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Tag: Teaching

February 2007

by Joel Wagner - 3

On February 11th, 2007 I wrote the first blog post that is included in the archives of So You Want To Teach? I didn 't actually set up the blog on this domain until June, but I thought that since the blog was now over a year old (at least as far as some of the content), I'd go back and take a look at some of the old stuff. By the way, none of them have any comments at this point... If you have a blog, you can direct some of that traffic your way simply by writing a good, thought-provoking comment 5 Keys To Educating People February 11, 2007 Classroom Management: The Key To Your Success

Slow Down!

by Joel Wagner - 6
Slow Down!

I realized some things today There will never be enough time to do everything I want to do There will never be enough money to do everything I want to do There will never be enough people to do everything I want to do The music will never sound good enough Kids will continue to fail their classes, no matter how important I tell them that passing is Parents will never be happy enough with everything I do in the classroom I will never be caught up on paperwork But ya know what else I realized? That's part of the enjoyment of the process. If I didn't have anything to do, I wouldn't be necessary. Meaningless tasks don't bring fulfillment, no matter

Apologizing

by Joel Wagner - 3

So on Tuesday, I wrote about an incident I had where I was awfully sarcastic with a student and it upset him. I received some great comments. The conversation is continuing over there. If you haven't chimed in, now would be a great time to do so. And better yet, subscribe to receive comments so you don't have to keep going back to check and recheck. So what did I do? How did I respond on Wednesday? Well, basically, I started out the percussion class by having them all sit in a row. I got them quiet and talked with them some. I asked them what some things were that they would change. As I expected, the most common responses

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.

Top 10 Things I Learned This Year At TMEA

by Joel Wagner - 1

I returned home from the Texas Music Educators Association clinic and convention this weekend. It was different TMEA experience for me than what I have been accustomed to in the past. One of the primary reasons for this was because I desperately needed the vacation more than I have in the past. If you've been following my blog, you know that the band director with whom I work had a stroke in December and has now been out for 8 weeks of classes. The workload I have is not more than I can handle at any given time, but when combined, it adds up and has been taking its toll on me. He anticipates being back before spring break. Only

Hyper-Focus Fosters Higher Quality Output

by Joel Wagner - 7

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

Why I Hated Teaching During My First Two Years

by Joel Wagner - 17

Newby writes: I have noticed lately in a couple of your posts you mentioned how terrible your first couple of years of teaching were. As a new reader, I have gone back into your archived information to learn more about this blog but have not come across why you had such a hard time. What made your first years so difficult? As a teacher with more years under your belt, do you think those experiences helped make you a better teacher or would you just as well forget about them altogether? What made my first years so difficult? I think there were a few factors that made my first year difficult. I didn't know how to control the class I am a firm believer

Reflections on December and January

by Joel Wagner - 3

My life has changed quite a bit since December 1st. Today, I want to look back on some of the things that have happened in the life of this blog, as well as some things that have happened in the life of Joel. Blogging changes The number of readers continues to climb (164 as of Friday). It seems that the number is doubling every three to four months. If this growth continues, I'll be looking at a readership of somewhere around 300 by the end of the school year, and 600 by the end of 2008. I hosted the 148th Carnival of Education on December 5th, and the 152nd Carnival of Education on January 2nd. I launched my redesigned

Ask Joel

by Joel Wagner - 3

Lately, I have noticed a larger number of prospective and newer teachers leaving comments to my various articles. This has helped inspire me to offer what advice I can in a (hopefully) weekly question and answer forum. For lack of creativity, we'll call it "Ask Joel" and begin next week. Any question is fair game, whether it's about about teaching, classroom management, band directing, blogging, or whatever else! Email me and let me know your questions. I will choose from the questions I receive and post answers to them on Fridays. Why do this? Well, first of all, it makes me think more in-depth about certain topics. After my terrible first couple of years of teaching, I have blocked some

Clinicians

by Joel Wagner - 2

In the band world, we have a whole concept of bringing in a clinician. This is basically a chance for us to get another, more experienced teacher to come in and tell our kids all the same stuff we've been telling them in a different way. Until this morning, I hadn't realized how easily this kind of thing benefits me as a teacher and how something similar might help pretty much every teacher out there. I am fortunate in that my current situation has forced me to spend at least a couple of months by myself working with two bands and a mariachi. Our district has put in and found some money to bring in a retired band director for

The Top 10 Rejected Meanings of TAKS

by Mister Teacher - 3

This is a guest post by Mister Teacher of Learn Me Good. Mister Teacher teaches third grade near Dallas, TX. Greetings, faithful readers of So You Want to Teach? Do not attempt to change the channel! We have taken control of the vertical; we have taken control of the horizontal; we have taken control of clichés and tag lines from old 60’s sci-fi television shows. Joel has graciously offered me the opportunity to write a guest post here on his blog. So I suppose I should take a moment to identify myself. My name is Mister Teacher, and I have a drinking problem. No wait, now's not the time to say that. Let me

Loving My Job; Hating My Work

by Joel Wagner - 8

Even if you ignore the majority of this article, check out the last sentence. I am absolutely loving school since coming back from Christmas Break. Even so, I am beginning to get burned out. If you want to know why, go read this. He's still not back yet and it's all but certain that he will not be coming back next week either. Still no clue when I can expect him.I wrote an email to my principal today, some edited excerpts follow: I love teaching and I love rehearsing the bands, but I am very tired. The students suffer as a result. More than anything else, that is what breaks my heart about the whole situation. It’s not that I

8 Ways Blogging Makes Me A Better Teacher

by Joel Wagner - 9

I have found this year that I have been making a lot of progress on my own personal teaching style. It's my 6th year to teach, and I begin what could be seen as the downhill slope of teaching. Now that I am pretty adequate at getting children to be and stay quiet throughout class so that I can teach them, I run the risk of slacking off and stagnating in my teaching technique. The whole if it's not broke, don't fix it mentality could very easily take over. But that's not the case with me. Why not? I believe that a lot of it has to do with my own personality of one who pursues excellence. But I think

Self-Sufficient Students

by Joel Wagner - 7

Recently, one of the other teachers sent the following email out to everyone at my campus: Self-sufficient – able to take care of your own needs without help from others Colleagues, over the next several weeks I will be using some of my sponge time to explore the idea of self-sufficiency in school and at home. We have already learned the definition and brainstormed some examples. Now I am soliciting ideas from you. If you had to name one or two ways in which you wish your students were more self-suffcient, what would it be? If you have been successful in teaching your students to be more self-sufficient in school, what method did you use? My personal

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