Tales From The Podium

Teacher gets $142K Raise, But You Can Win $25K For Your Music Room!

2007-06-10T18:27:00.000-07:00

All across the nation teachers complain about low salaries and often lower morale. In New York, there is at least one college professor that will not be complaining any time soon, although it does perhaps give the rest of us even more to gripe about. Ask yourself, what would you do with a 142k raise? PROF'S RECORD 142G PAY HIKE Ever had a problem remembering the title of a song even though

Why Is Classical Music a White Man's Game?

2007-05-02T18:49:00.001-07:00

When you stop to think about it, how often have you played (or even heard) a piece of music by anyone other than the stereotypical dead (or living) caucasion composer? There are hundreds of works out there by highly talented and respected black composers and musicians but aside from jazz music, can you name even a single one? On Wednesday, the Philadelphia Inquirer published an article by

Band Trip Bus Crash That Killed Five- Final Jury Verdict Rendered

2007-05-01T19:07:00.000-07:00

Two years ago a bus crash in Wisconsin left five people dead and dozens more injured as a semi-trailer truck rolled itself on Interstate 94, later being hit by the oncoming school bus filled with students and chaperones returning from a band trip. After years of waiting and over thirty criminal charges being levied against him, the

Innocent Mistake May Cause Suspension of Band Student

2007-04-30T00:01:00.000-07:00

Sometimes I wonder if terror fears have completely destroyed common sense in both public education and in public security. In the featured story today a student is facing suspension over a pocketknife found in his carry-on luggage during a band trip. The knife was left in the bottom of a pocket and left-over from a camping trip years earlier. I will be interested to see how this all turns out.

Two Band Directors Indicted For Same Crime

2007-04-28T22:03:00.000-07:00

Band directors indicted at Alton High School (The Telegraph) EDWARDSVILLE ? The marching band director at Alton High School and his chief assistant were each indicted by a Madison County grand jury Thursday on charges of battery, alleging the teachers made inappropriate physical contact with one or more female students during incidents in the last two years. Other Music Education News Headlines:

Load 'em Up!

2006-07-29T20:01:00.000-07:00

It took us five hours to load the truck and trailer from Uhaul with seven people helping me. Thank God for the Schlarmann family and for Mike (the band director that is taking my place at my old school). If it were not for them I think I would have gone insane. I pushed my father a bit too far I think. There was a time when moving me around was no big deal, but in the last ten years diabetes

Ease on down the road

2006-07-28T19:05:00.000-07:00

I just completed the biggest move of my life. Three kids, my wife, my dog, and a house full of belongings just made the big trip to a new community over three hours away from our old home. Of course, we picked the absolute worst weekend of the summer to move. Heat indexes have been up around 105 or higher every day this week and doing anything outside is an exercise in exhaustion. To top it

National Board Certification and Student Achievement

2006-07-10T07:15:00.000-07:00

A recent study seems to suggest that teachers that have gone the extra mile to become certified by the National Board For Professional Teaching Standards may not necessarily teach better or increase student achievement more than non-certified teachers. The study has apparently caused some controversy with some professionals arguing that the National Board is "sitting" on the results of a recent

You've Been Doing It All Wrong!

2006-06-25T12:05:00.000-07:00

I admit it, I am a very novice web master. I know a lot about content management systems and databases, but until recently I have not paid a lot of attention to my actual writing. Now I am starting to realize that I could write the best articles in the world for Musicedmagic.com and still no one would notice. In order for me to get people to look at my web site I not only have to write for my

What? No More Halftime Shows?

2006-06-17T23:15:00.000-07:00

After months of searching and praying for a new job in the Des Moines area my family and I can finally rest a little easier. Beginning this fall I will make the transition from being a high stress high school band director to being a (hopefully) low stress beginning band director. I was worried at first. It is a big change, especially for someone that has been teaching 9-12 band for seven

Electronic Pet Peeves

2006-06-10T18:31:00.000-07:00

Once again I am off the topic of music, but I have to rant a bit on this. As an Internet based publisher I am constantly aware of the fact that you have a higher chance of being successful if you have a domain name that shares the same keywords as the main focus of your site. For example, my site, www.musicedmagic.com is all about music education topics and more specifically about band

Freshen Up The Portfolio and Get Your Suit Dry Cleaned

2006-06-06T07:54:00.000-07:00

Wish me luck, I have an interview tomorrow for a job down near where we are going to be moving to. I am very confident about it, I got along quite well with the principal on the phone setting up the time and date. Of course, I was down this road once before and thought I had the job locked up only to be disappointed a few days later when I learned the position had been given to another

Free Music For The Classroom

2006-05-27T21:18:00.000-07:00

Napster has changed the way it does business. They are the first site to offer almost all of the music in their multi-million song library for free. Now there is a catch, but for music educators it isn't too bad a deal. In fact, I will probably use it almost every day in my classroom.You can click and listen to any song in the Napster database via streaming audio. This means the quality won't

It's Nice To Know You're Loved

2006-05-23T19:10:00.000-07:00

Not loved in the love sense, but still highly respected.Last night my students threw me a surprise going away party. My wife totally pulled the wool over my eyes to the point I did not even see it coming. After eating out with the kids for dinner my wife begged me into stopping at school to pick up something for her. I had a feeling something was up when she insisted that the kids (and her)

The Sunday Ritual

2006-05-19T20:06:00.000-07:00

For the last three months it has been the same every Sunday. Get up, get dressed, and go across the street to pick up a Des Moines Register. Give the coupons to my wife, the comics to the kids, and I keep the classifieds. The thing that has bummed me out since March is the total lack of music education openings in the area of the state my family is moving to. Today was the same thing. Only

The Next Step In The Process

2006-05-17T20:05:00.000-07:00

We put our house up for sale ... The next step in our families move. I really hope it sells quickly. My gut feeling is that we are priced very fairly for how much space and how newly remodeled the house is, but to look at the other listings it scares me a bit. Part of our whole plan for this big move is to get enough out of the house to pay off a few bills with the profit from the house and

Is There Life After Teaching?

2006-05-10T19:46:00.000-07:00

Can a band teacher really quit the profession and then get back into it? How hard is it for a teacher to leave the profession he or she loves?After seven years teaching band I turned in my resignation. I did not do it because I wanted to. In truth I always thought I would be there until I retired. Instead I made the move for the betterment of my family. We are going to be moving to another