Be Fair (Total Teacher Transformation Day 10)

This is an article in the Total Teacher Transformation series. Click here for a complete table of contents. One of the biggest difficulties that many teachers face is grasping the reality that treating students equally is often not even remotely fair. In fact, fairness in most circumstances necessitates inequality. One hallmark of a great teacher is that … Read more

Flashback Friday

I’ve been thinking lately about trying to have each day be a sort of theme day. I don’t intend on posting every day (that’s not realistic for me at this time), but I would like for things to be a bit better aligned. So for instance, if I write a list article, I’ll schedule it … Read more

Carnival of Education #214: The Day To End All Days

It all started innocently enough. As a band director, I have been to numerous rehearsals of orchestras, jazz bands, mariachis, bands, and even choirs. So when Mr. Teacher (of www.learnmegood.com) asked me if I wanted to join him for choir practice, I was excited. “Well, I was just watching these 100 Free Online Lectures that … Read more

Recession 2009 And Its Impact On Teaching

When I entered the field of education, I was well aware that I wasn’t going into teaching because of the prolific amount of cash I could accumulate from the career. I entered education basically because it’s a good thing to do and it’s something that I absolutely love doing. Last week, I posted a question … Read more

The Unfairness of Equality

In what has turned out to be some of the best comment-produicing material on this blog, I wrote about Asperger’s Syndrome early this month. Amidst the comments, G. Broaddus dropped this little gem: Fairness in the classroom is not always about giving equal tasks; it is sometimes about giving students an equal chance to succeed, … Read more

Asperger’s

Miss A writes about a student she has who is being tested for Asperger’s. She has had some difficulties with him lately. I responded: Just curious…how much do you know about Aspregers? It is similar to autism (both disabilities are different levels of Pervasive Development Disorders). While the student may be using the disability as … Read more

101 Great Teaching Tips

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 … Read more