Standardized Reading Testing General by Joel Wagner - March 15, 2009June 30, 20106 I have a very simple question for the language arts teachers out there. A little background first When I was in school and took the TAAS reading exams (as well as the SAT), I quickly discovered that I am a fairly slow reader. I also don't get a lot of the specific details when I read a passage. I have since worked on developing that skill and have made some definite progress. What I learned worked best for me was to read the questions before I read the specific passages. This way I could skim through the assigned passages and know what I was looking for. Sometimes the questions were so specific that they didn't require any reading of the
One of THOSE Days Personal by Joel Wagner - December 14, 2007May 30, 20164 This may well be the first time I have written about my teaching life without really setting out a solution or providing much helpful information. Let me know what you think. Last Friday, the other band director I work with had a mild stroke. He is recovering and is at home resting now. The doctors told him to not return to work for six weeks. As you might imagine, Christmas is a terrible time for band directors to be out like this. I got to take his band on a Christmas Tour on Thursday, and my band today. We have to make arrangements with other band directors to come over from other campuses to cover the classes that are here and need
You Better Smile Before Christmas! Classroom Management by Joel Wagner - December 8, 2007May 29, 201610 The common classroom management wisdom we all hear is, "Don't smile before Christmas." I believe that advice is good advice when taken metaphorically. If taken directly as written, it is about the worst advice you can follow. Good advice In the middle of my fourth semester of teaching, when I was learning how to really get a handle on classroom management, I asked lots of questions. Among the answers I got was this little gem: Never smile before Christmas! I asked further questions for clarification, and my mentors advised me that basically my job as a teacher is to educate the children. It is not to be their friend. The funny thing is that when you are strict, they will like you more than