6 Motivation Techniques Inspiration by Joel Wagner - March 2, 2007June 29, 20164 Embed from Getty Images "What are you doing to motivate them?" I was talking with a friend this afternoon about her class. She is a second year teacher. She taught elementary last year and is teaching seventh grade this year. What a change! In the process of our conversation, I asked her, "what are you doing to motivate them?" She had no clue. Why motivate? Without motivation, your class is just another block of time that the students have to suffer through. With motivation, you hear things like "hi, favorite teacher!"Â and "I love this class!" As a teacher, those are the kinds of things that we absolutely love to hear. They say that about half of all teachers stop teaching before their sixth year.
9 Reasons To Quit Teaching (And 10 Reasons To Stick) Why Teachers Quit by Joel Wagner - June 18, 2007August 9, 201679 Life as a teacher can be awfully challenging. While the challenges change as we gain experience, there are always new ones. It can be an awfully lonely time for many teachers. This article looks at 9 reasons to quit teaching and also raises 10 reasons to stick with teaching. Think of the many reasons you have to quit teaching Bad students Bad administrators Bad curriculum Too much paperwork Too much negativity Too much responsibility Not enough time Not enough credit Not enough PAY Face it, you are not as good of a teacher as you could be. You're not living up to your potential. Nobody is. Where am I? Seth Godin says that you are in The Dip (What's The Dip?). This is that place
A Customer Service Oriented Classroom Experience Classroom Management by Joel Wagner - February 24, 2007June 15, 201611 In The Beginning When I was in college, I had an assignment for one of my classes. The assignment was to write up my own philosophy of education. It was somewhat noble ("I teach children to be better people through music" or something like that). It was substantially trite. Most importantly, it lacked any passion behind it. The Interview In my very first teaching job interview, the principal interviewing me asked me what my educational philosophy was. I gave some sort of flimsy answer because I wasn't prepared for the interview. He gave me a chance later on to ask me if I had any questions. I asked him what his educational philosophy was. What he said has stuck with me ever since. He
A Recipe For Less Stress Stress Reduction by Joel Wagner - September 29, 2007July 5, 20100 In preparing for my month-long series on 25 Tips For Less Stress, I realized that I left out a few key ingredients. If you follow all 25 tips listed, and leave out the foundational ingredients, you will still be under intense stress. If you follow the tips with little success, you may actually be under more stress at trying to figure out why they don't accomplish their goal! So today, we will look at the very first and most essential elements of a stress-free classroom. I have written on each of these issues at great depth previously. Below each ingredient are links to four of my articles that address this very issue. I also went to Google's cool Blog
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
Are Classroom Rules Needed? Classroom Management by Dr. Pezz - July 26, 2008July 8, 201618 Thanks to Joel for allowing me this opportunity to post an article on his excellent site! In my short time as a blogger I have written a few posts which have elicited quite a few e-mails, These include posts about the fish bowl lesson, how teachers may create student failures, and ideas about teaching denotation and connotation. However, my post regarding the need for classroom rules has brought in more e-mails than any other. I actually ran a small in-service at my school for some of the new teachers about why I don't have classroom rules, and I think a couple were shocked that rules may not be necessary. This may sound overly simple, but I tell my (high school) students that
Are You Still Out Of Control In Your Classroom? [VIDEO] Classroom Management by Joel Wagner - September 9, 2007June 16, 20162 I know some people who seem to have been born with an innate ability to get others to do things they really don't want to do. Those people, when asked how to do that, generally don't have an explanation. For them it is a natural skill. This isn't the case with most people. It is definitely not the case with me. I admit, it was never this bad for me, but it was bad. I had students talking back. I had students getting out of their seats. I had students writing notes. I'm sure if it were now, I would have had students sending texts throughout the class.I had to learn how to keep them quiet and get them to do
Arguing Is Normal, Isn’t It? Classroom Management by Joel Wagner - June 21, 2007July 20, 20161 Most students argue. It's a fact of life. So it shouldn't be a concern when our students argue with us. Or should it? Great teachers don't have arguers Have you ever noticed how you can walk into a classroom and hear the teacher talking, and the students being quiet? They are given directions, and nobody challenges the assignment. What is it that makes that happen? One of the keys to keeping students quiet is to present the concept that every action is the result of a choice. Based on some customer service books I read last summer, I began the year with a sign at the entrance and front of the room. The sign said simply "CHOOSE YOUR ATTITUDE" and also had happy
Ask Joel Reader Appreciation by Joel Wagner - February 1, 2008July 2, 20103 Lately, I have noticed a larger number of prospective and newer teachers leaving comments to my various articles. This has helped inspire me to offer what advice I can in a (hopefully) weekly question and answer forum. For lack of creativity, we'll call it "Ask Joel" and begin next week. Any question is fair game, whether it's about about teaching, classroom management, band directing, blogging, or whatever else! Email me and let me know your questions. I will choose from the questions I receive and post answers to them on Fridays. Why do this? Well, first of all, it makes me think more in-depth about certain topics. After my terrible first couple of years of teaching, I have blocked some
Back To Basics Classroom Management by Joel Wagner - November 24, 2008July 1, 20103 Reader Appreciation Month didn't quite turn out the way I had envisioned it would. That is primarily my fault. As I sit here, I realize there are some things that I used to do with blogging that I don't do any longer. I have decided it's time for me to change some things. You may or may not notice the changes as I begin implementing them. If you do, great. If not, then perhaps it is simply a change to the way I approach blogging. Whatever the case, it'll be good. How can I apply this to my classroom? How many times do we get into the habit of being so familiar with the subject matter that it no longer
Be Consistent (Total Teacher Transformation Day 9) Classroom Management by Joel Wagner - May 12, 2009June 30, 20104 This is an article in the Total Teacher Transformation series. Click here for a complete table of contents. When I was a new teacher, I had some really good classroom rules and expectations and consequences all lined up. It was good on paper. Unfortunately, I didn't follow through consistently at all. If one of the "bad kids" did something out of line, WHAM, I was all over his misbehavior in an instant. If on the other hand, one of the "good kids" did the exact same thing, the one consequence was a smile and warning not to do it again. Human nature seems to lead us to pick favorites in our classes. These are the kids whose misbehavior we call "cute". We
Be Prepared (Total Teacher Transformation Day 8) Classroom Management by Joel Wagner - May 11, 2009June 30, 20103 This is an article in the Total Teacher Transformation series. Click here for a complete table of contents. I took the day off from blogging yesterday because it was Mother's Day and I play in a mariachi. If you don't know what that means, I started playing serenatas (Mother's Day Serenades) at 6pm Saturday afternoon, wrapped up a little after 8am Sunday morning, then played for another 4 hours Sunday afternoon. We played three songs 40 different times, and also had a one-hour gig in somewhere along the way. With a church service thrown in on Sunday morning for good measure, it probably goes without saying that I was exhausted yesterday when we finished up. But now I'm back and ready to go! Be
Be Respectful (Total Teacher Transformation Day 11) Classroom Management by Joel Wagner - May 14, 2009June 30, 20100 This is an article in the Total Teacher Transformation series. Click here for a complete table of contents. As we're going through the transformation, one of the key things to remember is that you must remain respectful to your students. As I've written before, classroom control is essential. Some of us have a naturally abrasive personality, and so when we begin to re-assume control, politeness tends to go out the window. Don't take things personally The thing to remember is that even our worst behaved students actually have a genuine reason for doing the things that they are doing. Most misbehaviors are not personal attacks. They are simply misbehaviors for the sake of themselves. One of my mentors once told me a
Calling Home Classroom Management by Joel Wagner - September 14, 2007July 5, 20102 I just recently read NYC Educator's article entitled, Startup Tips. Great stuff there. Neither she nor any teacher of education ever advised me on classroom control. The standing platitude was “A good lesson plan is the best way to control a class,” but I no longer believe that. I think a good lesson plan is the best thing to have after you control the class. ... The best trick, and it’s not much of a trick at all, is frequent home contact. It’s true that not all parents will be helpful, but I’ve found most of them to be. When kids know reports of their classroom behavior will reach their homes, they tend to save the acting out for your
Classroom Management: The Key To Your Success Classroom Management by Joel Wagner - February 14, 2007July 31, 20160 Above all else that you do in education, classroom management skills will pay greater dividends. I cannot tell you how much more teaching I actually get done now that I have learned how to get and keep children quiet. This one skill was the single thing that prevented me from being useful at all during my first two years as a teacher. This one skill was the single thing that allowed me to be supremely useful in my third year of teaching. No matter what you do, do not underestimate the value of spending time learning and refining classroom management skills. No other educational endeavor will be as fruitful.