Happy Blog-iversary to Angela Blogging & Technology by Joel Wagner - August 31, 2009June 30, 20101 If you haven't visited Angela Maiers' blog before, you're missing out. Her blog turned two years old today. She has been blogging for almost as long as I have, and was one of the early commenters on my site who really inspired me to continue pressing on. One of the things I most respect about Angela is her obvious patience with children and her desire for them to be educated as well as they possibly can be. Thanks for everything you are doing for 21st Century Educators, Angela!
Laying Out A Legacy Personal by Joel Wagner - August 27, 2009June 30, 20106 A couple of weeks ago, I wrote about how my friend Junior had posted on his blog calling for people to write about what kind of a legacy we wanted to leave. I have been thinking a whole lot over the past few months about my progression as a teacher, and this seemed like the perfect opportunity to really flesh out some about what kinds of things I have been through. I've sort of broken things down by year and I would be interested to know how many other teachers could say their progress as a teacher has been similar. Clearly I have not yet arrived, but I have learned a handful of things along the way, and it's been
Wake Up Call Personal by Joel Wagner - August 19, 2009June 30, 201015 I went to the dentist yesterday morning to get work done. They took my blood pressure before they started doing anything and it came out at 150/101. These are not good numbers. Not at all. I have had elevated blood pressure in the past, but never seen the numbers this high. Granted I was at the dentist, so the numbers tend to be higher there than other places due to nerves. But all things considered, this is a huge problem. I'm posting about it on the blog, because I am asking for support. I've done research, I know a lot of things that I can change to get things better (as well as making an appointment with a doctor). What
But Wait, That Wasn’t In My Job Description! Music Education by Joel Wagner - August 16, 2009June 30, 20106 "Welcome to education." "Deal with it!" "Didn't they teach you in college that you need to be flexible?" 'What do you want me to do about it?" "Wow, I wish I had it that good my first year!" So you graduated and then spent all summer looking for a job. You got your job, get to the school, and suddenly the classes or students you have bear no real similarity to what they told you in the interview. The good news is that you're not alone. The bad news is that this is probably what you are going to be dealing with all year. I recently got an email expressing a similar situation: I'm a first year who was hired
Building A Legacy Personal by Joel Wagner - August 11, 2009June 30, 20101 Legacy Main Entry: 1leg·a·cy Pronunciation: \?le-g?-s?\ Function: noun Inflected Form(s): plural leg·a·cies Etymology: Middle English legacie office of a legate, bequest, from Anglo-French or Medieval Latin; Anglo-French, office of a legate, from Medieval Latin legatia, from Latin legatus Date: 15th century 1 : a gift by will especially of money or other personal property : bequest 2 : something transmitted by or received from an ancestor or predecessor or from the past <the legacy of the ancient philosophers> My friend Junior writes: I’m proposing, my fellow Christian brother and sister bloggers, that we do a week of “Legacy Posts”. That is, a week of posts on topics important to us, that we wish everyone knew. Have you ever thought or said,
My Crazy Summer of Aught Nine Personal by Joel Wagner - August 10, 2009June 19, 20160 This summer has been the best summer of my teaching career so far. Unfortunately for you, I haven't blogged about it a whole lot. As I get back into the routine of things a little bit more, I will have some more time and energy to begin writing about some of the things that I have experienced and why it is that this summer has been so good. It all started back at the end of May when I made the decision to miss school on Memorial Day so I could go spend the weekend with my family. My sister was in town and my cousin had a party celebrating his graduation from Med School as a neurosurgeon. I hadn't seen
20 Free Online Tools, Apps, and Downloads Blogging & Technology by Karen Schweitzer - August 4, 2009June 30, 20102 This is a guest post from Karen Schweitzer who writes for OnlineCourses.org. The Internet has tons of online tools, apps, and downloads with the tech-friendly teacher in mind. This list offers 20 free sites that would be genuinely useful to educators throughout the school year: ThinkFold - ThinkFold is a structured environment for groups to collaborate on documents, presentations, ideas, and plans. This free app is perfect for students and teachers who want to brainstorm, interact together on an outline, and make changes in real-time. Mindomo - This site provides a versatile mind mapping tool that can be used to organize and store research. Educators can share their maps online or embed them into an existing webpage. SchoolTool -