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Golf And The Art of Teaching

by Joel Wagner - 3

This summer, I began playing golf. I've actually wanted to learn for a while now as I have a handful of friends who enjoy the game. Over the last few years, I have expressed that interest to some of my friends. Last spring, one of my friends saw me at church and told me to come out to his truck. When I got there, he handed me ten golf clubs. So last summer, I went to a couple of driving ranges a few times and learned from some of the good golfers in my life. One of these men in particular has really been helpful. It's great that he also happens to be the best golfer I know, and I

Carnival of Education #214: The Day To End All Days

by Joel Wagner - 12

It all started innocently enough. As a band director, I have been to numerous rehearsals of orchestras, jazz bands, mariachis, bands, and even choirs. So when Mr. Teacher (of www.learnmegood.com) asked me if I wanted to join him for choir practice, I was excited. "Well, I was just watching these 100 Free Online Lectures that Will Make You A Better Teacher. But I have a few minutes to spare. Wait a minute, I didn't know you could sing!" I responded. "I doesn't," was the puzzling reply. Thus began the longest day of my life If I had simply pulled out my handy New Revised Teacher Dictionary, I would have known I was in for way more than I had bargained

Standardized Reading Testing

by Joel Wagner - 6

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

Multitasking Virus In Our Classrooms

by Josh Waitzkin - 9

Josh Waitzkin, author of The Art of Learning, was the subject of the book and movie, Searching for Bobby Fischer. An eight-time National Chess Champion in his youth, he is now a martial arts champion, holding a combined 21 National titles in addition to several World Championships. Josh is president of the JW Foundation, an educational nonprofit-- www.jwfoundation.com He is currently training for the World Championships of his third discipline, Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, and lectures nationwide on the subjects of the learning process and performance psychology. Waitzkin lives in New York City. A few weeks ago, I returned to the classroom of Dennis Dalton, the most important college professor of my life. From the back of an amphitheater seating

Can We Reach Every Student?

by Joel Wagner - 6

I believe that every teacher has the potential to reach out and impact the life of every student they have in their class. The key is that it takes a whole lot of dedicated attention and effort. My theory is that it is relativaly easy to positively impact about 60% of the kids in each of our classes. The challenge comes from two types of kids. The "trouble makers" The "quiet kids" What are some of the most effective techniques you have found to reach these? Instead of going about my normal routine of listing ways that I think it is possible to reach students, I want to open up discussion here. I have started it off with

Networking To Save Your (Teaching) Life

by Joel Wagner - 4

Everybody makes mistakes Everybody has those days Everybody knows what what I'm talkin' 'bout Everybody gets that way Nobody's Perfect! I gotta work it! Again and again 'til I get it right Nobody's Perfect! You live and you learn it! And if I mess it up sometimes, Nobody's perfect! Oops. I got a little carried away there in my Hannah Montana glam rock! Sorry about that. But it's true, everyone messes up. Our students do, and so do we! I found that having a small group of teachers nearby really helped me out in the early years. I would go to dinner with some, I would call some up, I would visit some after class. However we stayed in contact,

Nobody Works Harder Than Teachers! You Sure About That?

by Joel Wagner - 29

I recently wrote the most-commented article on this site to date about the number of hours teachers work and comparing those to standard business world people. As I write this one, I’m sure it will stir up just as many responses, though many of them will surely be in disagreement with me. Just keep reading, and tell me where I’m wrong at the end! One of the comments to that article said something to the effect that “nobody works harder than teachers do!” While I agree with the sentiment, I think it’s possible for our own passion to cloud our word choice at times. Comments continue coming in about that article, and I saw an email right before I went to be last

10 Teaching Myths [Infographic]

by Joel Wagner - 0

Last week, I wrote an article called 10 Teaching Myths Busted. Those myths were: Teaching preparation programs produce prepared teachers When I get my own classroom the students will respect me Students come to school primarily to learn I teach an elective class, surely all of my students want to be there If I have problems with a student, [SOME ACTION] will solve everything If I have problems with a student, I can request a schedule change The best teachers treat all students equally Teachers get three months off in the summer Teachers don't get paid well Standardized tests are horrible for education I decided to take a risk and design my first infographic based on this article. Please share your thoughts on this in the

It’s The End Of The Year…Let’s Act Like Fools!

by Joel Wagner - 3

Is it just me, or do students seem to get to the end of the year and begin ignoring rules and classroom procedures that have been established all year long? This is my first time at my current middle school and it's worse than anywhere else I've taught before. Already. And TAKS is next week, followed by six weeks of school. I hear they'll get way worse. What are some strategies you use to keep the students on task as they seem to shut down at this point in the year?

Parents, Students, And Teachers…Whose Right Is It Anyway?

by Joel Wagner - 10

Recently, I have come across a number of people writing about rights in the education sense. Some seem to pit parents, teachers, and students all against one another. Some seem to think that parents and students gang up against the poor teachers. Still others throw the wicked old administrators into the mix. It seems most of the bloggers I've read seem to have the teacher as the poor, mistreated, valiant hero against whom all the evil forces of society are lashing out. And then there are those who have it out for the Conservative Republican upstate hacks who call themselves "consultants" (see the comments on Matthew's blog). Whatever the case, it seems the discussion of parent-teacher relationships and dynamics bring

Whitespace

by Joel Wagner - 6

Have you noticed that People   really   don't   like     As I prepare my bands for the UIL Concert & Sight Reading contest that is now less than a month away, I have noticed that they seem to have a big problem with rests. For the uninitiated, rests in music represent silence.  If I reduce the amount of noise that I make, my students will be more likely to hear the important things I tell them As I was talking with one of the classes on Friday about the incredible importance of the rests, I made a correlation about how we don't like rests because people really don't like silence. In the visual arts, typography, and graphic

Around The Blogosphere: No Child Left Behind

by Joel Wagner - 5

Everyone's talking about it. It seems that everyone has been talking about it for nearly seven years now. So I thought it would be kind of interesting to see what various bloggers are saying about the "No Child Left Behind" Act of 2001 (NCLB). My personal opinion is that the law has good intentions, but they go about it entirely the wrong way. My preference would be for children to be educated by their own families rather than the state, but California courts seem interested in doing their part to see that it doesn't happen. Besides, too many homes have two incomes to make it reasonable for everyone (even if one income merely is there to support child care, an

Not The Best Day Ever Revisited

by Joel Wagner - 2

A few weeks ago, I wrote about an experience I had where a student left my classroom crying and went to talk with the counselor. Read about it here. Be sure to read the comments below the article also! Since then, I apologized. I also made the commitment to slow down my teaching style. I wanted to take a chance to revisit that incident and follow up on some of the things that have happened since then, as well as some of the aftermath. On the Monday morning following the weekend when I had decided to slow things down, I was amazed and surprised to see the other band director walk in just before the percussion class. I left this

TAKS Day

by Joel Wagner - 5

We have our first of four TAKS test days today. They seem to have increased testing security quite a bit this year over last year. In fact, we are supposed to have some monitors from the state coming to our campus at some point during the day to make sure we are doing things correctly. I'm new at this campus, and things are run differently here than they were at the campus where I taught last year. We get to be with the students we are testing from before 8:00 to at least 2:00. We sit with the students in the cafeteria at lunch. We don't get a conference period. It's pretty much a wasted day as far as teaching

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