Reading aloud – enriching your young child’s reading experience Reader Appreciation by Jason Phillips - June 16, 20171 There are many benefits to reading aloud to your kids. To begin with, reading helps parents bond with their children, and thus they might grow up eager to open a book, learn and put their creativity to good use. Studies have shown that if you don’t read to them by the age of 5, your kid’s interest in reading may drop to 40%. Why should you strive to instill a passion for reading in your child? Read on to find out the reasons. Language development Research says that reading aloud to kids is a healthy way to promote language development, as well as additional literacy skills. Both shared book reading and reading aloud has proven to increase a child’s literacy ability
Father’s Day Recommendations General by Joel Wagner - June 16, 2010May 28, 20130 This Sunday is Father's Day. It's not too late to buy that last-minute gift if you haven't already. I read at least four books this school year that were amazing. If your father reads and thinks, these would be ideal. :) I read some others, but some of them were music education related, and others just wouldn't be quite as Father's Day specific as these, so here we go... The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make A Big Difference by Malcolm Gladwell (Paperback available new for $9.35) Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking By Malcolm Gladwell (Paperback available new for $9.35) Outliers: The Story of Success by Malcolm Gladwell (Hardcover available new for $11.72) Outstanding!: 47 Ways to Make Your Organization Exceptional by
Cut the Cord Personal by Joel Wagner - February 27, 2010June 30, 20100 For the first time since started my blog three years ago, I am going to be taking a break for at least a month. No writing, no checking stats, no emails, no nothing. In fact, I'm pulling the plug on my cable modem as soon as I finish writing this. This is not just a blog issue, but I am going to be away from Facebook almost entirely for a month. In fact, I deleted Facebook from my phone a couple of weeks ago and noticed a substantial improvement to my productivity at work. My free time isn't spent checking to see who else is slacking off at work, but rather in avoiding the temptation to slack myself. I've
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
The Adaptive Unconscious: You Never Get A Second Chance To Make A First Impression General by Joel Wagner - November 1, 2009June 30, 20105 Yesterday, I picked up a copy of Malcolm Gladwell's book Blink (purchase on Amazon). Dave Ramsey has been recommending his latest book Outliers (purchase on Amazon) on his radio show lately but when I got to Barnes & Noble, I realized Blink was available in paperback and so was therefore quite a bit less expensive. I've heard Dave recommend it before, so I decided to go with the less costly alternative. I began reading it this afternoon and came across the following paragraph on pages 12-13: Whenever we meet someone for the first time, whenever we interview someone for a job, whenever we react to a new idea, whenever we're faced with making a decision quickly and under stress, we use
Standardized Reading Testing General by Joel Wagner - March 15, 2009June 30, 20106 I have a very simple question for the language arts teachers out there. A little background first When I was in school and took the TAAS reading exams (as well as the SAT), I quickly discovered that I am a fairly slow reader. I also don't get a lot of the specific details when I read a passage. I have since worked on developing that skill and have made some definite progress. What I learned worked best for me was to read the questions before I read the specific passages. This way I could skim through the assigned passages and know what I was looking for. Sometimes the questions were so specific that they didn't require any reading of the
20 Books Everyone Should Read Personal by Joel Wagner - July 12, 2008July 1, 201012 Summer is a great time to read and catch up on reading. I have a bookshelf full of books, but very few that I have read really jump out and grab me as being amongst the greatest. But a handful do. These books have, in one way or another, changed the course of my life. I recommend each and every one of them to you now, in no particular order. We'll start 10 spiritual books. After that, we'll go to 5 personal growth books, and finish up with 5 teaching books. 10 Spiritual books that everyone should read The Bible Absolute Surrender by Andrew Murray The Pursuit of Holiness by Jerry Bridges Hudson Taylor's Spiritual Secret by Howard Taylor
Who Wants Some Great Reading? General by Joel Wagner - April 9, 2008July 2, 20103 Then hop on over to Learn Me Good and buy a copy of his book. It is undoubtedly one of the funniest books I've read since becoming a teacher. I read it on Fridays in the fall while I was monitoring our school-wide detention. I keep the kids absolutely silent during detention, and that's hard to do while you're reading about 3rd graders named Plakton, crazy antisocial ex-coworkers, Star Trek jokes, and TAKS tutorials. The book documents the struggles of a first year teacher as he makes the transition from the business world to the education world. If you can't afford the price of the book, then his latest offer to email you a copy of the book might be
Less Stress: Deepen Your Relationships With Books Stress Reduction by Joel Wagner - October 26, 2007July 5, 20104 I love reading. I don't do it nearly enough, but I still do love it so. I find that many people don't read a single book after they graduate from high school. As teachers, we are also supposed to be lifelong learners. We should be desperate to learn about more and more stuff. I find that as I read more books, especially nonfiction books, I learn more and am able to come to the place of deeper peace with myself. As I learn more about the world, I also learn more about myself. Though personal development books challenge my ideas about the world, they also challenge me to grow and become a better person. I generally don't read much education
Is Education Really That Important? (Part 1) Inspiration by Joel Wagner - June 25, 2007July 5, 20102 I met a high school dropout yesterday. We talked for something like an hour and a half or two hours. It was very revealing and confirms a lot of my thoughts about education. Beware as you read this. If you're comfortable thinking that everyone needs to go to school, get a degree, and get a safe secure job, then this article will challenge you. She is 17 years old. She came to my door to talk with me about switching my electricity provider. I have been thinking of doing the same thing anyway, and the rates are lower than my current provider. The reason I haven't is because my landlord's name is on the bill and I didn't want to
Efficient vs. Effective General by Joel Wagner - June 6, 2007July 5, 20101 This week, I began reading The 4-Hour Workweek by Timothy Ferriss. It's an outstanding book. One of the points that he makes in the book is that of being efficient versus being effective. I have prided myself in some ways on being very efficient in most of the things that I do. There is definitely a place for efficiency. But is efficiency to be the goal of everything that we do? I propose that it is not. This can be seen in many things in life. An efficient pitcher in baseball is the one who throws the least pitches. And effective pitcher is the one who has the most results. Now, clearly being both effective and efficient should be the
Reading Personal by Joel Wagner - May 29, 2007July 5, 20100 I moved to my new office today and brought a few books. The other band director I'll be working with said, "Wow, you sure have a lot of books." I told him that I read quite a bit. He said that he doesn't read, and we just kind of laughed about it. But then I got to thinking... I am consistently amazed at how many intelligent people just simply do not find time to read. I am not the most prolific reader around or anything, but I do find time every few days or so to read a chapter or so out of a book. Reading is one of the most valuable skills that we have. Sure people can
The Dip Inspiration by Joel Wagner - May 27, 2007July 5, 20100 It came in the mail on Friday. I read it on Saturday. This was my first opportunity to read a book by Seth Godin, and I sure was not disappointed. "The Dip: A Little Book That Teaches You When To Quit (And When To Stick)" and that's exactly what it is. Although Mr. Godin is primarily an internet marketing guru, the book can easily be applied to anything we do in life. Anything from relationships to business to where you are teaching to even overall career choice -- it's covered here. The book is broad in scope, and can be applied to any and all of these areas. At 76 pages (and not very tall pages at that), this baby
Be The Best Teacher In The World Inspiration by Joel Wagner - May 19, 2007June 19, 20164 Dave Ramsey recently wrote an article entitled High-Performance Achievement and it's about his training to run of a marathon. In this article, we're going to look at how you can use that knowledge to help you become the best teacher in the world. In Seth Godin's latest book, "The Dip" (which I'm going to read this summer), he talks about being the best in the world. That term is defined basically as the best in your sphere of influence at doing what you do. My goal as a band director is to be the best band director in my school district. Then my goal is to have the best band at whatever competition we go to. Then my goal is to have