Why Experience Is The Best Teacher New Teachers by Joel Wagner - September 5, 2012May 28, 20160 "You'll understand when you're older." We tell that to our students, and they don't like. We hear it when we start out in the teaching world and we don't like. I remember an experienced band director told me once that he would tell me how to be a better teacher if he knew. He just knew that experience would help me get better. That frustrated me to no end. I'm a step-by-step guy (if you haven't noticed by reading other articles on this blog). "Just figure it out" is annoying to me. The way I like to figure things out is to look up the answers and work from there. "Experience is the best teacher" didn't quite do that for me. But...he was
My Crazy Summer of Aught Nine Personal by Joel Wagner - August 10, 2009June 19, 20160 This summer has been the best summer of my teaching career so far. Unfortunately for you, I haven't blogged about it a whole lot. As I get back into the routine of things a little bit more, I will have some more time and energy to begin writing about some of the things that I have experienced and why it is that this summer has been so good. It all started back at the end of May when I made the decision to miss school on Memorial Day so I could go spend the weekend with my family. My sister was in town and my cousin had a party celebrating his graduation from Med School as a neurosurgeon. I hadn't seen
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
The Great Fish Fiasco of 2008 Blogging & Technology by Joel Wagner - January 3, 2009July 1, 20101 Go read my first publicly available narrative account of my teaching career. The Great Guest Fiasco of 2009 was just posted at Learn Me Good.
How to Make the Most of Your Summer Vacation: 7 Simple Tips General by Heather Johnson - May 10, 2008July 2, 20107 This is a guest post contributed by Heather Johnson, who is an industry critic on the subject of university reviews. She invites your feedback at heatherjohnson2323@gmail.com. For those of you who are not on summer school duty this year, you are probably bursting at the seams in anticipation of your three-month break. Yes, you need to get through final exams first, but the end is nigh and you couldn't be happier. There were many altruistic reasons that you became a teacher. However, there is no shame in counting three more amongst that list: June, July and August. In order to get the most out of your highly anticipated vacation, heed the following tips for teachers: Decompress – It might
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
Science Education The Way It Should Be [VIDEO] General by Joel Wagner - January 5, 2008July 2, 20101 Check this stuff out! Are there any of you out there who actually do cool stuff like this? If so, let me know. If not, then find a way to do one experiment/demonstration like this each month for the rest of your teaching career. It will change lives.
10 Tips To Stay Motivated And Love Teaching Inspiration by Jane Little - December 3, 2007June 30, 20105 This is a guest post by Jane Little of My Many Colored Crayons. Jane teaches third grade in Los Angeles, CA. I teach in a school that has more than it’s share of challenges. Low morale is just one of them. About a year ago I started blogging with this post. It was a raw and honest account of a low point in my teaching career. The problems some of my students faced were heartbreaking to say the least.I had to chuckle when Joel said, "As I read your stuff, I just imagine you being someone who wakes up each morning with a smile on your face. I'd like to see how that plays out in reality a little bit
Weekend Wrapup 08/27/07 Blogging & Technology by Joel Wagner - August 27, 2007July 5, 20101 Today is the first day of school in Texas. Even though the school year starts later, the football season doesn't. I'm sure some of the kids have already begun to burn out because of so much practicing for the last four weeks or so. But the high school band has a football game to play at next Friday, so we have a lot of work yet to do. Fortunately, it has been a terribly mild summer in South Texas, so it could have been much worse. John shows that I'm not the only educator out there who places a high value on personal productivity. Check out his list. A different John shows the value of custodians. We had a speaker
Finding Excellent Educators To Emulate General by Joel Wagner - June 5, 2007July 5, 20102 As my fifth year of teaching came to a close, I began thinking back on my teaching career. When I student taught, I had wonderful teachers to work with. I got to conduct a piece on the Christmas concert (in the semester I was supposed to be observing), and even got to fully rehearse one piece for the spring trip. That's not too common these days, from what I have gathered. So in that sense, I have been surrounded by great educators from the beginning. As teachers, we really need to consciously endeavor to surround ourselves with great educators. These can come in various ways, some of which are not what you might expect. The most obvious place Whatever