Reader Appreciation: Pamela Reader Appreciation by Pamela - November 23, 2007May 29, 20160 November is Reader Appreciation Month at So You Want To Teach? Today's featured reader is Pamela. Name: Pamela Location: Michigan Occupation: Elementary Teacher, Reading Specialist Blog: Blog may be coming soon, but none yet ;-) Tell me some of your favorite things about your job Some of my favorite things about teaching: I enjoy sharing my love of learning and my passion for certain topics. It goes beyond just teaching the material...it's about making a personal connection with the students. Along those same lines, I love sharing the excitement of a good book. When I introduce it and starting talking about it with excitement, the students can't wait for me to start reading. When it's time to stop reading and begin our next lesson, they beg
Less Stress: Play At Work Stress Reduction by Joel Wagner - November 2, 2007July 5, 20100 We come now to the final chapter of our 25 Tips For Less Stress. This is perhaps my favorite one of all. Without this decision, you cannot have a stress-free life. The key is to choose to have fun at work. No matter what industry you work in, if you love your job, you will be more productive. In education, our products are educated people. The more we love teaching, the more of our children will be successful. That love will translate into their development of greater passion for learning. It's an upward spiral. Conversely, when we hate our job -- or when we just show up to collect the paycheck -- it also shows. The students laboriously come to
Valid Reasons Teachers Quit Why Teachers Quit by Joel Wagner - July 8, 2007July 5, 201034 For another look at quitting teaching, see my article 9 Reasons To Quit Teaching (And 10 Reasons To Stick). One of the most popular search queries that has sent people to my blog lately has been "why do teachers quit?" Doing a quick search of my site tells me that I have a number of articles that reference this idea, but have not yet explored exactly why it is that many teachers choose to quit teaching. This weekend, I will write two articles on that very topic. Today, we'll consider the question Why Do Teachers Quit? and explore some valid reasons they do so. Yesterday, we considered the same question and explored some of the invalid reasons for quitting. Next
Invalid Reasons Teachers Quit Why Teachers Quit by Joel Wagner - July 7, 2007July 5, 201020 For another look at quitting teaching, see my article 9 Reasons To Quit Teaching (And 10 Reasons To Stick). One of the most popular search queries that has sent people to my blog lately has been "why do teachers quit?" Doing a quick search of my site tells me that I have a number of articles that reference this idea, but have not yet explored exactly why it is that many teachers choose to quit teaching. This weekend, I will write two articles on that very topic. Today, we'll consider the question Why Do Teachers Quit? and explore some invalid reasons they do so. Tomorrow, we will consider the same question and explore some of the valid reasons for quitting.
6 Motivation Techniques Inspiration by Joel Wagner - March 2, 2007June 29, 20164 Embed from Getty Images "What are you doing to motivate them?" I was talking with a friend this afternoon about her class. She is a second year teacher. She taught elementary last year and is teaching seventh grade this year. What a change! In the process of our conversation, I asked her, "what are you doing to motivate them?" She had no clue. Why motivate? Without motivation, your class is just another block of time that the students have to suffer through. With motivation, you hear things like "hi, favorite teacher!"Â and "I love this class!" As a teacher, those are the kinds of things that we absolutely love to hear. They say that about half of all teachers stop teaching before their sixth year.
A Customer Service Oriented Classroom Experience Classroom Management by Joel Wagner - February 24, 2007June 15, 201611 In The Beginning When I was in college, I had an assignment for one of my classes. The assignment was to write up my own philosophy of education. It was somewhat noble ("I teach children to be better people through music" or something like that). It was substantially trite. Most importantly, it lacked any passion behind it. The Interview In my very first teaching job interview, the principal interviewing me asked me what my educational philosophy was. I gave some sort of flimsy answer because I wasn't prepared for the interview. He gave me a chance later on to ask me if I had any questions. I asked him what his educational philosophy was. What he said has stuck with me ever since. He