No Kidding… General by Joel Wagner - April 1, 2010June 30, 20101 Sorry, no April Fools Day jokes from me this year. But I am actually posting a little bit. Last night, I took my band to the UIL Concert and Sight-Reading contest and we got a Sweepstakes trophy. This means that at least two of the three judges for our concert program and two of the three judges for our sight-reading agreed that our band played superior and earned a first division. I'm so proud of them! Contact me via email and ask me for the link to the recordings. I have done a ton of thinking about this blog lately and I am determined that I will once again enable comments soon. I have the old ones, but I am
Cut the Cord Personal by Joel Wagner - February 27, 2010June 30, 20100 For the first time since started my blog three years ago, I am going to be taking a break for at least a month. No writing, no checking stats, no emails, no nothing. In fact, I'm pulling the plug on my cable modem as soon as I finish writing this. This is not just a blog issue, but I am going to be away from Facebook almost entirely for a month. In fact, I deleted Facebook from my phone a couple of weeks ago and noticed a substantial improvement to my productivity at work. My free time isn't spent checking to see who else is slacking off at work, but rather in avoiding the temptation to slack myself. I've
The Allocation Of Attention Personal by Joel Wagner - July 6, 2009June 30, 20107 Here is a brief summary of the last 19 months of my life. In December of 2007, I was getting ready for work one Friday morning. I got a phone call from one of the high school assistant band directors. He told me that the other middle school director I work with had a stroke and was at the hospital. This was a huge blow to the band program as he has been in the district longer than I've been alive. It also made for a difficult month for me that included taking two bands to the Christmas Parade the next day, taking each band to four elementary concerts on consecutive days the next week, and preparing both bands for
Flashback Friday General by Joel Wagner - May 1, 2009June 30, 20101 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 for the next available Monday. If I have a blogging article, I'll schedule it for the next available Wednesday. Or something along those lines. Here's the ideas I've come up with: Monday Music Monday - I am a band director. I haven't posted a whole lot about teaching band. I would like to overcome that and really begin to place a bit more emphasis on the
Last Minute UIL Concert & Sight Reading Preparations: 10 Things I Am Doing To Try To Get Sweepstakes Music Education by Joel Wagner - March 29, 2009June 30, 20108 This Thursday, I will be taking my Middle School band to our UIL Concert & Sight Reading contest. For those who don't understand how the band world works (and even for those who don't understand Texas UIL), here's sort of how it works. How UIL works I will be taking them to perform a concert program of three pieces that we've been working on since February. Following the concert, we go to the sight reading contest. In that, each band is allotted a certain amount of time to look at a brand new piece of music. As a director, I can spend the first part (four minutes for my band) talking them through it and pointing out key changes, accidentals,
Life Lesson 1: Experience Is The Best Teacher Personal by Joel Wagner - August 12, 2008August 5, 20163 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 where we have been. I recently turned 30 years old and have been thinking quite a bit about a great many topics. I think I will occasionally share some with the readers of So You Want To Teach? as I think they may prove helpful for others. Experience is the best teacher As much as we like to claim otherwise, most of the greatest learning that happens in
10 Awesome iPhone 3G Apps (Band Director Style) Blogging & Technology by Joel Wagner - July 11, 2008July 1, 20106 For an updated list of iPhone apps I actually use in band class after over year of use, check out 20 Ways I Really Use My iPhone To Teach Band Class I haven't gotten a new cell phone in the last two years, so I am excited about this opportunity to upgrade. My decision to buy an iPhone was anything but spur-of-the-moment. In fact, I have been planning on getting one for just about 5 months. I was going to get it shortly after my band earned Sweepstakes at the UIL Concert & Sight Reading contest back in April. But I heard rumors of a new version of iPhone coming out then, so I waited. I have been eagerly
07-08: What To Change Next Year General by Joel Wagner - June 17, 2008June 25, 20162 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: Change the focus - Winning is not the only thing that matters. In fact, winning is absolutely fun, but so is doing something well. One of my college professors was a big proponent of the concept that you teach music for the sake of teaching music. He said that when you do it right, the results will follow. I never earned a sweepstakes trophy in all my years of band, even though I was in a really
5 Tips To Putting The Pieces of Your Life Back Together General by Joel Wagner - April 15, 2008July 2, 20104 I recently took my band to the UIL Concert & Sight Reading competition. We worked hard on the music. We worked hard in after school sectionals. We worked hard on passing classes to retain eligibility. The end result was that the band got first division in the Concert portion of the contest, and first division in the Sight Reading portion. That combination is called Sweepstakes. Putting together a performance like this takes its toll on everyone involved. As a result, I have fallen behind on a number of things in my personal life. The most notable is my housekeeping.Since I conduct the second band, it is made up of mostly 7th graders. This was their first year to go to
Look Who’s Talking Now! General by Joel Wagner - April 7, 2008July 2, 20103 April is already shaping up to be a record-setting month for So You Want To Teach? We are well on our way to seeing 16,000 visitors or more this month. I am way behind on emails. Please forgive me! I am way behind on comments. I am way behind on reading other blogs. UIL is this Thursday. After that, things begin to resume some remote semblance or normalcy. Please don't expect me to begin catching up until Friday. The comments are taking off on here! I want to consider starting up a message forum and really transforming this site into a wealth of knowledge for teachers. I especially want to help out my new and prospective teacher buddies. According to
Whitespace General by Joel Wagner - March 15, 2008July 2, 20106 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. If I reduce the amount of noise that I make, my students will be more likely to hear the important things I tell them As I was talking with one of the classes on Friday about the incredible importance of the rests, I made a correlation about how we don't like rests because people really don't like silence. In the visual arts, typography, and graphic
Hyper-Focus Fosters Higher Quality Output Blogging & Technology by Joel Wagner - February 11, 2008July 2, 20107 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. I'm excited. That convention marks the beginning of the heavy push as we prepare for the UIL Concert & Sight Reading contest, which will be held in early April. It also signifies the end of my relaxed life. The next two months will be extremely hectic and crowded for me as I focus on making sure that everything is taken care of as I prepare
Anxiety Sets In As The New School Year Looms Ominously Close General by Joel Wagner - August 11, 2007June 25, 20160 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 to begin the school year. We started our middle school band camp this past Monday and it is so much fun there. As I've mentioned before, these are students that I taught in 6th grade. I am moving from the sixth grade campus to the 7th & 8th grade campus this year. It's so much fun for me to see all of these kids whom I