How To Avoid Arguing With Students Classroom Management by Joel Wagner - July 21, 2016July 21, 20160 Many students like to argue. It's a fact of life. And arguing is normal, isn't it? Or is it? This article explores some ways to avoid arguing with students. Great teachers don't have arguers Have you ever noticed how you can walk into a classroom and hear the teacher talking, and the students being quiet? They are given directions, and nobody challenges the assignment. What is it that makes that happen? Below are a few things that set great teachers apart and help them avoid arguing with students. 1. Great teachers don't accept excuses Excuses are often a student's way of asking for help. When we accept an excuse, we enable students to remain helpless. As a general rule, I don't give away easy answers. "What's the
101 Ways To Make Students Hate Your Class Classroom Management by Joel Wagner - July 20, 20161 We've all had our share of students whose purpose in life seems to be making our own life miserable. If you haven't, well you're in luck. Here is a list of ways to make students hate your class. 101 Ways To Make Students Hate Your Class Be boring Be mean Be inconsiderate Be confrontational Be negative Be consistently sarcastic Be impatient Be satisfied with good enough Argue with students Yell at students Threaten students Pick favorites Don't learn names Misspell names Don't try to pronounce names correctly Discourage students Focus on insecurities Compare students unfavorably with their siblings Compare students with other students Don't allow students to use the restroom in obvious emergencies Haphazardly allow a "revolving door restroom policy" Makes lots
5 Ways To Make Your College Application Stand Out Beyond The Essay General by Vera Marie Reed - July 13, 2016July 14, 20160 As we approach the beginning of the new school year, high school teachers will undoubtedly be approached by seniors for help with college applications. What do you tell them? How can you help? Writing a great essay is a good start, but there are other ways to make any college application stand out, and the best time to begin addressing that is now. In today's article, Vera Reed explores some other ways we can guide our students toward making their college application stand out. Going above and beyond the call to duty is simply one of the things that great teachers do. So while you technically don’t have to help your students with their college applications, going the extra mile to do so will
35 Inspiring Quotes About the Power of Music Music Education by Joel Wagner - July 12, 2016July 12, 20161 As music educators, we often focus our advocacy attention on the curricular benefits of music and gloss over many of the aesthetic benefits. The power of music is tremendous. Music inspires. Music comforts. Just last week, Darryl McDaniels (DMC from the group Run-DMC) spoke about how Sarah McLachlan's music helped bring him back from the brink of suicide. In our fights over what is curricular, extra-curricular, co-curricular we too easily forget that the emotional element is a large part of why so many students stay involved in school music programs around the world. I collected a 35 Inspiring Quotes About the Power of Music and made a series of images. I have a couple of authors, traditional classical, jazz, classic rock, and modern musicians represented and ordered them by
3 Ways Classroom Tech Can Boost Education Results Blogging & Technology by Jason Phillips - July 11, 2016July 10, 20161 As we advance further into the 21st century, increasingly more educational institutions are realizing that advanced technology can be put good use in the classroom; rather than ignore its potential, teachers should welcome and embrace it but use it wisely for students to reap the benefits. Laptops and iPads are slowly but steady replacing the conventional textbooks, not to mention that the internet is a pool of information. Students can gain access to online libraries, dictionaries and encyclopedias with just a click of a button. But then again, we have some drawbacks. Many believe that social media and full access to online data is doing more harm than good. Some experts believe that technology is preventing students from reading actual books. And
Curiosity May Kill Cats, But Conformity Kills Creativity General by Joel Wagner - July 9, 2016July 10, 20160 In the recent blog post 10 Habits of People Who Always Have Great Ideas, Ideapod author Lachlan Brown highlights 10 characteristics of creative people. I encourage you to go read the article. As I was reading through the list, I was struck by two thoughts: "Hey, those are all habits I cultivate in my life!" and "Wow, wouldn't it be great to have students like that in my class?" This article explores how I nurture creativity in my life as well as in my students.. How do I cultivate these habits in my life? Daydreaming I am constantly considering new ideas and looking for new sources of inspiration. Sources of inspiration include listening to a podcast (my current favorites are Revisionist History and DCI's Fieldpass), reading a book (I'm
The Many Benefits of Music Education [Infographic] Music Education by Joel Wagner - July 8, 2016July 7, 20162 Research abounds regarding the incredible benefits of music education. The University of Florida has put together an infographic called "Why Music? The Many Benefits of a Musical Education."Among the benefits listed Benefits to the brain and general learning skills The benefits listed include verbal intelligence, reading skills, fine motor skills, abstract thinking, vocabulary acquisition, and memory. Benefits to academic achievement These include better listening ability, higher SAT scores, higher academic grades, better science skills, greater percentage of extracurricular participation, higher GPA, greater likelihood of enrollment in moderately- and highly-selective universities, much lower dropout rates, and these gains are more pronounced in low-income students. Benefits to life skills and personal enrichment These include helping students become more employable, participate in the political process, volunteer and engage their community, have higher self-confidence,
Finding A Teaching Job General by Joel Wagner - July 6, 2016July 10, 20160 Do you ever feel alone in your quest to become a teacher? Well, the truth is that finding a teaching job can be lonely, but it is not a unique experience. Over the next few weeks, I will be curating Resource Posts that will serve as a springboard for digging deeper into specific topics that have been covered on this blog. Since we are at the beginning of July and many teachers are searching for their first job or for greener pastures, the first stop is a collection of resources on finding a teaching job. General Tips Help: Should I Become A Teacher? Help A New Student Teacher Out With Resources 10 Things I Wish Someone Had Explained Before My First Teaching Job Five Ways
10 Teaching Myths Busted [Infographic] General by Joel Wagner - July 5, 2016July 10, 20160 Most teachers came to their first teaching job with some beliefs that we have since learned were not true. This article explores ten of those teaching myths.
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 7/3/16 General by Joel Wagner - July 3, 2016July 3, 20160 Well, I hope you're having a nice productive weekend and are ready to get a new week started. I know that we have some international readers, but in the United States, we are celebrating Independence Day this weekend. While you have some time left in the weekend, here are some cool things you can fill it with. A new podcast Malcolm Gladwell has a new podcast out called Revisionist History. From the podcasts's about page: Welcome to Revisionist History, a new podcast from Malcolm Gladwell and Panoply Media. Each week for 10 weeks, Revisionist History will go back and reinterpret something from the past: an event, a person, an idea. Something overlooked. Something misunderstood. Because sometimes the past deserves a second chance. An few older podcasts I actually learned about Malcolm
The Impact of Great Teachers [Infographic] General by Joel Wagner - July 1, 2016June 29, 20160 Great teachers Many people live their lives without impacting more than a few hundred people. Teachers often make that kind of impact over the course of one year. This kind of responsibility can be intimidating, and is one of the main reasons that I continually encourage my readers to strive toward being great teachers. This infographic below looks at some of the qualities of great teachers. Keep aiming higher, my friends. The world needs great teachers like you! Image courtesy of Teacher Certification Degrees
The Art of Encouragement Inspiration by Joel Wagner - June 30, 2016July 10, 20160 By far one of the most successful early posts on this blog was 6 Motivation Techniques. I wrote it in March of 2007, as I was approaching the end of my fifth year of teaching. Now more than nine years later, I realize I was onto some good ideas, but I was off base. In this article, we'll look at the missing piece that would have helped me so much in those early years of teaching: The Art of Encouragement Without motivation, your class is just another block of time that the students have to suffer through. With motivation, you hear things like “hi, favorite teacher!â€Â and “I love this class!†As a teacher, those are the kinds of things that we
Integrating Classroom Safety with the Youngsters General by Aileen Pablo - June 29, 2016July 28, 20160 In this article, Aileen Pablo examines the issue of classroom safety, especially regarding younger students. So often, we take basic safety knowledge for granted and forget that we learned those lessons at some point. Teachers and schools aren't just responsible for educating children; when kids are in their "custody" for the school day, they are also legally tasked with keeping them safe. Unfortunately, that's sometimes easier said than done when you've got hundreds of excitable little ones who are far more interested in playing around. And with the youngest kids, they may not even have a sense of basic safety or know how to keep themselves out of harm's way. Because of these things, it’s all too common for children to put themselves
Jeopardy Champ Has Shocking Plan To Overhaul Education, And It Just Might Work! General by Mister Teacher - June 28, 2016July 3, 20161 This article by John Pearson will leave you scratching your head to figure out why you never thought of this simple solution before. With schools and students increasingly getting technology and finding themselves "on-line," it's probably time that we as educators start adapting our academic"hooks" to fit the times. Since so many ads and sites shamelessly use clickbait headlines, I thought it would be a good idea to start a little list going of similar approaches we could take. Please feel free to add your own Here's a homework sheet with 10 word problems -- Number 5 will shock you! The cafeteria served smiley-face potato wedges. You won't believe what happened next! This video will prove you've been estimating wrong your whole life!