arrange • compose • conduct
I make a to do list every morning. It’s scrawled on a 3×5 card or the back of an envelope, and awaits crossing off as the day goes by. But would I be better off making a two-day to do list? Along with today’s to do, things I need to […]
There’s so much weight tied to the First Day of School. But the second day of school is just…a normal day. Actually, it’s the first normal day of the school year. I admit, I like the normal days a lot better. You aren’t as anxious for a normal day, you […]
Heading back to school? How many emotions will you admit to having? The first day of school is a jumble of emotions for everyone. For students, parents, teachers, school staff, and even pets! Apprehension, excitement, nervousness, dread, joy, love, disappointment, enthusiasm, and on and on. But we aren’t all excited […]
There are no hacks for the hard work. You can make easy work faster with a shortcut hack. You can make complex work less complex by streamlining it via a hack. None of those are the hard work of your job. The hard work is creative, or it’s interpersonal, or […]
How do you reconcile your knowledge of how long a project will take with others’ estimates? For me, it’s knowing you’re going to need one extra day – and secretly building it in. The more projects you work on, the more you are able to plan effectively, and a big […]
Should you “speed run” your teaching? If not, what’s the alternative? I asked my kids, what is the opposite of a “speed run” – the method of playing a game as fast as possible. (For example, the record speed run for Super Mario Bros. is under 5 minutes.) But some […]
How do you define the First Day of School? It seems silly on the surface – the First Day of School is, you know, the first day of school. But listen: our first school day is next Monday. My first day with students, making music, will be today, when we […]
Temporary productivity paralysis is a normal part of the project process. There is a moment – usually about 80-90% of the way through the process, for me – when I feel completely incapable of finishing a project. It’s never easier to get distracted from my project than in that moment […]
I spent the morning singing backup for our brand-new Superintendent of Rockford Public Schools, Dr. Steve Matthews. Dr. Matthews is not a professional singer, but he’s a visionary leader and passionate believe in education. He wanted to introduce himself to 1,000+ staff in a powerful way, and enlisted Mandy and […]
I could write volumes about what I have learned spending time talking music with Alice Parker. Actually, I hope someday to do just that. But what struck me most on my most recent visit, when we set aside an hour or two every day for little musical projects, is her […]