tour for me and someday I may share a bit about the amazing experiences I had traveling by myself across the country (including three nights stranded in airports, a fourth of July parade in a small town outside of Boston, following my beloved Texas Rangers to Saint Louis, New York, and Baltimore, a ride to the airport from Shelly Terrell, and an amazing time in some of this country's finest cities). But now is not the time for this. Now is the time to address the biggest change in my educational life. After 11 years of fighting in the trenches, I have finally moved on to the major leagues. I moved on from my previous
Why Experience Is The Best Teacher New Teachers by Joel Wagner - September 5, 2012May 28, 20160 "You'll understand when you're older." We tell that to our students, and they don't like. We hear it when we start out in the teaching world and we don't like. I remember an experienced band director told me once that he would tell me how to be a better teacher if he knew. He just knew that experience would help me get better. That frustrated me to no end. I'm a step-by-step guy (if you haven't noticed by reading other articles on this blog). "Just figure it out" is annoying to me. The way I like to figure things out is to look up the answers and work from there. "Experience is the best teacher" didn't quite do that for me. But...he was
10 Years of Teaching: How Do I Keep My Sanity? General by Joel Wagner - June 13, 2012May 28, 20161 Five years ago, I wrote a series of seven articles called “Questions That Will Save Your Career†that still remain among the most visited articles on this site. When I wrote those, I had successfully completed my 5th year in education. This summer, after 10 years, I am revisiting some of these older concepts. Today, I revisit How Do I Keep My Sanity? How Do I Keep My Students Quiet? How Do I Keep My Students Engaged? How Do I Keep My Students Interested? How Do I Keep My Students Learning? How Do I Keep My Students Away From Me? How Do I Keep My School Administration Happy? How Do I Keep My Sanity? 10 Years of Teaching: How Do
10 Years of Teaching: How Do I Keep My Students Quiet? Classroom Management by Joel Wagner - June 7, 2012June 16, 20162 Five years ago, I wrote a series of seven articles called "Questions That Will Save Your Career" that still remain among the most visited articles on this site. When I wrote those, I had successfully completed my 5th year in education. This summer, after 10 years, I am revisiting some of these older concepts. Today, I revisit How Do I Keep My Students Quiet? How Do I Keep My Students Quiet? How Do I Keep My Students Engaged? How Do I Keep My Students Interested? How Do I Keep My Students Learning? How Do I Keep My Students Away From Me? How Do I Keep My School Administration Happy? How Do I Keep My Sanity? 10 Years of Teaching: How
Help A New Student Teacher Out With Resources New Teachers by Joel Wagner - January 6, 2011January 6, 20118 KMB writes:I'm starting student teaching this Spring and would really like some advice, tips, and resources to help me out. I'm sure 12th graders are very bright, and I don't want to bore them. I also want to appear knowledgable and professional. Anyway, please contact me if you have any suggestions. Websites with lesson plans, blogs, the latest technology, etc. would all be helpful.As a middle school band director with limited experience coming up with lesson plans and really has lost touch with edublogs lately, I'm throwing this one out to my readers. Leave links and answers in the comments.
Where Have YOU Been? Personal by Joel Wagner - October 13, 20100 This school year is turning out to be pretty crazy in a lot of ways. I'm now in my ninth year of teaching and am working firsthand with a third year teacher on a regular basis teaching 6th grade beginner band. I also have the opportunity to work alongside a first year strings teacher, a second year choir teacher, and also in the same district as a first year band director. So my hands have been pretty full trying to fill the role of mentor in some ways with these folks.In addition, my efforts at running have slowed down substantially as I got a stress fracture on my foot in July, continued trying to run despite the pain (and reduced
Rookie Mistakes New Teachers by Joel Wagner - September 22, 2010September 25, 20102 This year I am in the position to be able to work relatively closely with two first-year teachers and a second-year teacher. I also am working full time with a third-year teacher. One of my primary objectives this year is to be able to talk through some of their challenges and hopefully offer some suggestions for how they can better grow as teachers through the process. I see them making a lot of the mistakes that I used to make. In my discussions with some of the more experienced folks around me, I hear them refer to these as rookie mistakes. We all make mistakes in our jobs on a daily basis. Some mistakes that we make are more normal than
10 TEDTalks of Music Education Greatness [VIDEO] Music Education by Joel Wagner - June 15, 2010June 30, 20100 One of the greatest parts of being a band director is that what I do really matters. Beyond the students acquiring a skill of playing an instrument or working together as a team, there is this aesthetic element of education in the arts that is just absent in most every other line of education. I'm not discounting the importance of grammar or math or science or social studies or athletics or technology education or whatever else might be offered. Were it not for those, I wouldn't have the amazing opportunities that I have. Plus, Texas law says that students have to pass all of their classes in a grading period before they are even allowed to participate in extracurricular activities.
Why I Removed Comments From My Blog Blogging & Technology by Joel Wagner - January 18, 2010June 30, 20100 This evening, I decided to do something I've been toying around with since the summer. I finally deleted comments from my blog entirely. Where it all began I began this blog as a hobby back in the spring of 2007, shortly after I began to learn more about the potential that blogs held. Life was much simpler back then. For one thing, I taught 6th grade beginning band only. My obligations outside of school were minimal, and the amount of time I spent in front of the computer was similarly low. Life was much simpler back then. I long for that again. Where it has taken me In the fall of 2007, I moved to the middle school where I
Dissection of a Band Director Music Education by Joel Wagner - January 8, 2010June 30, 20100 I saw this cartoon posted on The Yellow Board yesterday and thought some of my musician-type readers wouldappreciate it. The cartoon is by John Bogenschutz (www.johnmusic.com). Over the Christmas Break, a few of the band directors from around the area got together and played some quartets around town. I'm the only one who has played seriously since college, and it's been about 5 months since I did that too. We were all suffering by the time we got to the end of our gigging. So the "Wonders how much longer he can keep his streak of not touching an instrument going" comment really made me crack up when I first saw it. Anyway, I hope you enjoy Dissection of a
How Do We Show Our Students That We Love Them? Classroom Management by Joel Wagner - November 8, 2009May 30, 20160 When I was struggling to find hope early in my career as a teacher, I came across a few pieces of advice given by King Solomon from the Proverbs: He who spares his rod hates his son, But he who loves him disciplines him promptly. — Proverbs 13:24 This one jumped out at me as I realized I overlooked way too much misbehavior. I came to understand that by continually letting the students misbehave because I wanted them to like me was actually counter-productive and instead it made them respect me less. More than that, it showed me that whereas I thought I was being loving, I was actually being hateful. That helped me a whole lot as it set me on a
20 Ways I Really Use My iPhone To Teach Band Class Blogging & Technology by Joel Wagner - September 12, 2009October 3, 20104 On the day that the iPhone 3G was released, I rushed out to the local AT&T Store to pick up my very own. I was excited, so I rushed home and wrote 10 Awesome iPhone Apps (Band Director Style) and listed all of the cool things that I was going to download and use in class. Well, a year has passed and things have changed somewhat. So I thought I'd go back and look at the list. I was somewhat surprised to see how it has changed and how some of those apps never panned out to be what I thought they would be. Even so, I am thrilled at the purchase of my iPhone and continue to find it extremely
Building A Legacy Personal by Joel Wagner - August 11, 2009June 30, 20101 Legacy Main Entry: 1leg·a·cy Pronunciation: \?le-g?-s?\ Function: noun Inflected Form(s): plural leg·a·cies Etymology: Middle English legacie office of a legate, bequest, from Anglo-French or Medieval Latin; Anglo-French, office of a legate, from Medieval Latin legatia, from Latin legatus Date: 15th century 1 : a gift by will especially of money or other personal property : bequest 2 : something transmitted by or received from an ancestor or predecessor or from the past <the legacy of the ancient philosophers> My friend Junior writes: I’m proposing, my fellow Christian brother and sister bloggers, that we do a week of “Legacy Posts”. That is, a week of posts on topics important to us, that we wish everyone knew. Have you ever thought or said,
20 Classic SYWTT Articles And Series General by Joel Wagner - July 2, 2009May 29, 20161 If this is your first time visiting this site, or even if you’ve been reading for a while, there are undoubtedly some articles that you’ve missed along the journey. As I have been working a lot on organizing the site lately, it has come to my attention that there are over 400 posts on the site. This can be kind of daunting for a new reader to say the least. These are some of my favorite articles and series that I’ve written on the site. If you’ve read these, maybe you could check in and respond to a comment or two! Questions That Will Save Your Career Where Have All The Good Teachers Gone? The Best Time To Be A Teacher?