20 Dead Simple Classroom Management Ideas, Tricks, and Tips Classroom Management by Joel Wagner - September 4, 2012May 28, 20162 I have written extensively in the past about classroom management and I admit I have glossed over some things while belaboring other points way beyond the point of exhaustion. Below are a few of the common classroom management pieces of advice and a handful of simple tricks to use in effort to make those things happen. Try one or two and see if things become easier... Work on your pacing Slow down your rate of speech; kids don't comprehend information as fast as we do Be silent more often; silence allows kids to reflect more on what has been said Communicate urgency without getting frantic Be in control of what you say and how you say it Don't argue with
50 Things Every First Year Teacher Should Know New Teachers by Joel Wagner - September 2, 2012August 6, 20173 The first year teacher is often a very lonely and isolated person. They often feel like everyone else has everything already figured out, and they are the only one struggling. That is not the case. In fact, so many of us are in survival mode and dealing with our own issues that we forget to help the first year teachers out. Below is a list of 50 things I picked up in my first 10 years of teaching that can hopefully help you through some of those lonely times. I am in my 11th year of teaching now. Where did the time go? One of the top search results that sends people to this blog is "First Year Teacher" so I thought that
Call for Guest Bloggers General by Joel Wagner - May 31, 2010June 30, 20101 I have a few things planned for the summer, but one thing I really would like to do is feature a series of articles by first-year teachers reflecting on their first year of teaching. If you have a blog, feel free to quote liberally from your posts throughout the year. If not, that's okay! You can write one post or even a handful of them. I'd really like to be able to get these thoughts out there and share them with future first-year teachers. Maybe you've been teaching for longer. Maybe you haven't. Either way, you are also welcome to submit guest posts. Anything that might remotely relate to teachers is welcome. For ideas from previous guest bloggers, check out
Why I Removed Comments From My Blog Blogging & Technology by Joel Wagner - January 18, 2010June 30, 20100 This evening, I decided to do something I've been toying around with since the summer. I finally deleted comments from my blog entirely. Where it all began I began this blog as a hobby back in the spring of 2007, shortly after I began to learn more about the potential that blogs held. Life was much simpler back then. For one thing, I taught 6th grade beginning band only. My obligations outside of school were minimal, and the amount of time I spent in front of the computer was similarly low. Life was much simpler back then. I long for that again. Where it has taken me In the fall of 2007, I moved to the middle school where I
Running and Reading Inspiration by Joel Wagner - January 9, 2010June 30, 20101 Since I have decided this new year to slowly end my hatred of running that I have harbored for the past decade or so, I'm reading more about it. I am inspired to find there are a handful of pretty good health and fitness blogs that my school hasn't blocked on the network yet too! My conference period can now be spent walking, reading, or actually doing productive things for my band! Today I have been catching up on some of the Twitter links I've seen and came across 13 Most Inspirational YouTube Videos of All-Time that Angela Maiers had sent out a few days back. I was really impressed by this video. I was so impressed that I
10 Books That Rocked My World Personal by Joel Wagner - November 7, 2009June 30, 20106 Over the last decade, I have read a handful of great books that forced me to think and consider a lot of things about the way I was living. I've mentioned some of these books before on the blog, but this week I read another one of those kinds of books and thought I would share more with my readers about some of these amazing books. 1999 - How To Win Friends And Influence People (buy on Amazon) Back when I was in college, I didn't know much about social interactions at all. I was horrible with remembering names, I didn't really make much eye contact, and I just sort of needed this book to really open my eyes to
Laying Out A Legacy Personal by Joel Wagner - August 27, 2009June 30, 20106 A couple of weeks ago, I wrote about how my friend Junior had posted on his blog calling for people to write about what kind of a legacy we wanted to leave. I have been thinking a whole lot over the past few months about my progression as a teacher, and this seemed like the perfect opportunity to really flesh out some about what kinds of things I have been through. I've sort of broken things down by year and I would be interested to know how many other teachers could say their progress as a teacher has been similar. Clearly I have not yet arrived, but I have learned a handful of things along the way, and it's been
Teacher Burnout: 20 Insights From a 17-Year Veteran Teacher On The Brink of Burnout Stress Reduction by Joel Wagner - June 26, 2009June 30, 20103 In rereading the last about teacher burnout, I was struck by a handful of things that my reader mentioned in the email. I thought it was powerful enough that it was worth digging into deeper, and yet I didn't want to dilute the conversation that might come as a result of the emotional impact of the reader's email. With that being said, here are 20 insights from a 17-year veteran teacher about things that teachers ought to be doing. Take care of your body Avoid whiners Get more sleep Accept imperfection from yourself Don't expect to make everyone happy Don't abuse your sick days, but do use them Relax more Have trusted friends who can smack you upside the
MusicEdMajor.Net Music Education by Joel Wagner - June 15, 2009June 30, 20100 Andy Zweibel (whom I've been following on Twitter for a while now -- @Zweibz7) just started up a blog specifically focusing on topics concerning Music Education students. The blog is MusicEdMajor.net. Andy is currently seeking contributors for the site, and I think this is definitely a worthwhile endeavor. Hopefully we can get in touch with some music education professors and those who have influence in the music education world to try to get more people on board. I know a handful of musicians and music teachers are subscribed to my blog and I hope they will give Andy some encouragement, links, and just send people his way. I also would like to add that he has chosen a very nice,
20 WordPress 2.7 Plugins You Can’t Live Without Blogging & Technology by Joel Wagner - June 6, 2009June 30, 20105 I have gotten questions from time to time about what plugins I use on my blog. I've posted some plugin lists in the past, but sometimes plugins are no longer supported by their author or else the functionality is duplicated in later WordPress versions. So here are 20 WordPress 2.7 Plugins You Can't Live Without. Advanced Excerpt Excerpts allow more articles to show up on the home page, while still not allowing too many links (Search Engines don't like more than 100 links on a page) or too much clutter. Advanced Excerpt lets me customize how many words or characters appear before the cut as well as letting me choose which HTML elements to strip from the code entirely.
Find A Mentor (Total Teacher Transformation Day 3) Inspiration by Joel Wagner - May 5, 2009June 30, 20102 This is an article in the Total Teacher Transformation series. Click here for a complete table of contents. Let's play a game I want you to think about your classes right now. Think about the four biggest trouble-makers on your roll sheet. Now imagine, what it would be like if they all got sent to another school. You wake up tomorrow and those four kids are gone. What a great day! But you know what? With them gone, four more kids will step up and strart ruining your life. There is no end to the number of children who will misbehave if given the chance! Even if you only have one kid, they will still act up when given the
20 Blogs I Wish Were Around When I Started Teaching Blogging & Technology by Joel Wagner - April 5, 2009June 30, 201040 When I first started out, I was living by myself far away from home. I didn't have any friends in the community outside of the school. And those were either other band directors or band parents. I didn't do anything to really try to keep in contact with college friends, I sort of had the Lone Ranger type approach. That was way back in 2002. My how things have changed! Now, education prep programs all over seem to be requiring students to read and comment on blogs as part of their education. With that being said, I have seen quite a rise in the number of educational blogs out there since I started blogging two years ago. I have seen
Another List of Top EduBlogs Blogging & Technology by Joel Wagner - January 13, 2009June 30, 20105 Over the last almost two years that I have been reading and writing blogs, I have come across a handful of lists of Top Education Blogs. Normally, I discover them when I either get a trackback or (more commonly) when a pagr refers someone over to my site. The latter was the case today. As far as the rankings I've seen before, this one was the most intriguing. Instead of simply using Technorati data or any type or arbitrary kind of thing, Jason Falls (an outsider to the world of edublogs) pulled a list of 150 EduBlogs, and ranked them based on reader interaction over the past 30 days through Postrank. All in all, it is definitely an intriguing methodology
The Overlooked Articles of 2008 Blogging & Technology by Joel Wagner - December 27, 2008July 1, 20100 In continuing my review of the year, I am looking today at some of the articles that I wish were more popular. They may have received a handful of comments, or they may not have received any. The most common cause for their relative obscurity is that they are older articles and have gotten lost. Even so, many of them haven’t received a whole lot of traffic. So I’m dusting them off, polishing them up, and repackaging them here. Two dozen overlooked articles of 2008 January 14th, 2008 8 Ways Blogging Makes Me A Better Teacher January 20th, 2008 What If… January 31st, 2008 Clinicians February 11th, 2008 Hyper-Focus Fosters Higher Quality Output February 21st, 2008 Apologizing March 15th, 2008 Whitespace March 17th, 2008 You’ve Been
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