This Year Will Be The Best School Year Ever New Teachers by Pat Hensley - August 3, 2010August 3, 20102 This is a guest post by Pat Hensley from the blog Successful Teaching. As we gear up for the upcoming school year, So You Want To Teach? is featuring articles about making this school year the best year ever. I have been teaching about 30 years now and I still love teaching! I have taught all grade levels including the university level and I still feel the same way. After teaching special education classes for 28 years in public schools, I now teach teachers getting their master’s degree in special education and write a blog called Successful Teaching. I really appreciate Joel for giving me the opportunity to be a guest writer on his blog. Of course, at the beginning of the year,
Wake Up Call Personal by Joel Wagner - August 19, 2009June 30, 201015 I went to the dentist yesterday morning to get work done. They took my blood pressure before they started doing anything and it came out at 150/101. These are not good numbers. Not at all. I have had elevated blood pressure in the past, but never seen the numbers this high. Granted I was at the dentist, so the numbers tend to be higher there than other places due to nerves. But all things considered, this is a huge problem. I'm posting about it on the blog, because I am asking for support. I've done research, I know a lot of things that I can change to get things better (as well as making an appointment with a doctor). What
5 Tips To Putting The Pieces of Your Life Back Together General by Joel Wagner - April 15, 2008July 2, 20104 I recently took my band to the UIL Concert & Sight Reading competition. We worked hard on the music. We worked hard in after school sectionals. We worked hard on passing classes to retain eligibility. The end result was that the band got first division in the Concert portion of the contest, and first division in the Sight Reading portion. That combination is called Sweepstakes. Putting together a performance like this takes its toll on everyone involved. As a result, I have fallen behind on a number of things in my personal life. The most notable is my housekeeping.Since I conduct the second band, it is made up of mostly 7th graders. This was their first year to go to
Less Stress: Drink Water Stress Reduction by Joel Wagner - October 1, 2007July 5, 20103 I used to drink sodas all the time. I drank Dr. Pepper numerous times daily while I was in junior high and high school. I "became smart" and started drinking Diet Coke when I got to college. Still, daily. I cut out caffeine from my diet last August but continued drinking Diet Sprite every day. Then I learned how important water is to the people of the world. I learned that most Americans are chronically dehydrated. So I tried it out beginning last Spring Break. I began drinking virtually nothing but water. I have eliminated all carbonated drinks from my dietary intake, as well as most juice and other non-carbonated drinks. I feel better. I have also learned that there
Habit 4: Personal Habits Personal by Joel Wagner - July 12, 2007July 5, 20109 This is the fourth in a series of articles entitled 5 Habits of Highly Effective Teachers. What are some of the personal habits that are important to me? Personal Procedures What are some of the personal habits that are important to me? As I'm sitting here in the middle of the summer writing this, I realize that some of my structure has left my life. I stay up too late, and I wake up too late. I take longer than normal getting ready in the morning, and I sit and read a lot more now than I do during the school year. But disregarding that, here are some of the things that are important to me to keep my sanity