15 Tricks To Transform Yourself From Classroom Bully Into A Favorite Teacher

Ramona writes: I am a first year teacher struggling with classroom management at the elementary school level. I have some logistical challenges because I don’t have my own classroom and travel between classes and schools with a cart. I also have almost 300 different students I see every week. But mostly my problem is that … Read more

Why I Removed Comments From My Blog

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 … Read more

20 Classic SYWTT Articles And Series

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 … Read more

Flashback Friday

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 … Read more

The Art of Teaching Beginning Band

Greg recently commented on an article my site. As I typically do, I went to look at his blog Total Music Education and see what he’s all about. His blog intrigues me. I didn’t have time to read through his entire site, but what I can gather is that he is a music education student … Read more

The Fourth Year: Entering The Special Place

In the Band Director world, the fourth year in a school district is a special year. When I got my first job, I remember that it was my boss’ fourth year in that school district. Everything at the high school is more special during the fourth year than it has been in previous years. I … Read more

Shut Up And Teach!

I get so tired of hearing teachers complaining about No Child Left Behind. I get so tired of hearing teachers complain about administration. I get so tired of hearing teachers complain about parents. Shut up and teach! It’s a simple concept, but some teachers seem to derive greater joy from feeling victimized than they do … Read more

8 Methods For Recruiting People Into Your Program

As a band director dealing with beginning band, a substantial part of my energy each year is spent on recruiting 5th graders to be in band next year. I have generally done a pretty good job getting kids enrolled in the program, but this year I began to look at it from a marketing standpoint. … Read more