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Goal-Setting 101: 4 Essential Elements of All Life-Altering Goals

by Joel Wagner - 0

In the past I've come up with New Year's Resolutions, and more recently Visions for the Year. They sort of helped to guide the first four to six weeks of the year, but rarely have lasted much beyond that. This year is different. This year I'm for real. I've decided to create a BHAG - a Big, Hairy, Audacious Goal - for myself. I am making active steps in moving forward on the goal, and I am setting myself up to either win big or fail big. It will not be a quiet ending, whichever way things pan out. But I'm getting ahead of myself. The first thing I'll do is go over the basics of goal-setting, and then give

It’s The End Of The Year…Let’s Act Like Fools!

by Joel Wagner - 3

Is it just me, or do students seem to get to the end of the year and begin ignoring rules and classroom procedures that have been established all year long? This is my first time at my current middle school and it's worse than anywhere else I've taught before. Already. And TAKS is next week, followed by six weeks of school. I hear they'll get way worse. What are some strategies you use to keep the students on task as they seem to shut down at this point in the year?

Not The Best Day Ever

by Joel Wagner - 10

Today was a pretty good day in parts. In fact, most of my classes went really well. Except for my percussion class. It has been bad since the middle of December. This is slightly abnormal for me, but the following post is a narrative with a question and plea for help at the end. Why is my percussion class getting out of hand? Because I have two different groups of students in there. Since the director I work with had a stroke, I have been the only band director at my school. This makes my work load heavier, but manageable for the most part. The percussion is the exception because it is a combination of percussionists from two different bands.

One of THOSE Days

by Joel Wagner - 4
One of THOSE Days

This may well be the first time I have written about my teaching life without really setting out a solution or providing much helpful information. Let me know what you think. Last Friday, the other band director I work with had a mild stroke. He is recovering and is at home resting now. The doctors told him to not return to work for six weeks. As you might imagine, Christmas is a terrible time for band directors to be out like this. I got to take his band on a Christmas Tour on Thursday, and my band today. We have to make arrangements with other band directors to come over from other campuses to cover the classes that are here and need

Reader Feedback

by Joel Wagner - 4

I spent Saturday morning playing catchup with a lot of work that I had allowed to pile up. One of the things I did was to move the graphic I received from Eric up to the top of my sidebar. I also added some new graphics and removed some information If you haven't looked at the main page on my blog, click on this post in your reader, click on Home at the top of my blog, and leave me some feedback about the graphics and stuff I added. I know that I have a handful of readers who frequently leave comments on here. You guys are awesome! I also know that I have a small army of readers who

06-07: What To Change Next Year

by Joel Wagner - 0

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

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