TAKS Day General by Joel Wagner - March 5, 2008July 2, 20105 We have our first of four TAKS test days today. They seem to have increased testing security quite a bit this year over last year. In fact, we are supposed to have some monitors from the state coming to our campus at some point during the day to make sure we are doing things correctly. I'm new at this campus, and things are run differently here than they were at the campus where I taught last year. We get to be with the students we are testing from before 8:00 to at least 2:00. We sit with the students in the cafeteria at lunch. We don't get a conference period. It's pretty much a wasted day as far as teaching
Apologizing General by Joel Wagner - February 21, 2008July 2, 20103 So on Tuesday, I wrote about an incident I had where I was awfully sarcastic with a student and it upset him. I received some great comments. The conversation is continuing over there. If you haven't chimed in, now would be a great time to do so. And better yet, subscribe to receive comments so you don't have to keep going back to check and recheck. So what did I do? How did I respond on Wednesday? Well, basically, I started out the percussion class by having them all sit in a row. I got them quiet and talked with them some. I asked them what some things were that they would change. As I expected, the most common responses
Not The Best Day Ever General by Joel Wagner - February 19, 2008July 2, 201010 Today was a pretty good day in parts. In fact, most of my classes went really well. Except for my percussion class. It has been bad since the middle of December. This is slightly abnormal for me, but the following post is a narrative with a question and plea for help at the end. Why is my percussion class getting out of hand? Because I have two different groups of students in there. Since the director I work with had a stroke, I have been the only band director at my school. This makes my work load heavier, but manageable for the most part. The percussion is the exception because it is a combination of percussionists from two different bands.
Double Your FeedBurner RSS Numbers Overnight General by Joel Wagner - January 27, 2008May 29, 201612 This article is part of a Group Writing Project about Building RSS Numbers. I recently achieved the milestone of having 150 subscribers (I'm still hanging out in that area). In reaching that, I realize that many bloggers use Blogger to host their blogs and FeedBurner for their RSS syndication. That's a good combination (I much prefer WordPress, but Blogger can be simpler to set up). This post will serve as a simple tutorial to allow people in this situation to double their subscriber count overnight. If not overnight, then quickly to say the least. I've noticed that a lot of the bloggers who have this setup seem to have low subscriber counts. I noticed that Learn Me Good is still hanging out around
8 Ways Blogging Makes Me A Better Teacher General by Joel Wagner - January 14, 2008July 2, 20109 I have found this year that I have been making a lot of progress on my own personal teaching style. It's my 6th year to teach, and I begin what could be seen as the downhill slope of teaching. Now that I am pretty adequate at getting children to be and stay quiet throughout class so that I can teach them, I run the risk of slacking off and stagnating in my teaching technique. The whole if it's not broke, don't fix it mentality could very easily take over. But that's not the case with me. Why not? I believe that a lot of it has to do with my own personality of one who pursues excellence. But I think
Self-Sufficient Students General by Joel Wagner - January 11, 2008July 2, 20107 Recently, one of the other teachers sent the following email out to everyone at my campus: Self-sufficient – able to take care of your own needs without help from others Colleagues, over the next several weeks I will be using some of my sponge time to explore the idea of self-sufficiency in school and at home. We have already learned the definition and brainstormed some examples. Now I am soliciting ideas from you. If you had to name one or two ways in which you wish your students were more self-suffcient, what would it be? If you have been successful in teaching your students to be more self-sufficient in school, what method did you use? My personal
Power Teaching: A Revolutionary Teaching Style [VIDEOS] General by Joel Wagner - January 8, 2008July 2, 201010 This is some amazing stuff here! Anyone have any experience with these Power Teaching techniques? This stuff looks like it has some real merit. 1st Grade 3rd Grade 4th Grade 6th Grade College Philosophy
Highlighting Some Recent Comments General by Joel Wagner - January 7, 2008July 2, 20101 I have fallen behind on the blog lately, but that is because I am actually trying to move forward some more in my personal life. Sometimes sacrifices are necessary parts of progress. I wanted to take this opportunity to highlight a few of the great comments that I have received lately. I am interested in hearing more about how some of you run your classrooms effectively. This can include specific teaching techniques, classroom management (which we have gone over quite a bit in recent months), and socially. I also am interested in hearing how you handle administrative issues that seem to pop up from time to time. Out of the middle of nowhere, Jane wrote a lengthy and thoughtful comment
Science Education The Way It Should Be [VIDEO] General by Joel Wagner - January 5, 2008July 2, 20101 Check this stuff out! Are there any of you out there who actually do cool stuff like this? If so, let me know. If not, then find a way to do one experiment/demonstration like this each month for the rest of your teaching career. It will change lives.
Updating Your Resume General by Joel Wagner - November 11, 2007June 19, 20160 It never hurts to go back and polish your resume from time to time. In fact, your resume could be the reason you are not getting job interviews. Here are some great links to help get you started in that direction. Further Reading But I Don’t Want To Teach — So You Want To Teach? Help! My Resume Is Blocking Me From Interviews — Record Eagle Blogs How To Construct A Killer Resume, From Start To Finish — The Simple Dollar How To Make A Resume That Gets Results — Employment Digest How To Spiff Up Your Resume — New York Times Looking For A New Job? — So You Want To Teach? Polishing The Resume — So You Want To Teach? Ten
But I Don’t Want To Teach! General by Joel Wagner - October 21, 2007July 5, 20103 Some people come by this site and blow it off because they don't ever have any dreams of sitting inside a classroom and teaching young hellions. That's fine. But these people fail to realize that we all are teachers in one sense of the word or another. The problem is that many people don't see this and end up blowing it when it comes their chance to actually teach something. Maybe we teach a child how to tie her shoe. Maybe we teach a friend how to play a new guitar chord. Maybe we teach our coworker the unwritten rules of the workplace. Maybe we teach our parents how to use electronics. Whatever the case, everyone is a teacher of
7 Pieces Of Financial Advice For A High School Student (Or Teacher!) General by Joel Wagner - September 30, 2007July 5, 20101 Trent at The Simple Dollar has an article entitled Seven Pieces Of Financial Advice For A High School Student. These guidelines apply to us al, but as teachers, it would be helpful if we pass along this information (perhaps indirectly) to our students. The entire article is awesome. The comments are also great. Go check it out! Do not carry a credit card balance Put a small amount in the bank each week and forget about it until you’re about to make a big purchase or a true emergency comes up Learn how to learn Start a side business Take a leadership position There is no such thing as a free lunch If you’ve discovered something you enjoy and
How To Cope With Tragedy General by Joel Wagner - August 22, 2007July 5, 20100 Last week, Michelle wrote that she learned that one of her colleagues recently passed away. She writes a popular blog on blogging and was wondering if she should take some time away or just how to handle her desires to grow as a writer, generate income with the blog, and also just get a chance to deal with the emotional heaviness of the situation. Last November, I went to the first funeral of a former student of mine. She was a high school tuba player in the two years that I knew her. She graduated in 2004. She lived down the street from me. She washed my car for a quarter once. We traded movies during the summer, and
The Twelve Days of Teaching General by Joel Wagner - August 12, 2007July 5, 20104 EDIT: I replaced the original image I had on here. This one was taken from Transitions Abroad's website. It's a classroom in Guatamala. I so desperately want to go overseas (at least out of the US) and teach for a summer, or even for a year. That has nothing to do with the remainder of the article, but I thought I'd throw it in there. On the first day of teaching, my Teacher gave to me: A classroom management plan [...] On the twelfth day of teaching, my Teacher gave to me: Twelve (+3) tips to stay positive Eleven (+4) survival tips Ten Reasons to teach Nine (+1) organization tips Eight recruitment keys Seven career savers Six
Anxiety Sets In As The New School Year Looms Ominously Close General by Joel Wagner - August 11, 2007June 25, 20160 The new school year is two weeks and two days away. This time last year, our week of inservices was well under way. Thanks to the Texas legislature, we will not begin staff development until August 20th and are not allowed to begin school before August 27th. That's fine with me, but I am ready to begin the school year. We started our middle school band camp this past Monday and it is so much fun there. As I've mentioned before, these are students that I taught in 6th grade. I am moving from the sixth grade campus to the 7th & 8th grade campus this year. It's so much fun for me to see all of these kids whom I