From Burnout Into Ignited Passion: How Blogging, Information Overload, and Running Made Me A Better Teacher Inspiration by Joel Wagner - May 28, 2013July 6, 20161 I don't care if it's your teaching job or your personal habits or your social life or what it is, we all face burnout at one time or another. Or another or another or another. At times, I can feel like we are in a dark tunnel with no escape and we don't have the energy to escape. Ummm, not that I have ever experienced that, of course. ANYWAY, you may or may not be struggling with this now. I would guess at this point in the school year, none of us in the United States are wanting to ever teach another school year. It happens. So I present to you an autobiographical short story that addresses this concept. Once upon a
The Wait For Your Own Classroom General by Jennifer Wilson - December 6, 2010May 30, 20164 This guest post is by Jennifer Wilson, who is in her second year as a 2nd grade teacher. She blogs sporadically at her blog Annecdotes. My mom went back to school full-time when I started college, and we both graduated last year with degrees in Elementary Education. Despite having 5 years of experience as a special needs paraprofessional and a teaching degree with a high GPA, my mom was stuck substitute teaching last fall. She then switched to a paraprofessional position before finally getting a maternity leave spot. Unfortunately, she'll be on the job hunt again for this fall. Meanwhile, I found a teaching position as an Interventionist. I was still compensated as a teacher, but I helped to run a Lead Teacher's classroom
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?
Survival Kit For Teachers Looking To Relocate Why Teachers Quit by Joel Wagner - April 16, 2009June 19, 20162 Someone left a comment on another article on my blog yesterday that I wanted to address more in-depth with a Survival Kit of sorts to help you find a new teacher job. I posted a teaser this morning to see what kind of responses the community would come up. So far, I have read some incredible (and almost all positive) pointers. I’ve written a great deal about classroom management in the past here I’ve written about how I changed course and overcame a poor history of teaching in March of my second year of teaching I suppose this is sort of a follow-up to The Honeymoon Is Over: What Killed My First Teaching Job And 7 Tips For Getting Your Next Job. In that initial
Recession 2009 And Its Impact On Teaching Why Teachers Quit by Joel Wagner - March 23, 2009June 30, 201027 When I entered the field of education, I was well aware that I wasn't going into teaching because of the prolific amount of cash I could accumulate from the career. I entered education basically because it's a good thing to do and it's something that I absolutely love doing. Last week, I posted a question about when the right time to relocate to a different teaching job might be. I received some great responses (in the comments, through Twitter, and in email). However, some of the comments sort of caught me off guard. A few of the comments referenced the Recession of 2009 as being a reason I might want to stay in my current teaching situation (despite the social
The Busiest Articles of 2008 Blogging & Technology by Joel Wagner - December 26, 2008July 1, 20100 On Wednesday, we looked back at some of The Loneliest Articles of 2008, today, we’ll go to the other extreme and look at the busiest articles of 2008. These are the articles that generated the most comments. I’ve gone through the articles and found those that received the most comments. After boiling down that list, I have come up with the 20 most commented articles. Teaching: Part Time Job At Full Pay Wages???? July 2nd, 2008 (28 comments by 26 authors) (28) Double Your FeedBurner RSS Numbers Overnight January 27th, 2008 (13 comments by 10 authors, 14 trackbacks) (27) The First Ever Music Education Blog Carnival July 1st, 2008 (12 comments by 11 authors, 8 trackbacks) (20) 152nd Carnival
Reader Appreciation 2008: David Warlick Reader Appreciation by Joel Wagner - November 3, 2008July 1, 20102 November is Reader Appreciation Month at So You Want To Teach? This year's focus is First Year Teaching Tips. There's still room if you want to participate! Contact me and let me know your answer to this question: What are some things you wish you had known before you started your first year of teaching? Today's response is from David Warlick, the author of the wildly popular 2¢ Worth. It is important to note that when I interviewed for my first teaching job and was offered the position, I didn't know that I had been interviewing for a Math vacancy, and they didn't know that they has been interviewing a Social Studies teacher. I accepted the job, however, and proceeded to have
Teaching: Part Time Job At Full Pay Wages???? General by Joel Wagner - July 2, 2008July 1, 201035 I have been holding my tongue on this issue for over a month, but I thought I'd jump in and respond while I have time and am thinking about it. J Frap recently left a comment on my article 9 Reasons To Quit Teaching (And 10 Reasons To Stick) that got under my skin. You should also add “part time job at full pay wages”. Thats a huge benefit, how about you take one year off from teaching and work in the real world, where you would make less money, only receive one week paid vacation, you wouldn’t be given ‘planning days’ every other week, and you would have to work on most holidays. I think if teachers were forced
Interview Tips General by Joel Wagner - May 25, 2008July 2, 20108 I have a friend who is interviewing for jobs this summer. What are some of your best tips for interviewing for a teaching job? How would interviews be different for elementary or secondary?
Look Who’s Talking Now! General by Joel Wagner - April 7, 2008July 2, 20103 April is already shaping up to be a record-setting month for So You Want To Teach? We are well on our way to seeing 16,000 visitors or more this month. I am way behind on emails. Please forgive me! I am way behind on comments. I am way behind on reading other blogs. UIL is this Thursday. After that, things begin to resume some remote semblance or normalcy. Please don't expect me to begin catching up until Friday. The comments are taking off on here! I want to consider starting up a message forum and really transforming this site into a wealth of knowledge for teachers. I especially want to help out my new and prospective teacher buddies. According to
The Honeymoon Is Over: What Killed My First Teaching Job And 7 Tips For Getting Your Next Job New Teachers by Joel Wagner - April 3, 2008June 26, 201611 As I have written before, I was terrible at classroom management. My first two years were miserable. I hated teaching. Then it happened. I absolutely believe that I would be the same teacher today that I was then if it had not happened! You see, I wasn't fired but in a moment I lost my first teaching job. What happened? We had a friend of mine come in to work with the high school band and the two junior high bands. He is a retired band director and is an outstanding clinician. He came and worked with all three bands. My band (the second junior high band) was bad. I knew that. I had kids who would talk back to me and just
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
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