Shelly Sanchez Terrell is an English teacher living in Germany. She is also the co-organizer and co-creator of the educational projects, Edchat and The Reform Symposium Conference. Find more of her challenges on her education blog, Teacher Reboot Camp or in her free e-book, The 30 Goals Challenge. Find her on Twitter, @ShellTerrell.

I remember having a lesson observed for my teacher certification. The lesson didn’t go well and my observer made it a point to let me know how miserably I failed. I have gotten critiques before, but this one was different. I felt like a failure. My observer had not liked one thing I did in my lesson. I felt as if I wasn’t a good teacher. No teacher likes that feeling….

This guest post was written by Atticus from www.atticusparker.com/education

I was chuffed earlier this month when Joel asked me to write guest post for his edublog SYWTT. I was however also nervous. Joel has created an enviable web presence with SYWTT through an obvious passion for teaching, hard work and obvious dedication. I didn’t want to let him down.

The topic he suggested was ‘How To Make This Year The Best of Your Career’. Wow, I thought. A topic like that calls for an action plan. A list. So I have resorted to an old favourite of blog readers – the list article.

Many blog articles today feature a list. Do Lists. Don’t lists. They are attractive because they…

This is a guest post by Pat Hensley from the blog Successful Teaching. As we gear up for the upcoming school year, So You Want To Teach? is featuring articles about making this school year the best year ever.

I have been teaching about 30 years now and I still love teaching! I have taught all grade levels including the university level and I still feel the same way. After teaching special education classes for 28 years in public schools, I now teach teachers getting their master’s degree in special education and write a blog called Successful Teaching. I really appreciate Joel for giving me the opportunity to be a guest writer on his blog.

Of course, at the beginning of the year,…

This is a guest post by Kathryn Laster, who teaches math in a suburb of Dallas, TX. She writes:

This year was my 20th year of teaching, so my humble opinions qualify as part B of your “call for guest bloggers.” I really started working on my formal philosophy as a grad school assignment, and I have been slowly tweaking it for several years. Since this was a milestone year for me, I thought it would be appropriate to really re-think and re-visit my philosophy, and your call for guests inspired me to do so. My brief resume: this year, I taught ESL algebra 1, pre-calculus, and AP calculus AB, and this is also my 10th year to sponsor…

This is a guest post by Drew, who currently teaches 7th Grade Texas History in the San Antonio area, where he has taught since 2004.

Maybe this job doesn’t pay enough for those with heavy material needs. But, working here has helped me with the most important part of my life.

10. Family – My comfort level with my material for class has improved each and every year. I spent Friday nights, usually until the wee Saturday morning hours, setting up lesson plans for the next week. I was never able to get ahead on my work. I had two preps and no lesson plans from other teachers to guide me. By November of this school year, I had stopped bringing…

This is a guest post by Drew, who currently teaches 7th Grade Texas History in the San Antonio area, where he has taught since 2004.

Shout out to my college roommates for always giving me a hard time about being cultured.  Was I full of myself, or what?  Nothing goes together better than Austin and music.

8. Music – I actually played Ted Nugent’s ‘Great White Buffalo’ in class because the song tells the story of buffalo from the Native American perspective.  I didn’t think much of it until our 3-on-3 basketball tournament yesterday at TAKS celebration.  One of the teams, 3 girls from one of my classes, made t-shirts at home and their team name was….White Buffaloes. I wonder if they’ll…

This is a guest post by Drew, who currently teaches 7th Grade Texas History in the San Antonio area, where he has taught since 2004.

A wise investment is just that. Find ways to invest in your school and yourself.

6. Next year – To complement our emphasis on relationships at school, I will be leading a field trip to Washington, D.C. in 2011. This requires advance planning and nothing matches the looks I get from the students who will be attending. You can just see the excitement in their eyes. In others there is dread because their parents and siblings will be joining them.

7. Professional Development – My personal fav. I did the first-ever book study with ATPE at www.atpe.org. I…

This is a guest post by Drew, who currently teaches 7th Grade Texas History in the San Antonio area, where he has taught since 2004.

Here I discovered the proper use of multimedia and how proper procedures can help ensure mental well-being.

3. Movies – I have used movies in the past, but mostly to kill time.  This year, I wrote some great questions for the movies I used.  I suppose I set my expectations higher as far as how I used movies like ‘The Alamo’ or ‘National Treasure 2’.  My students compared the information from our textbook to how Hollywood presents historical facts.  Kudos to Nicolas Cage for the ‘hysterical’ side of the facts.

4. Procedures – I have…

This is a guest post by Drew, who currently teaches 7th Grade Texas History in the San Antonio area, where he has taught since 2004.

At the end of this, my sixth year, I have a few moments to reflect on the road taken.

While I am looking at this year with the rose-colored glasses all teachers wear on the last day of school, I urge one and all to take whatever time necessary to enjoy all that you have accomplished this year. But do so as objectively as possible. All teachers have growing pains every year, but don’t let those get in the way of what you did right. In no particular order, here is what I did right this…

Ivy writes:

I am in my first year as a Special Education teacher. My class is out of control. Kids are yelling at each other. Nobody is focused on their work. I am yelling and screaming and they are talking back and yelling back at me. Everybody is trying to help me out. Some say I need to be more positive, some say I need to be stronger and more strict. I do not know what to do. As a group, they are against me. The situation is very confrontational. I can not stop them going crazy. The kids know it. They are going crazy but they do not care. Some kids even have a lot of fun of it….

This is a guest post by Liz Cutten, who helps run FindCollegeCards, a college student blog that helps students learn about everything college.

All college professors are different, but what you’re going to find out is that all of them are human, and many of them are going to be impressed by the same things. I went to college over 6 years, and what I had found out is that most professors will honestly look at the good students in a different way, compared to those that are bad.

Now, I know when you read the title, you’re probably thinking, “I don’t want to be suck up!”, and that’s fine. I’m not writing this to show you how to…

Do you hate your job? I just finished my third week of school and am excited about how much fun my job will be this year. It’s super exciting. I remember back when I was a first year teacher, though. It wasn’t quite like this. This was underscored this week when a couple of anonymous readers (disgruntled and hey) left the following comments:

It’s interesting reading all these comments and I was searching the internet for other jobs I could do if I wasn’t a teacher.. My story is the opposite. I have a great bunch of students and a really supportive (mostly) group of parents also. I am disgruntled by the workload and also extra things that end up taking…

Are you looking for a new job this summer? I know some people are sticking it out in their current district just because of the insecurity with the recession and current economic situation. I also know that some people have graduated from college and are moving into the world of education. Others have chosen to leave the teaching profession entirely. Are you looking for a new job this summer? Care to comment about your questions/fears/experiences?

This is a guest post by Edward Kim from The Certification Map Team.

Joel, thanks for letting us write a guest post on your blog. This site is a great source for educators who want meaningful information with a down-to-earth touch.

For Joel’s regular readers, thanks for taking your time time to read this post. I want to start out by asking you a simple question: Do you know your state’s teacher certification requirements? How many of you have experienced or heard horror stories about people trying to navigate through your state’s Department of Education website trying to figure out the certification process (not to mention long phone conversations with the DOE that lead nowhere). It can be a…

By this point in the semester, some student teaching programs are wrapping up. Others are just about halfway through. Whatever the case, I think most of our student teacher readers are coming to realize that teaching is not quite what they expected it would be in many regards. I think many of them are beginning to realize that they will really miss (some of) the kids after they finish for the year.

G. Broaddus recently noted that he has been quite a bit more busy this semester than he anticipated. Unexpected events have taken place. Just under a month ago, he realized that daily blogging is a big commitment. It’s okay. His blogging has definitely been valueable for him, as…

My Twitter friend @MissCalcul8 recently posted on her blog soliciting help from her readers about how to prepare for her first year as an official teacher. She has been subbing some this year.

I thought it was a great question, so I wanted to post my responses here as well as send you over to her blog to offer up some more suggestions (and perhaps subscribe to her RSS feed!). So without further ado, here are 7 things I would do before my first year as a teacher if I knew then what I know now.

1. Figure out a classroom management plan (with or without rules) that works well for you.
2. Make friends like crazy with other teachers.
3. If

…

This is a guest post from Karen Schweitzer who is a writer for TeacherDegree.org, a site that specializes in information on teaching degrees.

Finding time to go to the library or conduct research for the classroom can be downright impossible for a busy teacher. Fortunately, there are plenty of reference materials on the web that can guide educators to lesson plans and other resources that can be used in the classroom. Here are 50 online reference sites that would be useful to almost any teacher:

General Reference Sites

• The Educator’s Reference Desk – The Educator’s Reference Desk is an extremely valuable online reference site for teachers. Specific features include lesson plans, teaching tips, and information about teaching

…

So most schools have started their student teaching by now. If you know someone who has a blog and is student teaching this semester, please encourage them to contact me (or leave a comment) so that I can add their blog to my list. I was encouraged to read some of the great comments that came out on some of the posts from last week. Hopefully you can keep doing that this week. Here’s what I found in the world of student teaching this week.

• Saturday January 10 G Broaddus was Reflecting on student teaching , week 1. He also writes about Myths in the teachers’ lounge. Some good reflection, and some not-so-good reflection happens in there! Wish him

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With the end of what for many is the first week of student teaching, I wanted to look around at some of the blogs out there written by student teachers. I expect my Student Teaching Project to grow over the course of the semester, but for now I want to look at all of the student teaching related posts I know of from this week.

• Sunday January 4 – Mr. Spurlin writes out his Student Teaching Resolutions in which he lays out some plans that he has for this upcoming semester.
• Monday January 5 – Mattie writes The First Day… sigh in which she notices teacher dress code, students who resemble some of her former classmates, and the language

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I love the week following Christmas break. The students (and teachers) have accustomed themselves to staying up late. Many of them woke up Monday morning earlier than they went to sleep Friday night/Saturday morning. As a result, Monday and Tuesday were sleep-deprived transition days. Classroom management was much simpler on those days than many days so far this year.

I can’t help but think of those poor student teachers who have started waking up before 10am for the first time in years. With college class schedules having 15 minute breaks built in on busy days and three or four hour gaps of relaxation time on the standard days, how are they handling the workload of a real 8-hour day? What…