Help Me Change The World! Seriously General by Joel Wagner - August 8, 2007July 5, 20101 On July 4th, author Timothy Ferriss wrote a blog entry about changing the world. In response to his request for ideas, I wrote: As a teacher, your book has revolutionized the way I intend on teaching next year. I am going to start the year checking emails once a day and then gradually decrease that to two days a week. It’s amazing how much time most teachers waste with mundane and unimportant tasks. Your points on the difference between efficient and effective have really changed my paradigm of work. I wrote a blog article about it. I would definitely send at least a small chunk of the books to leaders in the National Science Teachers Association. Science teachers talkto other
New Teacher Survival Kit General by Joel Wagner - August 3, 2007August 5, 201620 We’ve all been there. The beginning of the first year of teaching can be daunting, to say the least. It was the best of times. It was the worst of times. First year horror stories abound. The number of teachers who quit after the first year or two of teaching matches or exceeds the number of teachers who stick with the profession. My theory is that teachers leave the biz for lack of knowledge. College only can do so much in preparation. We hear of how much better student teaching was back in the day than it is now, and how poorly prepared prospective educators are these days. There may be validity in that, but lamenting these things doesn’t solve problems.
To Shut Up Or Not To Shut Up? That Is The Question General by Joel Wagner - July 20, 2007July 5, 20105 So I wrote Shut Up And Teach! yesterday and have gotten mixed reactions from it. Some have argued that my points were good while others have complained that I am advocating tying the hands and muzzling educators to prevent them from fighting for social justice. People have even gone so far as to write articles in response. Whatever the case, I enjoy the conversation that has developed. This tells me one of two things. Either: I am completely wrong and totally out of line I am at least partially right and hitting too close for comfort Investigating the arguments I am completely wrong and totally out of line These arguments include the facts that some school
Shut Up And Teach! General by Joel Wagner - July 19, 2007July 5, 201010 I get so tired of hearing teachers complaining about No Child Left Behind. I get so tired of hearing teachers complain about administration. I get so tired of hearing teachers complain about parents. Shut up and teach! It's a simple concept, but some teachers seem to derive greater joy from feeling victimized than they do from feeling victorious. After all, it's much simpler to complain than it is to create solutions. I am convinced that if I took the skills that I use in teaching beginning band, that my students would excel. I want to share a few things that really seem to help my students learn the material well. Keep in mind that as they enter 6th grade, many
The Total Resume Makeover General by Joel Wagner - July 18, 2007June 19, 20163 It's the last half of July, you're looking for a job, you have no interviews lined up, and school starts in a month or less (or 40 days if you live in Texas). You have all the skills and experience in the world, but simply get no phone calls. The old adage goes, "If you keep doing what you've been doing, you'll keep getting what you've been getting." So change something. Let's see if maybe your resume needs a total makeover. Change something! I am amazed when I look at most resumes. They generally look bland, boring, and banal. As Louise Flethcer writes: Your resume is a marketing brochure, not a product catalog. It has to say just enough to make the sale
How To Polish Your Resume To Rack Up Job Interviews General by Joel Wagner - July 16, 2007June 19, 20160 Polishing The Resume So you have just graduated from college and ready to enter the teaching field. Or maybe you are in the midst of your final days, weeks, or months of college education and want to know where to start. Or maybe you are simply looking for greener pastures. The deal is, nobody gets a job unless they first have a job interview. That's pretty obvious, right? So how do you get a job interview? There are a few ways, but the focus for today will be getting out the old resume and preparing to be interview bait. Some sticking points to remember are that everybody else applying for the job has a resume also. Yours has to jump out of
5 Habits of Highly Effective Teachers General by Joel Wagner - July 9, 2007July 25, 20162 I recently read an article written by a newly-hired teacher. She was concerned about the fall and how to establish procedures. My response was for her simply to be patient, ask lots of questions, and hang in there. When I was in her position, that kind of advice would have sounded trite and condescending to me. So I wanted to write a bit more details about some of the procedures I set up in my own life that have allowed me to be more effective. These 5 Habits of Highly Effective Teachers may help newer teachers who are struggling to maintain their sanity. The 5 procedures in the series include: Communication Habits Classroom Habits Relationship Habits Personal Habits Community Habits
Teachers Rap About High School [VIDEO] General by Joel Wagner - July 6, 2007July 5, 20100 The name says it all.
Did You Know? [VIDEO] General by Joel Wagner - July 5, 2007July 5, 20100 The world is changing. Are teachers changing with it?
Pay Attention [VIDEO] General by Joel Wagner - July 4, 2007July 5, 20100 This is one of the most powerful presentations I've seen that pertains to education. If you are interested in being a better teacher, you cannot miss this. It's an awesome presentation on integrating technology into virtually everything that we do in education.Not only is it beautiful from a presentation standpoint (clean, uncluttered, visually pleasing), but it is also beautiful from the standpoint of what it says and how it can completely change your paradigm. Be sure to watch the next video entitled Did You Know? as well. The two of them together can be revolutionary for education.
The Best Time To Be A Teacher? General by Joel Wagner - July 1, 2007July 5, 20105 Check out the video at the end of this post! It'll make you feel better. I was reading some over at TeacherLingo.com and came across a post by Howard. In it, he writes: Here's what I've learned in the last 16 years... Teaching is only as enjoyable as the principal you work for. Good principals are the exception, not the norm. The best time to be a teacher is June through August. Whereas I only have five years of experience, when I read this, I am sad. Perhaps these comments will be helpful. If you agree or even if you disagree, then leave some comments and let's start a dialogue about these issues. I don't think that Howard is the only
Redeeming The Cesspools Of Public Education General by Joel Wagner - June 29, 2007July 5, 20101 This is the first time I've heard about this and thought it interesting to pass along. According to Mike in Texas, there was a school in Denmark (isn't it always in Denmark?) where the students have an end of the year tradition of stripping for the faculty. This fact is not the concern or the issue at question. The problem is that some of the girls evidently got carried away and, in the words of the principal, "I think they forgot what they were doing and where they were. But my concern now is not to punish anyone, but protect the girls who are now all over the internet." Read the entire post on Mike's blog. In his blog, he
3 Keys To Line Up A Killer Job While Still In School General by Joel Wagner - June 26, 2007May 30, 20163 I was reading through messages on TeacherLingo.com and came across this post by Erin. I’m not yet a teacher but am researching the possibilities. I’m thinking about teaching history at a private school … What i would like to know is, what are the pitfalls? Is there a great deal of red tape? Do incoming teachers have to kowtow to the upper echelons or is it more egalitarian? How does the hiring process work and what are they looking for? What can i do now, as I’m still in school, to make myself a more attractive candidate? MY RESPONSE: I believe that the answers to these questions all depend on the specific school you end up teaching in. The last question you asked
Why School Dress Code Is Important [VIDEO] General by Joel Wagner - June 18, 2007July 5, 20101 How many guns do you see? This is an amazing video that demonstrates the violence that can result simply by a school's failure to have an enforce a no-tolerance dress code. I have watched this video numerous times to check and recheck how harmless he looks at the beginning of the video. Truly amazing and frightening at the same time.
Questions That Will Save Your Career General by Joel Wagner - June 13, 2007August 6, 20171 This article features links to other articles in a series called "Questions That Will Save Your Career." These are all considerations that I have made as a teacher that helped me stick to it and survive in the business when I was first starting out. As I have mentioned before, my priorities as a first year teacher were a little bit off. It wasn't until the end of my second year before I began to really "get it." I still don't get it, but I have begun to. What I learned in the last two and a half months of that second school year was that I needed to ask questions. But not just any questions. Over time, I have learned that a lot of