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
Organizing Your To-Do List for Maximum Productivity: Part 1 Stress Reduction by Pamela - December 10, 2007June 30, 20102 This is a guest post by Pamela, who doesn't currently have her own blog. Pamela teaches elementary in Michigan. Traditional to-do lists When I think of a traditional to-do list, I think of a sheet (or scrap) of paper with a list of all the things you need to do. This is a good start, but there are a few problems I’ve found with this type of list: There’s no organized pattern As soon as you think of something else, you just add it to the bottom of the list. As tasks are completed, you cross them off. Before long, the list is difficult to read and important tasks are overlooked because there are so many scribbles
The Instant De-Stress Handbook Now Available Stress Reduction by Joel Wagner - November 19, 2007July 5, 20100 I have decided to compile all of the articles from my series 25 Tips For Less Stress into one handy ebook. The Instant De-Stress Handbook is completely free to download. To get your copy, simply download it here. Go ahead, tell your friends. Email the ebook to them. Recommend they come check out my blog. You know you want to!
Overcoming Adversity Inspiration by Joel Wagner - November 18, 2007July 5, 20102 As teachers, how often do we stop to think about how much of an impact we could potentially make in the life of one of our students. Even if that student doesn't ever thank us or even show marked improvement in their academic skills or behavior or whatever, we still may be helping him. Our job is often thankless. Our job is often life-changing. We will not know this side of heaven the number of lives we have changed. I was recently contacted by a reader who shared an amazing story with me. This deaf man, Stephen J. Hopson, was changed by three simple words from his fifth grade teacher. The story, and the accompanying video, truly made me smile.
All Time Best Teaching Advice Classroom Management by Joel Wagner - November 17, 2007July 5, 20104 As I have been reading the interviews for the Reader Appreciation Month (by the way, there is room for another 7 interviews. If you don't send them in, they end on Wednesday!), I have been amazed at the depth of knowledge of some of the readers of this blog. I was going through my Google Reader the other day and came across a post by Gxeremio entitled Best (and worst) advice. In it, he lists some of the best teaching advice he has received. Additionally, he points to some standard "wisdom" that really isn't all that wise. It made me think... If I were to give only one piece of advice to a brand new teacher, what would it
Reader Appreciation: Athena Reader Appreciation by Joel Wagner - November 16, 2007July 5, 20100 November is Reader Appreciation Month at So You Want To Teach? Today's featured reader is Athena. Name: Athena Location: South Texas Occupation: ELA 9th & 10th grade Blog: http://athena81469.blogspot.com/ Tell me some of your favorite things about your job I like the freedom of the job. I used to be in a cube job where I had to punch a timeclock all the time. Every moment of my job was timed. I sat and stared at 4 grey fuzzy walls everyday. Now, I come to work at my own time. Nobody is watching. Plus, I have control over my job. I decide what and when I teach. I decide if I am going to stay late. I can
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
25 WordPress Plugins Every Blog Should Have Blogging & Technology by Joel Wagner - November 6, 2007July 5, 20102 This post is outdated. Edit 06/06/2009 - I have recently written a much more current and similar article. Please check out 20 WordPress 2.7 Plugins You Can’t Live Without. Reader experience is the most important element of any site. Whether it be an entertainment site or an information portal, the ease of use for the reader is vital. I run this blog using WordPress because it gives me incredible control over the reader experience. I large part of that control comes in the way of plugins. What are plugins? Plugins are basically optional programs that run behind the scene. Some of them are never even seen by the reader. Technically, they aren't programs -- they are really scripts that run on
Reader Appreciation: José Vilson Reader Appreciation by Joel Wagner - November 5, 2007July 5, 20102 November is Reader Appreciation Month at So You Want To Teach? Today's featured reader is José Vilson.Name: José Vilson Location: New York, NY Occupation: 6th Grade Math Teacher Blog: The José Vilson Tell me some of your favorite things about your job My favorite things about my job are the ability to help children achieve their best, inspiring them not only academically but personally. I also like getting up on my stage and performing for them, too. The thrill of a good and well thought out lesson is incomparable. I love the kids' energies. Their inquisitiveness makes me want to go and teach them, and push them harder. I love the instant feedback I get from my students about my
Transforming A Tense Relationship Where There Is Low Respect Inspiration by Joel Wagner - November 2, 2007July 5, 20104 Recently, a reader wrote to me saying: I am currently midway through student teaching and am struggling with classroom management (surprise!). I am not really getting any feedback from my cooperating teacher, other than "use short, quick redirects" and "your emotions are too transparent to students". I worked in business for 18 years prior to this experience and I'm just struggling with how to try and turn a tense situation around. I have read through the articles posted on this site and they have given me some good ideas to work with. Here is my question: What can you do to turn around a tense relationship with students who do not regard you as "the
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
Zen Habits Interview Blogging & Technology by Joel Wagner - October 8, 2007July 5, 20101 I want to extend a special welcome to all of the new visitors coming to me from Zen Habits. I am in the midst of a series this month on Stress Reduction Tips. These tips are specifically geared toward educators, but can be applied in practically any setting. I hope you'll stick around. On the very same day that I wrote an article on decluttering your desk, Leo at Zen Habits has posted the first in his series on reader success stories. I am thrilled to be one of his featured reader success stories. His blog has over 18,000 readers. That's huge! Though I don't look nearly as cool as Blain does, I woke up this morning to find that
Less Stress: Kill Your TV Stress Reduction by Joel Wagner - October 5, 2007July 5, 20102 This is perhaps my most favorite tip of them all! I haven't regularly watched television since I was in 11th grade, but I have watched quite a bit of it. When I read "The 4-Hour Workweek," Timothy Ferriss suggests a low-information diet. His theory is that if you simply ask people "what's new in the world," you will find out about most news. He also points out that most news that comes across as events are unfolding is either incomplete or totally inaccurate. I tend to agree. So I have made the decision this year to completely unplug my television. I will actually get rid of it soon, I'm just not sure what I'm going to do with it. It'd
Personal Update Personal by Joel Wagner - September 23, 2007July 5, 20102 No weekend wrapup last week. No weekend wrapup this week either. I'm sorry. I am being overwhelmed by work commitments as well as personal commitments. On a personal note, I preached in church last Wednesday and will preach again this Wednesday. That takes a lot of focus and study time, which really seems to make this blog suffer a bit. In addition, there are just a whole lot of things on my plate right now in the personal life. I'm doing fine, but I just need to take a little bit of time off from posting on here. Don't worry, much more good stuff will be coming back again in November and beyond. This is definitely turning out to be
Weekend Wrapup 09/10/07 Blogging & Technology by Joel Wagner - September 10, 2007July 5, 20100 Life remains busy, but I still seem to find time to get around to this post each week. If nothing more, at least there's something. I'm taking volunteers to guest blog over here during the busy months of September and October. As we get further into the month, things will do nothing but speed up in the band directing world... Ed U. Cater writes about how much he misses last year's students: A New Kind of Teaching Position. He writes of how much respect her has for us middle school teachers. I'm glad to make him proud. I just remind myself that elective teachers have the opportunity to kick the miscreants out and make them office aides or whatever else