10 Things To Do Before The First Day of School New Teachers by Joel Wagner - July 28, 2016August 9, 20160 As the new school year approaches, many new teachers find themselves entering the ranks of professional educators for the first time. Maybe that's you. Or maybe you're a college student beginning your student teaching process. Or a new teacher who experienced a bit of frustration last year. Whatever the case may be, the new school year brings with it a certain sense of excitement and nervousness. This article explores 10 things to do before the first day of school. If you fail to plan, you are planning to fail Any experienced educator can tell you that the best school years are those that start off on the right foot. And those same people have just as many horror stories of problems that stem from poor planning. As
5 Questions To Ask Before You Teach Each Class Classroom Management by Joel Wagner - May 27, 2013May 28, 20162 As I was going through some old paperwork a couple of weeks ago, I came across the binder that I used with my band three years ago. I remember that was a difficult year because the classes were terribly large. My first period brass class had somewhere around 60 students, and my second period woodwind class had just over 70 students. As you might imagine, this posed a number of classroom management issues from time to time and really had the potential to wear me out. In the very front of that binder, I found a pre-class checklist that I had come up with and was flooded with memories. I think most of these questions will, if applied on a
Make This School Year Amazing! Inspiration by Joel Wagner - July 27, 2012May 28, 20160 How is this year going to be different from every other year you've taught before? Do you have a specific plan to ensure that it will be? Here's a simple suggestion that I aim to implement in my own teaching this year. Ready? Plan Each Sunday, I am going to think about what has happened in recent weeks and identify one weak area that needs to be addressed. It doesn't have to be the biggest problem area. In fact, sometimes targeting a seemingly insignificant problem that I know I can rectify helps me gain confidence to attack the bigger, more ominous ones later on. Perhaps I can tackle one specific element of a larger problem area. The whole "one bite at a
10 Lessons I Have learned In 10 Years of Teaching Inspiration by Joel Wagner - June 6, 2012July 25, 20165 At the conclusion of 10 years of teaching, I started to reminisce about what I have learned. This article summarizes 10 lessons I have learned in 10 years of teaching. After having successfully completed my tenth year as a professional educator, I have come to realize that a lot of what I used to think worked didn't really work...at least not long-term. While some things may be effective in the immediate future, they are not sustainable down the road, and sometimes even backfire if used to often and too early. 1. Love your job and your students No matter how hard you try to pretend you love your job, if you don't, the kids will see right through you. Students feed off of the energy that
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,
Trials Turn To Gold Inspiration by Joel Wagner - February 18, 2010June 30, 20100 Are you at the bottom of a pit? Maybe you're in a place you never thought you would be. Or you never thought you'd be there again. I can't count the number of times I've fallen into a bad habit in teaching. I allow myself to get bogged down with paperwork instead of taking care of it right away. Students ask me questions at the beginning of class and I forget the six magic words that liberate me: "I'm not answering questions right now." Oh, you've done it too... Positive changes come and go like the wind most of the time. How do we stick it out and truly persevere? If you know the answer to this question, write a
Seven Deadly Sins of Veteran Teachers General by Joel Wagner - February 10, 2010June 30, 20100 So here's the situation: You've been teaching for quite a while. You've pretty much gotten a handle on classroom management, paperwork, classroom rules, and any number of the other day-to-day tasks we encounter. But how many of these teaching vices do you struggle with? I know I'm not guiltless in these areas. In fact, I've had run-ins with most of these. Not all of them, of course. Luxuria (extravagance or lust) While most people think of lust in a sexual kind of way, in the original context, it essentially meant excessive love of others. Even so, some teachers take this one quite literally and end up losing their jobs over abusive relationships with their students. Gula (gluttony)Gluttony is typically
20 Classic SYWTT Articles And Series General by Joel Wagner - July 2, 2009May 29, 20161 If this is your first time visiting this site, or even if you’ve been reading for a while, there are undoubtedly some articles that you’ve missed along the journey. As I have been working a lot on organizing the site lately, it has come to my attention that there are over 400 posts on the site. This can be kind of daunting for a new reader to say the least. These are some of my favorite articles and series that I’ve written on the site. If you’ve read these, maybe you could check in and respond to a comment or two! Questions That Will Save Your Career Where Have All The Good Teachers Gone? The Best Time To Be A Teacher?
If You Only Make One Change This School Year…RELAX!!!!!! Stress Reduction by Joel Wagner - September 28, 2008August 5, 20167 Nothing in the classroom is worth added stress in your life. Nothing. If you only make one change this school year...Relax! I know so many band directors (and other teachers as well, but mostly band directors) who get so incredibly worked up over their jobs that they lose their health, marriage, youthful physique, energy, or alienate their own children. Why? Because of their own selfish pride. Just because nothing catastrophic happens this year doesn’t mean that nothing will. Stress can be cumulative in your life and may be building up and festering over a period of a handful of years. The best solution is to stop. Now. How do we avoid stress? I have written at great length about this in the past, so instead of
07-08: What Worked Well General by Joel Wagner - June 11, 2008July 1, 20100 As we begin the summer vacation, I am looking back on what went really well this year, what didn’t work so well, and what needs to change for next year. Below are some of the positives about this year: Remaining calm - Despite circumstances this year, with the other band director having a stroke and all, I was able to stay calm most of the time. I lost my temper a few times, but it was nothing compared to my previous years of teaching. A lot of this comes from stress reduction measures I put into place, as well as growing up. Doing my job without complaining - I complained a bit on here and to friends, but never
April 2007 Blogging & Technology by Joel Wagner - April 2, 2008July 2, 20102 By the way, yesterday's article about quitting? Not true. April Fools. Thanks for all the wonderful comments. And I'm sure most of my regulars figured it out. But, as Waski pointed out: The things [I] describe do turn many good teachers off on teaching. With some of the silliness I’m presented with, I wonder at times why I bother putting up with it. Of course, most jobs have the silliness and ridiculous paperwork in one form or another. I love teaching. As Betty points out, teaching is so much a part of me. No matter if I leave the "education profession" or not, I will remain a teacher and will always find myself teaching in some capacity or another. I
I Give Up! 10 Reasons Why I Am Quitting My Teaching Job Why Teachers Quit by Joel Wagner - April 1, 2008July 2, 201014 DISCLAIMER: Please read all of the comments and this article before taking this things too seriously. The reasons given in here are real concerns that I have, but they are definitely outweighed by a number of much more positive elements of teaching. For a more serious look at the situation, please read 9 Reasons To Quit Teaching (And 10 Reasons To Stick). I have been an advocate for teaching and getting new blood into the teaching pool since I started my blog. I love teaching. But I can't see myself as a teacher much beyond this school year. At least in the traditional sense of the word. So I give up. I am quitting my teaching job after this year. Why would I do
Slow Down! Personal by Joel Wagner - February 23, 2008May 29, 20166 I realized some things today There will never be enough time to do everything I want to do There will never be enough money to do everything I want to do There will never be enough people to do everything I want to do The music will never sound good enough Kids will continue to fail their classes, no matter how important I tell them that passing is Parents will never be happy enough with everything I do in the classroom I will never be caught up on paperwork But ya know what else I realized? That's part of the enjoyment of the process. If I didn't have anything to do, I wouldn't be necessary. Meaningless tasks don't bring fulfillment, no matter
Loving My Job; Hating My Work Personal by Joel Wagner - January 18, 2008July 2, 20108 Even if you ignore the majority of this article, check out the last sentence. I am absolutely loving school since coming back from Christmas Break. Even so, I am beginning to get burned out. If you want to know why, go read this. He's still not back yet and it's all but certain that he will not be coming back next week either. Still no clue when I can expect him.I wrote an email to my principal today, some edited excerpts follow: I love teaching and I love rehearsing the bands, but I am very tired. The students suffer as a result. More than anything else, that is what breaks my heart about the whole situation. It’s not that I
Less Stress: Don’t Take Work Home Stress Reduction by Joel Wagner - November 1, 2007July 5, 20104 I wrote a couple of days ago about a plan to reduce the amount of papers that you take home. Preferably, that number will approach zero as your systems get refined. That is NOT the focus of this entry. The goal here is to truly liberate you from your job. The story goes: A senior monk and a junior monk were traveling together. At one point, they came to a river with a strong current. As the monks were preparing to cross the river, they saw a very young and beautiful woman also attempting to cross. The young woman asked if they could help her. The senior monk carried this woman on his shoulder, forded the river and let her