Test Drive SYWTT Forums Today Blogging & Technology by Joel Wagner - April 7, 2008July 2, 20102 I said I wasn't going to post again this week. The thought of having forums on here really got me excited. So I decided to invite you to go start testing it out. I have currently only one topic and one forum, but I want you to play around with it. Over the course of time (particularly over the summer), I will begin to really dig into editing and making the theme look better. I may experiment with a few different forum setups before deciding on one that I want to keep. For now, you can point your browser to http://forums.soyouwanttoteach.com/ and explore. Also, April 9th is CSS Naked Day. Check out So You Want To Teach that day to
April 2007 Blogging & Technology by Joel Wagner - April 2, 2008July 2, 20102 By the way, yesterday's article about quitting? Not true. April Fools. Thanks for all the wonderful comments. And I'm sure most of my regulars figured it out. But, as Waski pointed out: The things [I] describe do turn many good teachers off on teaching. With some of the silliness I’m presented with, I wonder at times why I bother putting up with it. Of course, most jobs have the silliness and ridiculous paperwork in one form or another. I love teaching. As Betty points out, teaching is so much a part of me. No matter if I leave the "education profession" or not, I will remain a teacher and will always find myself teaching in some capacity or another. I
The State of the Blog 03/30/08 Blogging & Technology by Joel Wagner - March 30, 2008July 2, 20105 Wow, it has been over five months since I have done this kind of thing. I've written some informal blog updates from time to time, but nothing formalized like this. I have noticed that So You Want To Teach? seems to be entering a new phase of its life and want to ask you for some help. There's also a completely unrelated video at the end. But first, the latest blogging news from SYWTT. I revamped my Links page today and only put those blogs that had commented or emailed me back in January. Keep reading for info on how to get your link added there. We reached 100 subscribers for the first time on November 15th. We reached
Carnival of Education #163: Spring Break 2008 Edition Blogging & Technology by Joel Wagner - March 19, 2008July 2, 20107 I know some of you have already had spring break, and others haven't yet had it. Whatever the case, spring actually breaks tomorrow as the Vernal Equinox happens. In honor of the new season, you'll notice a handful of spring-like pictures. I hope you enjoy. I am spending my time off catching up on housework, doing my taxes, playing with my dogs, and doing some general maintenance with the blog. I surely don't want to waste my spring break, the time is too valuable! So instead, I decided to host the Carnival of Education. What was I thinking?!?!? Before I go, I wanted to mention that I have been reading a lot more blogs lately and I came across an
An “Online Magazine Rack” Blogging & Technology by Joel Wagner - March 13, 2008July 2, 201011 I recently got an email from Guy Kawasaki, the noted Apple evangelist. He writes: Yesterday we announced a website that is a collection of "single-page aggregations" organized by topics such as Fashion, Celebrities, Sports, Gaming, Macintosh, Science, Green, and Autos. Here people can find odd news from dozens of sites, side-by-side, at a glance--think of it as an "online magazine rack." I hope that you will like it and will spread the word. I'm not exactly sure how So You Want To Teach? ended up in the list, but Alltop recently added an education category. Somehow, they have decided to include this blog in their list of 75 or so. Somehow somebody somewhere decided that my writing is
Entering the Twittersphere Blogging & Technology by Joel Wagner - March 8, 2008July 2, 20104 If you use Twitter, add me. I have been quickly glancing over blog posts about it lately, but never paid much attention. I see that more and more bloggers seem to be doing it. As I look at it, it seems much like Facebook and MySpace's status updates, so I'll go for it and see what happens. Some questions I have for my readers: Do you use Twitter? What do you do with it? Do you use it in the classroom? How?
Catching Up Blogging & Technology by Joel Wagner - March 8, 2008July 2, 20100 I have had quite a few sites link to me lately and I have not returned the favor. If you have linked to me at any point, please trust that I will be linking to you within the next three months. I'm telling you, this site will go crazy after the school year is over. I may be able to do some more catching up over spring break in a week or so. We'll see what happens. Joseph Pisano has posted the latest Official List Of The ME Bloggers. jd2718 added me to his March link updates. He also said I'm a great idea and very helpful. Awww, thanks! Wow, where has the time gone? I've been featured in a
Hyper-Focus Fosters Higher Quality Output Blogging & Technology by Joel Wagner - February 11, 2008July 2, 20107 Get your commenting skills ready, there's lots of material to be discussed here. I will be offline for most of this coming week and would love to hear the thoughts of my readers on these subjects. This week, I will be traveling to San Antonio for the annual Texas Music Educators Association clinic and convention. I'm excited. That convention marks the beginning of the heavy push as we prepare for the UIL Concert & Sight Reading contest, which will be held in early April. It also signifies the end of my relaxed life. The next two months will be extremely hectic and crowded for me as I focus on making sure that everything is taken care of as I prepare
Update: Double Your FeedBurner RSS Numbers Overnight Blogging & Technology by Joel Wagner - January 29, 2008July 2, 20100 My recent tutorial, Double Your FeedBurner RSS Numbers Overnight, has been featured as one of 71 tutorials in Daniel's Blog Writing Project at Daily Blog Tips. Daily Blog Tips has over 8,500 subscribers and is among the top 500 blogs in Technorati's ratings. If you wanted to help me out by going to the site, clicking on the article (toward the bottom of the blogging section at the top), and linking to both my article and his, I would be happy. Heck, while you're there, check out some of the other great tutorials! Some like these: Zero to Rhythm in 12 Days How To Eat Healthy At Fast Food Joints Tutorial: How to print blog articles the smart way
150 Subscribers Blogging & Technology by Joel Wagner - January 15, 2008July 2, 20102 Thank you so much to everyone who has subscribed. You people are awesome! I want to challenge you to invite one person you know who is either a great teacher or an aspiring great teacher to check out So You Want To Teach? for themselves. Email Updates Did you know that email subscriptions are available? Even if they aren't familiar with blogging, you can sign up to receive the updates via email. Could you sign up with your school address, and begin sending articles around to your colleagues? I want to see how quickly we can build our "class size" to 200. Will you help me by inviting one friend? :)
152nd Carnival of Education Blogging & Technology by Joel Wagner - January 2, 2008July 2, 201012 Welcome to the January 2, 2008 edition of The Carnival of Education. I have been asked to host this party, so fasten your seat belts, tighten your shoelaces, batten down the hatches, and let the good times roll. How's that for a cliché riddled sentence? Last time I hosted, I got quite a few positive comments. So hopefully you will enjoy this time around as well. If this is your first time visiting my blog, welcome! I'd love it if you stick around, subscribe, and contribute to the conversations! Looking for somewhere to start, check out The Busiest Articles of 2007, then if you're in a real commenting mood, go visit the poor Overlooked Articles of 2007 and The Loneliest
So You Want To Teach 2008 Blogging & Technology by Joel Wagner - December 31, 2007July 2, 20100 I have been working for about a month now on redesigning So You Want To Teach? I want to make it even more reader friendly. I'm excited about the changes that will be coming this week. In fact, the redesigned site has now made its debut! If you're reading in a RSS reader, come check it out. Let me know what you think. Wow, look at the colors! I have changed the color scheme and the heading graphic a little bit. The goal is to add some more color and make the site more inviting and more reminiscent of actually teaching children. Why is there a question mark next to my comment? Because you haven't set up a Gravatar! Go
5 Blogging Surprises of 2007 Blogging & Technology by Joel Wagner - December 28, 2007July 2, 20101 This blog has brought some exciting and unexpected things into my life. In this article, I'll discuss some of the biggest surprises that have come about as a result of this. A brief background It was about a year ago that I first began to really get into blogging. I knew of blogs and actually had a few on livejournal and myspace for a few years. I was vaguely aware of RSS back in 2002 when it first came on the scene and began to gain some popularity. I just had never really gotten into the whole blogging thing. I began reading blogs some and started learning. I was inspired. But I still never ventured into the "edublogosphere." In February,
The Overlooked Articles of 2007 Blogging & Technology by Joel Wagner - December 27, 2007July 2, 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. A dozen overlooked articles of 2007 A Customer Service Oriented Classroom Experience February 24th, 2007 Be The Best Teacher In The World May 19th, 2007 Reading May 29th, 2007 Finding Excellent Educators To Emulate June 5th, 2007 Where Have All
The Busiest Articles of 2007 Blogging & Technology by Joel Wagner - December 26, 2007July 2, 20101 On Sunday, we looked back at some of The Loneliest Articles of 2007, today, we'll go to the other extreme and look at the busiest articles of 2007. 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 15 most commented articles. 148th Carnival of Education December 5th, 2007 (9 comments by 9 authors, 4 trackbacks) (13) The State of the Blog: 08/01/07 August 1st, 2007 (11 comments by 11 authors) (11) 5 Surefire Tips For Handling Misbehavior September 12th, 2007 (8 comments by 7 authors) (7) The Purpose Of A Personal Mission Statement July 26th,