50 Reasons To Love Your Job As A Teacher Reader Appreciation by Joel Wagner - November 30, 2007August 5, 201612 In November of 2007, I had Reader Appreciation Month. During the course of that month, I interviewed a number of my readers and gained some powerful insight into what makes teachers tick. This article summarizes 50 reasons to love your job as a teacher. As we come to the conclusion of Reader Appreciation Month, I want to summarize some of the things that we have learned. Today, I'll focus on some of the reasons my readers have shared with me about why they love their jobs. Edutopia put together a slide show of 20 Inspiring Reasons Why You Love To Teach. But here are my 50 reasons to love your teaching job. 50 reasons to love teaching Sharing my experiences Helping inexperienced teachers solve problems The
Top 5 (Plus 14) Character Traits Of Superior Teachers Reader Appreciation by Joel Wagner - November 29, 2007July 28, 201610 In November of 2007, I had Reader Apprection Month where I interviewed some of my readers, most of whom were fellow bloggers. Through the course of that month, I picked up a number of responses to the question "What Makes A Superior Teacher?" This article aggregates them and looks at the top answers. I'd guess if you're doing the top 5, you are well on your way to being great. As we come to the conclusion of Reader Appreciation Month, I want to summarize some of the things that we have learned. Today, I'll focus on some of the character traits of people who were indicated by my readers as their favorite teachers. Some of the character traits were mentioned by multiple
47 Blogs That My Readers Are Reading Reader Appreciation by Joel Wagner - November 28, 2007July 2, 20108 As we come to the conclusion of Reader Appreciation Month, I want to summarize some of the things that we have learned. Today, I’ll focus on the incredible depth of blogs that readers have told me they read. So here are the 47 blogs that my readers are reading. A Teacher’s Education Adventures of a Christian Collegian Bionic Teaching The Blue Skunk Blog California Teacher Guy Confessions from the Couch Copyblogger Dangerously Irrelevant Dave Sherman David Armano dy/dan EdNotesOnline Education in Texas The Education Wonks FlyLady.net Fred Klonsky Frumteacher Head of the Class History is Elementary huffenglish.com Joyful Jubilant Learning Learn Me Good Lorelle on WordPress Ms. Frizzle Ms. Whatsit ms_teacher Musings from a Not-So-Master Teacher New Scientist
50 Awesome Classroom Management Tips You Can Use Tomorrow Reader Appreciation by Joel Wagner - November 27, 2007August 4, 20169 As we come to the conclusion of Reader Appreciation Month, I want to summarize some of the things that we have learned. Today, I'll focus on the incredible wealth of knowledge that we have learned about classroom management with these 50 awesome classroom management tips. I found that when I put all of the tips together, I had over 70 suggestions. I combined a few of them and broke them down into categories. The tips all fell into four categories: Personal, Student and Parent Relationships, Organization and Teaching, and Behavior and Rules. After consolidating, I came up with 50 classroom management tips I have learned this month. Personal classroom management tips Find out who you are as a person; find your strengths,
Reader Appreciation: Joel Reader Appreciation by Joel Wagner - November 26, 2007May 29, 20161 With all of the great responses I have read with the Reader Appreciation Month, I decided to go ahead and fill out the survey as well. Name: Joel Location: The border of Texas and Mexico Occupation: Middle School Band Director Blog: So You Want To Teach? Tell me some of your favorite things about your job Inspiring children. Spreading my passion for music, life, and learning. Watching the students grow year after year. Recruiting kids into my program. Being creative with the music. Transforming students from knowing nothing about how to play an instrument to being able to perform complicated (for them) music by the end of the year. Demonstrating the value of long-range planning to achieve crazy cool results. Guiding students to success, both individually
Reader Appreciation: Pamela Reader Appreciation by Pamela - November 23, 2007May 29, 20160 November is Reader Appreciation Month at So You Want To Teach? Today's featured reader is Pamela. Name: Pamela Location: Michigan Occupation: Elementary Teacher, Reading Specialist Blog: Blog may be coming soon, but none yet ;-) Tell me some of your favorite things about your job Some of my favorite things about teaching: I enjoy sharing my love of learning and my passion for certain topics. It goes beyond just teaching the material...it's about making a personal connection with the students. Along those same lines, I love sharing the excitement of a good book. When I introduce it and starting talking about it with excitement, the students can't wait for me to start reading. When it's time to stop reading and begin our next lesson, they beg
Reader Appreciation: Jonathan Reader Appreciation by Joel Wagner - November 22, 2007July 5, 20101 November is Reader Appreciation Month at So You Want To Teach? Today's featured reader is Jonathan. Name: Jonathan Location: The Bronx Occupation: High School Math teacher Blog: JD2718 Tell me some of your favorite things about your job I love kids and I love math. How many jobs can combine them? I guess the guy at the carnival who counts the kids getting on the rides, but he has to clean puke, so that's out of the question. Honestly, I can, in the space of 55 minutes, (on a good day) get booed for telling a bad joke, discuss planetary motion or the etymology of "radish," clearly explain how a new-for-them algebra technique flows from their previous knowledge, give
Reader Appreciation: Jeremy Aldrich Reader Appreciation by Joel Wagner - November 21, 2007July 5, 20100 November is Reader Appreciation Month at So You Want To Teach? Today's featured reader is Jeremy Aldrich. Name: Jeremy Aldrich Location: Harrisonburg, Virginia Occupation: Middle school (6-8) electives - French, Foreign Language Exploratory, and Global Citizenship Blog: Global Citizenship in a Virtual World Tell me some of your favorite things about your job I love the push to keep learning, to keep discovering new questions and to help students discover their own questions. Tell me some things you loved about your favorite teacher(s) My favorite teacher, Mr. Newton, helped me feel like I was a good writer. He inspired me to read and to think and to share. He wasn't fake or shallow with his comments to students.
Reader Appreciation: Clix Reader Appreciation by Joel Wagner - November 20, 2007July 5, 20100 November is Reader Appreciation Month at So You Want To Teach? Today's featured reader is Clix. Name: Clix Location: Georgia Occupation: Freshman English; Journalism Blog: Epic Adventures Are Often Uncomfortable Tell me some of your favorite things about your job I seem to be good at it. I get to explore stories and try new ideas and encourage others to do the same. It's never dull. I love messing with their heads. I love how wee the freshmen are and watching them grow into young ladies and gentlemen (in theory). I love the power of CONTROLLING LIVES - well, at least for an hour or so a day! I love listening to their ideas and seeing the way their minds
The Instant De-Stress Handbook Now Available Stress Reduction by Joel Wagner - November 19, 2007July 5, 20100 I have decided to compile all of the articles from my series 25 Tips For Less Stress into one handy ebook. The Instant De-Stress Handbook is completely free to download. To get your copy, simply download it here. Go ahead, tell your friends. Email the ebook to them. Recommend they come check out my blog. You know you want to!
Reader Appreciation: Pat Hensley Reader Appreciation by Joel Wagner - November 19, 2007July 5, 20100 November is Reader Appreciation Month at So You Want To Teach? Today's featured reader is Pat Hensley. Name: Pat Hensley Location: South Carolina Occupation: I was a high school special ed teacher, now I am a college instructor and educational consultant. Blog: Successful Teaching Tell me some of your favorite things about your job Sharing my experiences and helping unexperienced teachers solve problems Tell me some things you loved about your favorite teacher(s) Making me feel that I was important, listening to my ideas, and learning new things from them List some of your most effective classroom management strategies Improving students’ self concept Have a consistent behavior plan Name (up to) three other blogs that you frequently visit/subscribe
Overcoming Adversity Inspiration by Joel Wagner - November 18, 2007July 5, 20102 As teachers, how often do we stop to think about how much of an impact we could potentially make in the life of one of our students. Even if that student doesn't ever thank us or even show marked improvement in their academic skills or behavior or whatever, we still may be helping him. Our job is often thankless. Our job is often life-changing. We will not know this side of heaven the number of lives we have changed. I was recently contacted by a reader who shared an amazing story with me. This deaf man, Stephen J. Hopson, was changed by three simple words from his fifth grade teacher. The story, and the accompanying video, truly made me smile.
All Time Best Teaching Advice Classroom Management by Joel Wagner - November 17, 2007July 5, 20104 As I have been reading the interviews for the Reader Appreciation Month (by the way, there is room for another 7 interviews. If you don't send them in, they end on Wednesday!), I have been amazed at the depth of knowledge of some of the readers of this blog. I was going through my Google Reader the other day and came across a post by Gxeremio entitled Best (and worst) advice. In it, he lists some of the best teaching advice he has received. Additionally, he points to some standard "wisdom" that really isn't all that wise. It made me think... If I were to give only one piece of advice to a brand new teacher, what would it
Reader Appreciation: Athena Reader Appreciation by Joel Wagner - November 16, 2007July 5, 20100 November is Reader Appreciation Month at So You Want To Teach? Today's featured reader is Athena. Name: Athena Location: South Texas Occupation: ELA 9th & 10th grade Blog: http://athena81469.blogspot.com/ Tell me some of your favorite things about your job I like the freedom of the job. I used to be in a cube job where I had to punch a timeclock all the time. Every moment of my job was timed. I sat and stared at 4 grey fuzzy walls everyday. Now, I come to work at my own time. Nobody is watching. Plus, I have control over my job. I decide what and when I teach. I decide if I am going to stay late. I can
Reader Appreciation: Jane Little Reader Appreciation by Jane Little - November 15, 2007July 5, 20102 November is Reader Appreciation Month at So You Want To Teach? Today's featured reader is Jane Little. Name: Jane Little Location: Los Angeles, CA Occupation: Third Grade Teacher Blog: My Many Colored Crayons // Moved to Out of The Crayon Box Tell me some of your favorite things about your job I love getting to know the kids and I especially love having siblings come up and watching the family grow. It is a real privilege to be part of people's lives like that. When I taught 5th grade it was hard because the kids left our school at the end of the year. I didn't get to see them from afar in the next grade. I didn't get to