The Unfairness of Equality General by Joel Wagner - December 31, 2008July 1, 201011 In what has turned out to be some of the best comment-produicing material on this blog, I wrote about Asperger's Syndrome early this month. Amidst the comments, G. Broaddus dropped this little gem: Fairness in the classroom is not always about giving equal tasks; it is sometimes about giving students an equal chance to succeed, and clearly a student with Asperger’s will need a different way to demonstrate learning than his or her “typical” peers. He then later fleshed out that idea on his own blog with the post Fairness and equality in the classroom. Please check out his post to read some of these thoughts. As we take this break and get ready to go back into our classes
Asperger’s General by Joel Wagner - December 11, 2008July 1, 201037 Miss A writes about a student she has who is being tested for Asperger's. She has had some difficulties with him lately. I responded: Just curious…how much do you know about Aspregers? It is similar to autism (both disabilities are different levels of Pervasive Development Disorders). While the student may be using the disability as a crutch, it is very likely that the group work that he has to do in biology is very different from the group work he does in history. That being said, the situations may be completely different in his eyes. As far as coming up with a different assignment, I think it is your obligation to do this as an educator. I have a student
101 Great Teaching Tips New Teachers by Joel Wagner - November 30, 2008June 5, 20164 A comment was left recently that said, Joel, I really enjoy your blog. You have written some amazing articles that I have printed and put in my first year file. I am currently student teaching right now. I appreciate your honesty about how scary and hard it can be sometimes, but also the greatness in the experience. I am having the time of my life, and I hope the enthusiasm I have stays with me. Your blog is helping, so thank you! If you could give one single piece of advice to a beginning teacher, what would it be? Just curious! That challenged me to see if I could come up with something I hadn't written before that was better (or close
My Teaching Philosophy: The 50 Word Version General by Joel Wagner - November 16, 2008July 1, 20101 If I accomplish nothing more, students should leave my class with a deeper grasp and appreciation of music. I strive to nurture an environment of love, respect, high expectations, and high achievement, primarily by teaching and implementing basic classroom behavioral skills. Fifty word post inspired by Abraham at 22 Words.
But It’s Not Your Fault! General by Joel Wagner - November 10, 2008July 1, 20108 Have you ever caught yourself trying to blame other people for something that is entirely your fault? Do teachers ever yell at kids for the teacher's failure to prepare? Never!!! We had our Homecoming Parade this week. I was there with the seventh grade band and we were setting up. One of the parents who was there with me noticed that I had put them in lines and they were out of lines and talking. She asked me if I wanted her to get onto them about it, because they were in for a rude awakening when they get to high school. I smiled and told her it wasn't necessary. They were out of line, but I told her it
Life Lesson 4: Choose Your Battles General by Joel Wagner - October 14, 2008July 1, 20104 Everybody loves being right. Everybody loves to win an argument. What if we change our mindset completely? What if we aim not to win outright, but to win by letting the other person win? There are some situations where winning is vital. And there are far more situations where winning an argument will net no real benefit. These are the situations when it is okay to lose. In fact, losing may be the biggest victory of all. How do we choose? Dr. Laura Schlessinger often uses these three statements to evaluate if a battle is necessary: Is it immoral? Is it illegal? Is it fattening? If the answer to all three questions is "no," then it may do
Student Absences & Make-Up Work…What Do You Do? General by Joel Wagner - July 15, 2008July 1, 201011 This article was recently featured in the Carnival of Education, #180. Check it out if you haven't already! I was recently asked about how I handle student absences and make-up work. As a band director, generally an absence simply means they missed out on a rehearsal and we don't have a lot of make-up work to assign. This gives me limited experience dealing with the issue. I am confident that most of the readers of this blog have far more experience in this realm. So it got me thinking, and I want to throw some questions out you you. How do you handle make-up work for students? What steps do you take for students with excessive absences? What
Teaching: Part Time Job At Full Pay Wages???? General by Joel Wagner - July 2, 2008July 1, 201035 I have been holding my tongue on this issue for over a month, but I thought I'd jump in and respond while I have time and am thinking about it. J Frap recently left a comment on my article 9 Reasons To Quit Teaching (And 10 Reasons To Stick) that got under my skin. You should also add “part time job at full pay wages”. Thats a huge benefit, how about you take one year off from teaching and work in the real world, where you would make less money, only receive one week paid vacation, you wouldn’t be given ‘planning days’ every other week, and you would have to work on most holidays. I think if teachers were forced
On The Brink Of Quitting Inspiration by Joel Wagner - June 25, 2008July 1, 201010 Lisa writes: I googled "bitter about teaching" and came up with your blog. I was recently let go from a school I busted my a$$ in for a whole year (my first year) - constant criticism, cattiness, and pointing out and embellishing the negative things I had done while minimizing the positive (all the while they were telling me to stay positive!). She concludes her email: I just wanted to let you know that your blog picked me up a little bit. I still have a lot of healing to do, but I'm glad that I'm not the only person that this has happened to. What an awesome thing! In case you missed the story, here are a few articles
Why Do We Do What It Is That We Do? General by Joel Wagner - June 19, 2008July 1, 20101 My blog has been running on a fairly regular basis now for over a year. I have a wealth of information stored in the archives here. So often, some of the great writing of the past has gone overlooked. One of the most common reasons for this is that the majority of you who are reading this didn’t even subscribe to this blog 5 months ago. Some of the best content I’ve written on the blog was put online last spring or summer. But it so often gets overlooked. Some of it needs to be rehashed from time to time as new readers come along. I have implemented some related posts plugins and some other techniques as well as trying
07-08: What To Change Next Year General by Joel Wagner - June 17, 2008June 25, 20162 As we begin the summer vacation, I am looking back on what went really well this year, what didn't work so well, and what needs to change for next year. Below are some of the changes that I intend to implement next year: Change the focus - Winning is not the only thing that matters. In fact, winning is absolutely fun, but so is doing something well. One of my college professors was a big proponent of the concept that you teach music for the sake of teaching music. He said that when you do it right, the results will follow. I never earned a sweepstakes trophy in all my years of band, even though I was in a really
07-08: What Didn’t Work Well General by Joel Wagner - June 15, 2008July 1, 20105 As we begin the summer vacation, I am looking back on what went really well this year, what didn’t work so well, and what needs to change for next year. Below are some of the negatives about this year: Lack of social life - While not entirely true, and things have changed for the positively since I began playing in a mariachi in April. But I still notice that I am far away from my family and many of my friends before I moved down here. Even after being in South Texas for four years, I find that my social life is limited to time spent with other band directors, and a small handful of church friends. Maybe that's
No Child Left Behind Doomed To Fail? General by Joel Wagner - June 11, 2008June 19, 20168 A reader recently emailed me and pointed me to a recent article on Time.com regarding No Child Left Behind. She wanted my take on the article, so here goes... To begin with, I notice that the article is written by Claudia Wallis, a writer of incredible credentials. This is a great start. The article begins: There was always something slightly insane about No Child Left Behind (NCLB), the ambitious education law often described as the Bush Administration's signature domestic achievement. I understand this view, but to me it comes across as sounding much like every single faculty meeting I have ever been in that discussed NCLB and its "ridiculous expectations for the students." Every time I hear this, I laugh to myself. I
07-08: What Worked Well General by Joel Wagner - June 11, 2008July 1, 20100 As we begin the summer vacation, I am looking back on what went really well this year, what didn’t work so well, and what needs to change for next year. Below are some of the positives about this year: Remaining calm - Despite circumstances this year, with the other band director having a stroke and all, I was able to stay calm most of the time. I lost my temper a few times, but it was nothing compared to my previous years of teaching. A lot of this comes from stress reduction measures I put into place, as well as growing up. Doing my job without complaining - I complained a bit on here and to friends, but never
07-08: A Year In Review General by Joel Wagner - June 10, 2008May 29, 20160 As the school year comes to a close, and before the summer gets into full swing, I am reviewing the 2007-2008 school year in my mind. This review is broken into three articles What Worked Well What Didn't Work Well What To Change Next Year At the end of July, I will revisit these and come up with some plans to ensure that things run more smoothly in the 2008-2009 school year. I did this last year also. Go read 06-07: A Year In Review here.