2008 was the first full calendar year that I ran this blog. It saw its ups and downs, and in some senses, it was a sort of anticlimactic year as far as my personal blogging habits went. Nevertheless, So You Want To Teach? continued to flourish. January began with my hosting the Carnival of Education. … Read more
Okay okay. So I’m a band director. Why would anyone listen to me anyway. I’m just an elective teacher. My friend JD2718 emailed me and told me about some stuff that he does in his math class. So even if you ignore my advice about classroom management, maybe some of his advice about keeping students … Read more
Please don’t tell me this picture represents your views! As a teacher, and specifically as a band director, I am not a big fan of Mondays. As a worker, I really love Monday. Why? Great question. Why I don’t like Mondays Kids generally don’t practice over the weekend. This means that part of Monday is … Read more
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 … Read more
Found these on the Yellow Board. Enjoy. If you’re a band director (especially in Texas) and you don’t read the Yellow Board, you should. Q: If athletes get athletes foot, what do astronauts get? A: Missletoe! Q: What do you get when you cross a snowman with a vampire? A: Frostbite. Q: Why was Santa’s … Read more
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 … Read more
Miss A writes about a student she has who is being tested for Asperger’s. She has had some difficulties with him lately. I responded: Just curious…how much do you know about Aspregers? It is similar to autism (both disabilities are different levels of Pervasive Development Disorders). While the student may be using the disability as … Read more
Reader Appreciation Month didn’t quite turn out the way I had envisioned it would. That is primarily my fault. As I sit here, I realize there are some things that I used to do with blogging that I don’t do any longer. I have decided it’s time for me to change some things. You may … Read more
When I began turning my band around during my second year, I received some of the best advice ever from one of my former band directors. He noted that he had observed three Rehearsal Skills that were lacking in most bad bands. These same three Rehearsal Skills are present in most great bands. The three … Read more