Be Respectable (Total Teacher Transformation Day 12) Inspiration by Joel Wagner - May 15, 2009June 30, 20103 This is an article in the Total Teacher Transformation series. Click here for a complete table of contents. As discussed last time, part of gaining respect from students comes from being respectful. The second element of earning the respect of your students (and their parents), comes from being respectable. No amount of courtesy to your students can overcome a disrespectable personality! So what are some character traits we should be modeling? Competence - Knowing your content area is vital. If you are a band director, you need to have some sort of clue how to play an instrument. If you are an English teacher, you ought to be reading regularly. If you are a history teacher, you should have some sort of historical
Literacy and Power Music Education by Susan Biggs - July 24, 2008July 1, 20104 This is a guest post by Susan Biggs I’ve been meaning to take some time to reflect in writing about the conversation I’ve been engaged in recently with a cohort of National Writing Project colleagues concerning Content Area Literacy. I’m a former H.S. English teacher who now works in professional development with my local writing project, the Western Massachusetts Writing Project, working with teachers to improve learning in our schools. The opportunity to guest post here on Joel's blog seemed like the right time. Power. I can’t stop thinking that it is all about power. This thought surfaced after reading the article, “Why Content Literacy is Difficult to Infuse into the Secondary School: Complexities of Curriculum, Pedagogy, and School