Check-In: How Was Your First Week? General by Joel Wagner - August 28, 20104 So this week that just passed was my first week of the new school year. It was pretty much amazing. I have a new completely positive approach. I am a brand new Joel this year. There are two things that are paramount in my mind as I stand in front of the class every day. I want the band to have:A culture of encouragementAn expectation of excellenceIf I can model those two things, I am convinced that I can ensure the rest of the students follow suit. We don't criticize other students, we encourage them. We don't laugh at mistakes, we learn from them. We don't point out problems, we provide possible solutions. As I've said before, when things settle
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
Ask Joel Reader Appreciation by Joel Wagner - February 1, 2008July 2, 20103 Lately, I have noticed a larger number of prospective and newer teachers leaving comments to my various articles. This has helped inspire me to offer what advice I can in a (hopefully) weekly question and answer forum. For lack of creativity, we'll call it "Ask Joel" and begin next week. Any question is fair game, whether it's about about teaching, classroom management, band directing, blogging, or whatever else! Email me and let me know your questions. I will choose from the questions I receive and post answers to them on Fridays. Why do this? Well, first of all, it makes me think more in-depth about certain topics. After my terrible first couple of years of teaching, I have blocked some