The Unfairness of Equality General by Joel Wagner - December 31, 2008July 1, 201011 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, and clearly a student with Asperger’s will need a different way to demonstrate learning than his or her “typical” peers. He then later fleshed out that idea on his own blog with the post Fairness and equality in the classroom. Please check out his post to read some of these thoughts. As we take this break and get ready to go back into our classes
You Better Smile Before Christmas! Classroom Management by Joel Wagner - December 8, 2007May 29, 201610 The common classroom management wisdom we all hear is, "Don't smile before Christmas." I believe that advice is good advice when taken metaphorically. If taken directly as written, it is about the worst advice you can follow. Good advice In the middle of my fourth semester of teaching, when I was learning how to really get a handle on classroom management, I asked lots of questions. Among the answers I got was this little gem: Never smile before Christmas! I asked further questions for clarification, and my mentors advised me that basically my job as a teacher is to educate the children. It is not to be their friend. The funny thing is that when you are strict, they will like you more than