The Art of Encouragement Inspiration by Joel Wagner - June 30, 2016July 10, 20160 By far one of the most successful early posts on this blog was 6 Motivation Techniques. I wrote it in March of 2007, as I was approaching the end of my fifth year of teaching. Now more than nine years later, I realize I was onto some good ideas, but I was off base. In this article, we'll look at the missing piece that would have helped me so much in those early years of teaching: The Art of Encouragement Without motivation, your class is just another block of time that the students have to suffer through. With motivation, you hear things like “hi, favorite teacher!â€Â and “I love this class!†As a teacher, those are the kinds of things that we
Failing Forward: Turning Setbacks Into Triumphs Inspiration by Joel Wagner - June 25, 2016July 10, 20160 Another school year has come and gone. For many of us, it was a year of a few huge successes, a few colossal failures, and a whole lot of in-betweens. This article discusses how those colossal failures can propel you toward being a much better version of yourself. Every failure is an opportunity I love failure...at least after it's all over. I don't love failing. In fact, failing at stuff is one of my least favorite things. But I love what failure does to a person. It means I did something. It means I tried. It also means, I have a new opportunity to learn a great lesson. Often, the bigger the failure, the more valuable the potential lesson. The tough part about being
[INFOGRAPHIC] What Makes A Good Teacher In 2016? Inspiration by Joel Wagner - June 17, 2016July 5, 20160 According to ITN Mark Education, there are 7 key components of a good teacher. Love of the subject Stress Management Complete control Organization Professional behavior Expert instructional methods Praise It's interesting that through the years, I have written about each of these concepts on this blog. Below are links to a few articles with a brief quote from that article. From Burnout To Ignited Passion: How Blogging, Information Overload, and Running Made Me A Better Teacher So I have to get back to me being me. I inspire people simply by being me. You do too. But do yourself and me and everyone else a favor and go out there to be the most awesome, amazing, passionate version of you that you
A Step-By-Step Framework for Incremental Growth Inspiration by Joel Wagner - June 14, 2016June 14, 20162 I want you to watch the first 3:40 of this TED Talk by Benjamin Zander Notice the Dramatic change in the piano player from 7 years old to 11 years. Huge difference. But from 8 to 10, there is seemingly no change. What's happening is incremental change. Each year, the child improves dramatically, but it is not always evident, until BAM, it all seems to fall into place. Michael Hyatt writes about The Power of Incremental Change Over Time on his blog: I am not opposed to massive action. I have used it myself to achieve certain results. But it causes most people give up before they ever start. They just don’t think they can make the investment...What these people don’t realize is that they could
5 Keys To Educating People – Revisited Inspiration by Joel Wagner - June 9, 2016June 15, 20160 This is an updated version of the first article written on this blog, which was originally posted on February 11, 2007. It was edited and updated on June 9, 2016 to reflect a maturation in my approach to teaching as well as writing. You can read the original along with a handful of comments here. A Matter of Priorities During my first two years of teaching, I discovered that I had a whole lot of information, but the students just weren’t listening to me or learning from me. It was not, mind you, because I was giving them wrong information. It was, however, because I had placed my priorities in the wrong order. When we have the proper perspective, we end up teaching far more than
From Burnout Into Ignited Passion: How Blogging, Information Overload, and Running Made Me A Better Teacher Inspiration by Joel Wagner - May 28, 2013July 6, 20161 I don't care if it's your teaching job or your personal habits or your social life or what it is, we all face burnout at one time or another. Or another or another or another. At times, I can feel like we are in a dark tunnel with no escape and we don't have the energy to escape. Ummm, not that I have ever experienced that, of course. ANYWAY, you may or may not be struggling with this now. I would guess at this point in the school year, none of us in the United States are wanting to ever teach another school year. It happens. So I present to you an autobiographical short story that addresses this concept. Once upon a
Make This School Year Amazing! Inspiration by Joel Wagner - July 27, 2012May 28, 20160 How is this year going to be different from every other year you've taught before? Do you have a specific plan to ensure that it will be? Here's a simple suggestion that I aim to implement in my own teaching this year. Ready? Plan Each Sunday, I am going to think about what has happened in recent weeks and identify one weak area that needs to be addressed. It doesn't have to be the biggest problem area. In fact, sometimes targeting a seemingly insignificant problem that I know I can rectify helps me gain confidence to attack the bigger, more ominous ones later on. Perhaps I can tackle one specific element of a larger problem area. The whole "one bite at a
10 Years of Teaching: How Do I Keep My Students Interested? Inspiration by Joel Wagner - June 9, 2012June 16, 20160 Five years ago, I wrote a series of seven articles called “Questions That Will Save Your Career†that still remain among the most visited articles on this site. When I wrote those, I had successfully completed my 5th year in education. This summer, after 10 years, I am revisiting some of these older concepts. Today, I revisit How Do I Keep My Students Interested? How Do I Keep My Students Quiet? How Do I Keep My Students Engaged? How Do I Keep My Students Interested? How Do I Keep My Students Learning? How Do I Keep My Students Away From Me? How Do I Keep My School Administration Happy? How Do I Keep My Sanity? 10 Years of Teaching: How
10 Lessons I Have learned In 10 Years of Teaching Inspiration by Joel Wagner - June 6, 2012July 25, 20165 At the conclusion of 10 years of teaching, I started to reminisce about what I have learned. This article summarizes 10 lessons I have learned in 10 years of teaching. After having successfully completed my tenth year as a professional educator, I have come to realize that a lot of what I used to think worked didn't really work...at least not long-term. While some things may be effective in the immediate future, they are not sustainable down the road, and sometimes even backfire if used to often and too early. 1. Love your job and your students No matter how hard you try to pretend you love your job, if you don't, the kids will see right through you. Students feed off of the energy that
10 Years of Teaching: A Reflection Inspiration by Joel Wagner - June 4, 2012July 1, 20163 I started this blog more than five years ago. I have now come to the conclusion of my 10th year of teaching. In this article and the upcoming series, I reflect on some of what I have learned in my 10 years of teaching. A reflection It strikes me that much of what I have written on this blog, especially in the older articles is simply wrong. Some of the information can be misleading or easily misunderstood. In the upcoming weeks and months, I aim to readdress some of those same issues from my new, far more patient and friendly mindset. At the same time, there are some core beliefs I held to in those early days that are ever strong in me and I
Being Inspired by Great Teachers Inspiration by Bill Smoot - January 11, 2011May 30, 20163 One piece of wisdom emerging from our ongoing discussions about education is that teachers matter most. They matter more than any other single factor in determining the quality of an education. Studies show it, and students realize it. But what makes great teachers great? I was wondering that myself a few years ago, and I decided to take a direct, old-fashioned approach. I would set out to find some of the greatest teachers in America and talk to them about teaching. I scoured America and found some inspiringly great teachers in the public and private schools, in universities, but also on the athletic field, in the culinary school, in the ballet studio, at the speedway, and in the operating room. They taught
Is The Next Bill Gates, Your Class Clown? Inspiration by Maria Rainier - November 29, 2010May 30, 20162 This guest post is contributed by Maria Rainier, she writes on the topic of online education. John Jacob Astor, multimillionaire businessman. John Jacob Astor was America's first multimillionaire. He was also a high school dropout. Woody Allen once said “I was thrown out of college for cheating on the metaphysics final. I looked within the soul of the boy sitting next to me.†Woody Allen really was thrown out of NYU after just a single semester for poor grades. If you’re an educator or thinking about becoming one there is no doubt that you have run into the disruptive, irritating, distracting, wisecracking and sometimes funny class clown. We all have either been sitting in class with one, have taught one or have been one. When researching this
It’s Not Our Beliefs That Transfer…It’s Our Passion Inspiration by Joel Wagner - November 25, 2010June 16, 20160 A friend recently mailed me a copy of the book The Line and the Dot: Alternative thoughts on vision by Paul Gibbs. The book intrigued me because there is very little information on the outside of the book and I trust my friend's recommendation. So I began reading a little bit. Tonight I came across the following excerpt: During my time as a school pupil, I had learned a valuable lesson. In the religious education I'd received, I had two different teachers. They both taught me about Christianity, but one turned me off of God, and one turned me on to God. The first taught the program. The second taught passion. The head of PSE agreed and gave me opportunities to teach
Words Inspiration by Joel Wagner - August 15, 2010August 15, 20100 I just listened to a recent podcast of Radiolab entitled Words. They included a bonus video along with the podcast. Powerful images and sounds here. The video is below. If you haven't listened to Radiolab, now is a great time to start. As I approach my ninth year of teaching, I have begun to wonder about the effectiveness of my classroom management plan. A brief summaryWhen I first started out, I allowed way too much stuff to go on. In the middle of my second year, I cracked down like nobody's business and began what I might term my "dictator days". Basically, I was a bully and made sure I was in charge of my classroom. I still wholeheartedly believe
This Is Why This Site Exists Inspiration by Joel Wagner - June 21, 2010June 30, 20100 Emails like this are the reason this site exists. I am an 11-year high school English teaching veteran in the Los Angeles area. Most of my teaching was done in the trenches of suburban, low-SES "nay-bah-HOODS" and the fringes of, um, gangsta lands. (I teach English ... go figure.) I've had my share of awesome kids, classes and experiences, and I've had my share of kids who practice "learned helplessness" and come to school looking like Snoop Droopy Drawers. Overall, I love my subject matter, and love working with high school age kids, especially helping them to "read, write and think your world" (one of my class mottoes). I wanted to thank you for your no-nonsense, honest site that both