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
18 Again Personal by Joel Wagner - December 30, 2008July 1, 20100 I saw a great post on The Yellow Board today. The author asks a simple question: This is a little "out there", but let's say you could go back in time and and meet yourself when you were 18. You could tell yourself one thing, and zap, you were back to the present. What one thing would you tell yourself, even if it changed the present? I thought about this and decided I would let "me" know about Sept.11,01. What about you? I hope you don't tell yourself not to be a band director or to buy stock in Microsoft. What would help the world or others instead of just you? My response would be, "Avoid debt entirely." If I
Calling All Storytellers Blogging & Technology by Joel Wagner - December 29, 2008July 1, 20102 Mr. Teacher has one of the most entertaining blogs I've seen. In fact, I recommend his blog Learn Me Good to most of my friends who are looking for restroom reading material! I have recently written a guest post for him that will be appearing over there sometime in the next week or so. While I normally write useful tips and hints for educators, his blog is often filled with humorous anecdotes gleaned from the life of a third grade teacher. I figured I would cater my guest article to his audience and made sure to remove all potentially useful information from it. It's an amazing story about one of the most unique Christmas gifts I have ever received from
The Overlooked Articles of 2008 Blogging & Technology by Joel Wagner - December 27, 2008July 1, 20100 In continuing my review of the year, I am looking today at some of the articles that I wish were more popular. They may have received a handful of comments, or they may not have received any. The most common cause for their relative obscurity is that they are older articles and have gotten lost. Even so, many of them haven’t received a whole lot of traffic. So I’m dusting them off, polishing them up, and repackaging them here. Two dozen overlooked articles of 2008 January 14th, 2008 8 Ways Blogging Makes Me A Better Teacher January 20th, 2008 What If… January 31st, 2008 Clinicians February 11th, 2008 Hyper-Focus Fosters Higher Quality Output February 21st, 2008 Apologizing March 15th, 2008 Whitespace March 17th, 2008 You’ve Been
The Busiest Articles of 2008 Blogging & Technology by Joel Wagner - December 26, 2008July 1, 20100 On Wednesday, we looked back at some of The Loneliest Articles of 2008, today, we’ll go to the other extreme and look at the busiest articles of 2008. These are the articles that generated the most comments. I’ve gone through the articles and found those that received the most comments. After boiling down that list, I have come up with the 20 most commented articles. Teaching: Part Time Job At Full Pay Wages???? July 2nd, 2008 (28 comments by 26 authors) (28) Double Your FeedBurner RSS Numbers Overnight January 27th, 2008 (13 comments by 10 authors, 14 trackbacks) (27) The First Ever Music Education Blog Carnival July 1st, 2008 (12 comments by 11 authors, 8 trackbacks) (20) 152nd Carnival
The Loneliest Articles of 2008 Blogging & Technology by Joel Wagner - December 24, 2008July 1, 20101 In the Christmas break, I am looking back at this blog’s growth and development. I did this last year and it helped some of the newer readers to catch some of the things they missed out on. I know that since the year started with around 125 subscribers and is ending with around 600, many of you haven't gone in and dug through the archives. These year-end summaries will help you out a little bit! As I look through the blog’s archive, it strikes me that there are some articles that have either been buried deep in the archives, or for whatever reason, have gone unnoticed by my readers. So I am giving all of those articles a chance to
Since You’re In The Kitchen… Personal by Joel Wagner - December 22, 2008July 1, 20100 This has very little to do with education, but the concept is brilliant and bears sharing. Foodista is a cookbook with a wiki approach. Some of the cool features include: User-generated and user-edited recipes Easily link to recipes from your blog Click on an ingredient, and find recipes that include that ingredient For instance, here is a link to a recipe for Christmas Pudding. Feel free to explore the site while you have some time off for the Christmas Break!
Christmas Concert Ruminations Music Education by Joel Wagner - December 20, 2008July 1, 20104 My Christmas concert came and went. No, I don't have a "winter concert" or "holiday concert." We don't play winter music at the concert. We don't play Easter or Halloween or Arbor Day music at the concert. We play Christmas music. So it's a Christmas concert. Why is it so difficult for people to understand that concept? Why are so many people scared of offending people that they let fear dominate their lives? My concerts used to be offensive, but that was because my bands didn't know how to play. Now, they sound pretty good, and all that stuff. We have fun. We perform both secular and sacred music. Of course, none of them have words, so there is really
It’s About That Time…Christmas Jokes For All! General by Joel Wagner - December 16, 2008July 1, 20103 Found these on the Yellow Board. Enjoy. If you're a band director (especially in Texas) and you don't read the Yellow Board, you should. Q: If athletes get athletes foot, what do astronauts get? A: Missletoe! Q: What do you get when you cross a snowman with a vampire? A: Frostbite. Q: Why was Santa’s little helper depressed? A: Because he had low elf esteem. Q: Why does Santa have 3 gardens? A: So he can ho-ho-ho. Q: Where do polar bears vote? A: The North Poll. Q: What do you get when you cross an archer with a gift-wrapper? A: Ribbon hood. Q: Why do birds fly south for the winter ? A: Because it’s to far to walk.
Just How Important Is Excellence? Personal by Joel Wagner - December 13, 2008July 1, 201011 I love competition. I thrive on competition. I love being able to get a group of kids to create a powerfully musical performance. These are tremendous things. But I have come to realize that this is not the most important thing we can do. If we lose sight of why we are in education and focus solely on winning (having the most kids pass TAKS, getting more kids in the all region choir, having an undefeated volleyball season, or whatever), we miss out on an opportunity for some of the greatest education we can provide. As a band director, I struggle to ensure that my pursuit of musical excellence does not overtake my desire to provide a high quality education
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
Are You Student Teaching Next Semester? Blogging & Technology by Joel Wagner - December 7, 2008July 1, 20105 If you are going to be student teaching in the spring semester of this school year, I want you to contact me. Before the end of this month. I am beginning work on a major project that will benefit you (and other students) tremendously. Either comment or email.
Perspective [VIDEO] General by Joel Wagner - December 5, 2008July 1, 20100 I recently was reminded of some videos I've seen before, but that was over a year and a half ago. These numbers are awe-inspiring. It is also humbling to realize how fast things are progressing in the world. It's amazing to realize that the world I knew when I was growing up in the 90s is so amazingly different from the world we know now!
A Modern Retelling of an Ageless Classic [VIDEO] Personal by Joel Wagner - December 2, 2008July 1, 20101 I love the visual effects employed here. Note the extensive use of whitespace. Greatness! Oh yeah, the message is incredible too.
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