10 Ways to Integrate Social Media into Everyday Class Lessons Blogging & Technology by Amy K. Williams - August 2, 2016August 1, 20163 In recent years, many schools have cautiously begun to let up the reins on electronic device usage. Countless teachers each year find themselves in hot water over inappropriate use of social media. I know teachers on both the pro and con side of using social media. Today, Amy K. Williams explores some of the potential benefits that you can have if you decide to integrate social media into your teaching. 10 Ways To Integrate Social Media In The Classroom Far too often, we hear about all the negative aspects of social media and how it is harming our youth. It’s easy to dismiss social media as a resource in the classroom due to the tales of cyberbullying, online predators, and sexting. However, we need to
How To Stay Up To Date With The Job Market: Tips For Teachers General by Amelia Knott - July 4, 2016July 25, 20160 Stay current on industry changes to maintain job flexibility if and when you need it. As a teacher, the job market can be a tough place. In a field where competition is high and landing your ideal placement takes patience, you won’t want to fall behind on shifts and general goings-on in the job market. If you do fall behind, you may miss out on opportunities or professional development that are critical to your career as an educator. Check out these tips to make sure you stay in the game: Always be learning Teachers do more than teach; they are also lifelong learners. New teaching methods and new curriculum content are just a couple of the items that need to be on teachers’
Weekend Reading 6/18/16 General by Joel Wagner - June 18, 2016June 19, 20161 I found some great stuff going on out there in the world of education blogging this week. Here is a summary of what I found and shared on Twitter (follow @sywtt). this week. Growth Mindset: Clearing Up Some Common Confusions Digital transformation in eduction: from challenge to opportunity What's so sexy about math? How I teach kids to love science 10 Open-Ended Questions for Teachers' Reflection and Summative Evaluation 5 Common Teaching Practices I'm Kicking to the Curb When Everyone Owns the Place of the Arts I'm A Teacher Who Loves Quizzing; But Does Quiz Format Matter? Are We Too Preoccupied with Teaching Techniques? 7 Shifts To Create A Classroom of the Future 6 Apps That Can Help with Student Assessment
Weekend Reading 6/11/16 General by Joel Wagner - June 11, 2016June 11, 20160 Over the past two weeks, I have jumped back into blogging. This week, I jumped back into Twitter (follow @sywtt). There's some great stuff going on out there in the world of education blogging. Here is a summary of what I found and shared this week. Response: Blended Learning Is 'the Next Generation of Education' 41 Books Worth Reading What Makes a Good Teacher? 36 Edtech Tools I'm Using Right Now in My Classroom and Life Blooming teachers 'Being a "sergeant major" teacher has been my most effective behaviour-management strategy 10 Ways to Flip a Kid and Turn Their Day Around “What Is My Job, Anyway?†Teacher Hindsight From a Multi-Classroom Leader Is your school’s “digital citizenship†practice
Top 10 Ways To Improvise Your Way to Being A Better Teacher General by Joel Wagner - June 24, 2013June 8, 20162 This summer I made the decision to go on a somewhat extensive tour of a few of the major cities in the Northeast United States. During the process, I reconnected with my friend Nelson, with whom I marched drumcorps 17 years ago. I haven't seen him in the intervening years and so it as been great to catch up with him the past few days. It turns out that he has spent the last few years doing comedy in and around the Chicago area. We went to The Second City Comedy Club last night and watched a completely improvised musical about a Golden Fleece. We have talked extensively at meals over the last few days as well. Some of our conversations
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
Early Childhood Education: What Makes a Great Teacher General by Courtney Bishop - September 27, 2010June 25, 20164 This guest article by Courtney Bishop is a lover of all things creative. She likes to write, and has an obsession with crossword puzzles. She's recently started blogging, and you can follow her on Twitter @cbishopBG. There are many indisputable opinions from people who feel that great teachers are born, not made. Teaching is certainly something that most anyone can do; but teaching effectively and creating a thirst for knowledge in students is undoubtedly a gift that few people possess. Early childhood education is a breeding ground for sparking enthusiasm and creativity in the minds of youngsters. The teacher is likely the one who initially exposes the child to new concepts and makes ideas clearer and brighter to their young minds. This is
Creating Really Useful Educational Opportunities General by Joel Wagner - July 25, 2010July 25, 20101 If you've read much on my blog, you know that I do not have the traditional mindset of most educators. I have no problem with kids dropping out of school as long as they are doing so as a means of furthering their education. I don't think that a college education is essential for success in the world. In fact, I know that it's not. I recently was watching to a TED Talk by Cameron Herold (@CameronHerold on Twitter) that challenged me and also reinforced some of my previously-held views and articulated them in a way that shed new light on them. The talk was entitled Let's raise kids to be entrepreneurs. You should watch it. If nothing else, you
5 New Edublogs To Keep On Your Radar Blogging & Technology by Joel Wagner - June 24, 2010May 29, 20169
The Shift Personal by Joel Wagner - June 6, 2010June 30, 20102 The background It took me about three years. I heard rumblings of Twitter way back in the fall of 2006 when I was getting into blogs. "Who cares what you ate for lunch?" So I ignored it. I finally got on in the spring of 2008, but never really got around to doing too much with it until then. Evidently my first tweet was something about an enjoyable weekend. How fun. It was so much fun that I blogged about it. This all came less than two months after I reached a subscriber count of 150. I was excited. Fast forward Now even despite the incredible slowdown of RSS subscribers (and even RSS reading in general) due to Social Media,
137 Tech Resources For Teachers and Students General by Joel Wagner - May 21, 2010June 30, 20100 Back in March of 2009, I received my first guest post submission from Karen Schweitzer entitled 50 Online Reference Sites for Teachers. At the time, she was barely building her online portfolio by sending out guest posts to edublog across the web. As best as I can tell, So You Want To Teach? was one of the first blogs she submitted articles for. As soon as the article went live, it quickly became one of the most popular pages on the entire blog. In fact, that article alone received some 275 views the first three weeks it was up. At the time, that was huge. For comparison, 14 months later, I posted a guest article 8 Teachers Who Changed History
Cut the Cord Personal by Joel Wagner - February 27, 2010June 30, 20100 For the first time since started my blog three years ago, I am going to be taking a break for at least a month. No writing, no checking stats, no emails, no nothing. In fact, I'm pulling the plug on my cable modem as soon as I finish writing this. This is not just a blog issue, but I am going to be away from Facebook almost entirely for a month. In fact, I deleted Facebook from my phone a couple of weeks ago and noticed a substantial improvement to my productivity at work. My free time isn't spent checking to see who else is slacking off at work, but rather in avoiding the temptation to slack myself. I've
Seven Deadly Sins of Veteran Teachers General by Joel Wagner - February 10, 2010June 30, 20100 So here's the situation: You've been teaching for quite a while. You've pretty much gotten a handle on classroom management, paperwork, classroom rules, and any number of the other day-to-day tasks we encounter. But how many of these teaching vices do you struggle with? I know I'm not guiltless in these areas. In fact, I've had run-ins with most of these. Not all of them, of course. Luxuria (extravagance or lust) While most people think of lust in a sexual kind of way, in the original context, it essentially meant excessive love of others. Even so, some teachers take this one quite literally and end up losing their jobs over abusive relationships with their students. Gula (gluttony)Gluttony is typically
Thank You For A Great Year! Blogging & Technology by Joel Wagner - December 31, 2009June 30, 20103 Over 10,000 of the visits to SYWTT this year came from nine sources. The top three alone actually sent me over 6,200 visitors. This is incredible, and I need to thank all of you for the help you've provided me. Top referring blogsThese are the blogs that have sent the most visitors my way in 2009. I cannot thank these people enough for taking the time out of their schedule in one way or another and finding something on my site that resonated enough with them to send their readers my way. You people rock! It's Not All Flowers And Sausages TutorFi.com with the post 50 Reasons Why I Enjoy Being A Teacher Guy Kawasaki with the post 20
The Best of SYWTT 2009 Blogging & Technology by Joel Wagner - December 31, 2009June 30, 20100 Over the past (almost) three years of blogging, I have learned a lot more about myself, teaching, blogging, WordPress, CSS, HTML, and social media than I ever really thought I would. Most of it has been good, or at least fun. Some of it hasn't been all that great, but I keep on keeping on. As we close out each year, I like to take a sort of retrospective on the past year and look at some of the most popular articles from the year. I've traditionally broken this retrospective into three individual posts (2007 Loneliest/Busiest/Overlooked, 2008 Loneliest/Busiest/Overlooked), but this year I'll do things a little differently and pack everything into one huge year-end blowout. The busiest articles of 20092009 really