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
Less Stress: Kill Your TV Stress Reduction by Joel Wagner - October 5, 2007July 5, 20102 This is perhaps my most favorite tip of them all! I haven't regularly watched television since I was in 11th grade, but I have watched quite a bit of it. When I read "The 4-Hour Workweek," Timothy Ferriss suggests a low-information diet. His theory is that if you simply ask people "what's new in the world," you will find out about most news. He also points out that most news that comes across as events are unfolding is either incomplete or totally inaccurate. I tend to agree. So I have made the decision this year to completely unplug my television. I will actually get rid of it soon, I'm just not sure what I'm going to do with it. It'd
Weekend Wrapup 08/20/07 Blogging & Technology by Joel Wagner - August 20, 2007July 5, 20102 Happy Monday morning. I begin staff development this week. School begins in Texas next Monday. This spring, I began to make myself familiar with the Getting Things Done (GTD) approach to personal productivity. My views on effectiveness went into overdrive this summer as I read The 4-Hour Workweek. Timothy Ferriss has recently posted The Not-To-Do List, 9 things to make you more productive. Just a Substitute Teacher points us to an article in USA Today that has a great list of things that some school districts or schools do to get more subs. Check out How to Lure Substitute Teachers. Athena gives us a list called 10 Things I Learned In My First Year of Teaching. How many of us
Help Me Change The World! Seriously General by Joel Wagner - August 8, 2007July 5, 20101 On July 4th, author Timothy Ferriss wrote a blog entry about changing the world. In response to his request for ideas, I wrote: As a teacher, your book has revolutionized the way I intend on teaching next year. I am going to start the year checking emails once a day and then gradually decrease that to two days a week. It’s amazing how much time most teachers waste with mundane and unimportant tasks. Your points on the difference between efficient and effective have really changed my paradigm of work. I wrote a blog article about it. I would definitely send at least a small chunk of the books to leaders in the National Science Teachers Association. Science teachers talkto other
The Purpose Of A Personal Mission Statement Personal by Joel Wagner - July 26, 2007July 5, 20109 Last summer, I read The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People. The book radically impacted me and helped me to begin becoming much more organized. This week, I was talking with a friend about his auto repair business. I asked him why he had to be at the shop all day every day. He told me it was because when he's not here, the guys who work there don't do a great job of greeting the customers. I remembered reading Stephen Covey's account of a great customer service experience he had in a business. Upon asking why it was that they had such a welcoming environment, he found that the company had a mission statement. On top of that, each
How Do I Keep My Sanity? Stress Reduction by Joel Wagner - June 13, 2007May 29, 20160 This article is part 7 of the series Questions That Will Save Your Career. Please read the other articles in the series. How Do I Keep My Students Quiet? How Do I Keep My Students Engaged? How Do I Keep My Students Interested? How Do I Keep My Students Learning? How Do I Keep My Students Away From Me? How Do I Keep My School Administration Happy? How Do I Keep My Sanity? 10 Years of Teaching: How Do I Keep My Students Quiet? 10 Years of Teaching: How Do I Keep My Students Engaged? 10 Years of Teaching: How Do I Keep My Students Interested? 10 Years of Teaching: How Do I Keep My Students Learning? 10 Years of
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