10 Years of Teaching: How Do I Keep My Students Quiet? Classroom Management by Joel Wagner - June 7, 2012June 16, 20162 Five years ago, I wrote a series of seven articles called "Questions That Will Save Your Career" that still remain among the most visited articles on this site. When I wrote those, I had successfully completed my 5th year in education. This summer, after 10 years, I am revisiting some of these older concepts. Today, I revisit How Do I Keep My Students Quiet? How Do I Keep My Students Quiet? How Do I Keep My Students Engaged? How Do I Keep My Students Interested? How Do I Keep My Students Learning? How Do I Keep My Students Away From Me? How Do I Keep My School Administration Happy? How Do I Keep My Sanity? 10 Years of Teaching: How
Find A Mentor – Again (Total Teacher Transformation Day 6) Inspiration by Joel Wagner - May 8, 2009June 30, 20102 This is an article in the Total Teacher Transformation series. Click here for a complete table of contents. I hope that this series so far has been useful for some of you. I'm not getting an overwhelming amount of feedback specifically on the series, but I guess I really can't complain about over 40 (non-spam) comments in the last week, even if they were not entirely devoted to the Total Teacher Transformation series. I find that it's always nice to get feedback when you are trying to do something important. In thinking about this, I am actually reminded of the early days of my Total Teacher Transformation back 5 years ago. I didn't have anyone there saying, "You're doing a great job"
Classroom Out of Control? JD2718 Has Some Great Comments Classroom Management by Joel Wagner - February 1, 2009June 30, 20101 Okay okay. So I'm a band director. Why would anyone listen to me anyway. I'm just an elective teacher. My friend JD2718 emailed me and told me about some stuff that he does in his math class. So even if you ignore my advice about classroom management, maybe some of his advice about keeping students engaged will apply to you. Hop on over and check out Teaching off topic 3. By the way, I have ADD so my kids know that if they ask me a question about my dogs or what I did over the weekend or pretty much anything else, I'll get off topic. But even when I do stay focused, I find ways to bring some off-topic
101 Great Teaching Tips New Teachers by Joel Wagner - November 30, 2008June 5, 20164 A comment was left recently that said, Joel, I really enjoy your blog. You have written some amazing articles that I have printed and put in my first year file. I am currently student teaching right now. I appreciate your honesty about how scary and hard it can be sometimes, but also the greatness in the experience. I am having the time of my life, and I hope the enthusiasm I have stays with me. Your blog is helping, so thank you! If you could give one single piece of advice to a beginning teacher, what would it be? Just curious! That challenged me to see if I could come up with something I hadn't written before that was better (or close
Restoring Hope To Your Teaching Job Inspiration by Joel Wagner - October 7, 2008June 5, 20164 I've noticed something lately. I have gotten a handful of comments and emails from people who seem to be teaching in what appears outwardly as a hopeless situation. I contend that the problem very rarely is in their situation. The problem rests in the lost joy and the long forgotten hope they once had. The dream is not shattered, it simply is not in sight right now. Why have we lost sight of that hope? Because we lack focus. My assertion is that we have lost focus because we are too busy reacting to events and items that try to wrestle our attention away from the important things. Jonathan wrote a great article about dealing with your mailbox last week. I think
The Single Most Important Advice Anyone Can Give To A First Year Teacher Classroom Management by Joel Wagner - September 21, 2008July 1, 20109 When I first started out teaching, I desperately wanted the kids to like me. To this end, I ended up letting my classes get out of control. A handful of things contributed to this: Concerning myself with every matter that was brought to my attention Allowing kids to mesbehave Trying to get the kids to like me Yelling at kids Arguing with them So I learned how to get control. If this sounds like something you might have trouble with, I encourage you to check out these articles in this order: You Better Smile Before Christmas! How Do I Keep My Students Quiet? Arguing Is Normal, isn't It? 5 Surefire Tips For Handling Misbehavior Make Love
The End of Summer Blogging & Technology by Joel Wagner - August 1, 2008July 1, 20106 Well, my summer has come and gone. I want to first of all extend my appreciation to all of the bloggers who posted while I was out. I am interested in hearing some impressions of the little experiment from the community here. If you posted something (and even if you didn't), let me know if you enjoyed reading the other perspectives and the whole experience. I had an incredible trip. It was nice to get away for almost 10 days. But alas, high school summer band has started up now. With that goes my summer vacation. I am simply wrapping everything up now and getting things under control as the new school year rolls in. I will do a sort
Make Love not War – How to Control an Unruly Class Classroom Management by Heather Johnson - July 25, 2008June 16, 20162 This article is contributed by Heather Johnson, who regularly writes on California teacher certification. She invites your questions and writing job opportunities at her personal email address: heatherjohnson2323 at gmail dot com. Teaching children is arguably the most taxing job in the world -- it demands a great deal of patience and tolerance all through the day, every day of school. A good teacher takes the extra effort needed to ensure that the children understand what's taught, not just in the way of lessons but in the way of life too. Sometimes a teacher's patience is put to the test in the form of difficult students, those who will just not fall in line with the rest of the class. And at
Why I Hated Teaching During My First Two Years Reader Appreciation by Joel Wagner - February 8, 2008June 25, 201617 Newby writes: I have noticed lately in a couple of your posts you mentioned how terrible your first couple of years of teaching were. As a new reader, I have gone back into your archived information to learn more about this blog but have not come across why you had such a hard time. What made your first years so difficult? As a teacher with more years under your belt, do you think those experiences helped make you a better teacher or would you just as well forget about them altogether? What made my first years so difficult? I think there were a few factors that made my first year difficult. I didn't know how to control the class I am a firm believer
Less Stress: Declutter Your Car Stress Reduction by Joel Wagner - October 12, 2007July 5, 20101 If we've been following the stress reduction tips so far, we now have a clean desk at work, a clean computer desktop at work and home, we have begun to organize our email habits, and our house is beginning to look nicer. All of those things can be great, but if we have a 30 minute commute to and from work each day, a messy car will only take away from those efforts. I have a 5 minute commute, and when my car is messy, it bothers me. Keeping the car under control is a pretty simple process of simply bringing things inside after each trip. As with everything this week, the problem comes in actually establishing those habits. Other
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
What My Classroom Is Really Like Classroom Management by Joel Wagner - August 30, 2007July 5, 20102 I realized something this week. As I start my sixth year of teaching, I finally have an amazing level of confidence when going into ANY group of students and knowing that I will be able to get them to be quiet and follow whatever directions I give them. I have been absolutely thrilled with my classes this week. So I thought that I would describe what goes on and see if maybe I can shed some light on WHY those things happen. Someone will be in control When my dad was getting his degree in education a few years ago, he passed along a story to me about one of his college classes. In the discussion, he said something that