Reader Appreciation: Joel Reader Appreciation by Joel Wagner - November 26, 2007May 29, 20161 With all of the great responses I have read with the Reader Appreciation Month, I decided to go ahead and fill out the survey as well. Name: Joel Location: The border of Texas and Mexico Occupation: Middle School Band Director Blog: So You Want To Teach? Tell me some of your favorite things about your job Inspiring children. Spreading my passion for music, life, and learning. Watching the students grow year after year. Recruiting kids into my program. Being creative with the music. Transforming students from knowing nothing about how to play an instrument to being able to perform complicated (for them) music by the end of the year. Demonstrating the value of long-range planning to achieve crazy cool results. Guiding students to success, both individually
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
Reader Appreciation: Jonathan Reader Appreciation by Joel Wagner - November 22, 2007July 5, 20101 November is Reader Appreciation Month at So You Want To Teach? Today's featured reader is Jonathan. Name: Jonathan Location: The Bronx Occupation: High School Math teacher Blog: JD2718 Tell me some of your favorite things about your job I love kids and I love math. How many jobs can combine them? I guess the guy at the carnival who counts the kids getting on the rides, but he has to clean puke, so that's out of the question. Honestly, I can, in the space of 55 minutes, (on a good day) get booed for telling a bad joke, discuss planetary motion or the etymology of "radish," clearly explain how a new-for-them algebra technique flows from their previous knowledge, give
Reader Appreciation: Jeremy Aldrich Reader Appreciation by Joel Wagner - November 21, 2007July 5, 20100 November is Reader Appreciation Month at So You Want To Teach? Today's featured reader is Jeremy Aldrich. Name: Jeremy Aldrich Location: Harrisonburg, Virginia Occupation: Middle school (6-8) electives - French, Foreign Language Exploratory, and Global Citizenship Blog: Global Citizenship in a Virtual World Tell me some of your favorite things about your job I love the push to keep learning, to keep discovering new questions and to help students discover their own questions. Tell me some things you loved about your favorite teacher(s) My favorite teacher, Mr. Newton, helped me feel like I was a good writer. He inspired me to read and to think and to share. He wasn't fake or shallow with his comments to students.
Reader Appreciation: Pat Hensley Reader Appreciation by Joel Wagner - November 19, 2007July 5, 20100 November is Reader Appreciation Month at So You Want To Teach? Today's featured reader is Pat Hensley. Name: Pat Hensley Location: South Carolina Occupation: I was a high school special ed teacher, now I am a college instructor and educational consultant. Blog: Successful Teaching Tell me some of your favorite things about your job Sharing my experiences and helping unexperienced teachers solve problems Tell me some things you loved about your favorite teacher(s) Making me feel that I was important, listening to my ideas, and learning new things from them List some of your most effective classroom management strategies Improving students’ self concept Have a consistent behavior plan Name (up to) three other blogs that you frequently visit/subscribe
All Time Best Teaching Advice Classroom Management by Joel Wagner - November 17, 2007July 5, 20104 As I have been reading the interviews for the Reader Appreciation Month (by the way, there is room for another 7 interviews. If you don't send them in, they end on Wednesday!), I have been amazed at the depth of knowledge of some of the readers of this blog. I was going through my Google Reader the other day and came across a post by Gxeremio entitled Best (and worst) advice. In it, he lists some of the best teaching advice he has received. Additionally, he points to some standard "wisdom" that really isn't all that wise. It made me think... If I were to give only one piece of advice to a brand new teacher, what would it
Reader Appreciation: Athena Reader Appreciation by Joel Wagner - November 16, 2007July 5, 20100 November is Reader Appreciation Month at So You Want To Teach? Today's featured reader is Athena. Name: Athena Location: South Texas Occupation: ELA 9th & 10th grade Blog: http://athena81469.blogspot.com/ Tell me some of your favorite things about your job I like the freedom of the job. I used to be in a cube job where I had to punch a timeclock all the time. Every moment of my job was timed. I sat and stared at 4 grey fuzzy walls everyday. Now, I come to work at my own time. Nobody is watching. Plus, I have control over my job. I decide what and when I teach. I decide if I am going to stay late. I can
Reader Appreciation: Miss Profe Reader Appreciation by Joel Wagner - November 14, 2007July 5, 20102 November is Reader Appreciation Month at So You Want To Teach? Today's featured reader is Miss Profe. Name: Miss Profe Location:The Northeast Occupation: Middle/High School Spanish teacher Blog: It's A Hardknock Teacher's Life Tell me some of your favorite things about your job The kids, the challenge of teaching a second language in the 21st century Tell me some things you loved about your favorite teacher(s) They demanded my best; they recognized my potential. List some of your most effective classroom management strategies Walking around the room, tapping on the shoulder, not shouting over students Name (up to) three other blogs that you frequently visit/subscribe Ms. Whatsit So You Want To Teach? RepairKit
Reader Appreciation: Miss A Reader Appreciation by Miss A - November 13, 2007July 5, 20100 November is Reader Appreciation Month at So You Want To Teach? Today's featured reader is Miss A.Name: Miss A Location: Urban city in the South Occupation: Teacher, World history, African American History 9-12 grade. Mostly 9th grade Blog: Confessions From The Couch Tell me some of your favorite things about your job Facilitating games, watching students "get it," being able to explore diverse issues and situations. Tell me some things you loved about your favorite teacher(s) They were interactive, they were demanding, had high expectations, friendly. List some of your most effective classroom management strategies Interactive classroom seating chart, behavior contracts. Name (up to) three other blogs that you frequently visit/subscribe Secondhand Thoughts Teaching in the Inner
Reader Appreciation: Angela Maiers Reader Appreciation by Joel Wagner - November 12, 2007May 29, 20165 November is Reader Appreciation Month at So You Want To Teach? Today's featured reader is Angela Maiers. Name: Angela Maiers Location: Des Moines, Iowa Occupation: National Education Consultant, author, Adjunct Professor teaching post graduate work in the area of reading and literacy Blog: Angela Maiers Tell me some of your favorite things about your job That is a hard one. I LOVE MY JOB. I feel like I have the best of all education worlds. I love teaching grad school, my students are amazingly dedicated teachers, I have the opportunity to travel across the United States helping teachers and schools work at the grassroots level to improve students lives, and my favorite part is working with the students. EAch week, I am invited to do demonstration
Reader Appreciation: Eric Turner Reader Appreciation by Joel Wagner - November 8, 2007July 5, 20100 November is Reader Appreciation Month at So You Want To Teach? Today's featured reader is Eric Turner. Name: Eric Turner Location: Tennessee Occupation: History/Secondary Ed Student Blog: Secondhand Thoughts Tell me some of your favorite things about your job I love learning and I love the interaction between professor and students Tell me some things you loved about your favorite teacher(s) Whew, this is a hard one. I think the things I loved about the teachers I loved is the high standards they maintained, yet were also compassionate, fair, and understanding. Oh, and they each had a great sense of humor. They each inspired me in their own way. How they inspired me is hard to define. Some of the ways were the
Reader Appreciation: ms_teacher Reader Appreciation by Joel Wagner - November 6, 2007July 5, 20100 November is Reader Appreciation Month at So You Want To Teach? Today's featured reader is ms_teacher. Name: ms_teacher Location: Northern California Occupation: Professional Educator (aka teacher); Grade 6, mostly Language Arts and Social Studies Blog: ms_teacher Tell me some of your favorite things about your job Favorite things about teaching: Being able to interact with kids who are mostly good and do try to do what’s expected of them; sharing my enthusiasm for my subject matter – you should hear me talk to them about why I love Mesopotamia, even more than the ever popular Egypt! I also enjoy seeing their growth over the nine months I have them. They come into middle school as scared elementary students and leave at the end
Reader Appreciation: José Vilson Reader Appreciation by Joel Wagner - November 5, 2007July 5, 20102 November is Reader Appreciation Month at So You Want To Teach? Today's featured reader is José Vilson.Name: José Vilson Location: New York, NY Occupation: 6th Grade Math Teacher Blog: The José Vilson Tell me some of your favorite things about your job My favorite things about my job are the ability to help children achieve their best, inspiring them not only academically but personally. I also like getting up on my stage and performing for them, too. The thrill of a good and well thought out lesson is incomparable. I love the kids' energies. Their inquisitiveness makes me want to go and teach them, and push them harder. I love the instant feedback I get from my students about my
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
Less Stress: Don’t Take Work Home Stress Reduction by Joel Wagner - November 1, 2007July 5, 20104 I wrote a couple of days ago about a plan to reduce the amount of papers that you take home. Preferably, that number will approach zero as your systems get refined. That is NOT the focus of this entry. The goal here is to truly liberate you from your job. The story goes: A senior monk and a junior monk were traveling together. At one point, they came to a river with a strong current. As the monks were preparing to cross the river, they saw a very young and beautiful woman also attempting to cross. The young woman asked if they could help her. The senior monk carried this woman on his shoulder, forded the river and let her