So You Want To Teach?

A comment was left recently that said,

Joel, I really enjoy your blog. You have written some amazing articles that I have printed and put in my first year file. I am currently student teaching right now. I appreciate your honesty about how scary and hard it can be sometimes, but also the greatness in the experience. I am having the time of my life, and I hope the enthusiasm I have stays with me. Your blog is helping, so thank you! If you could give one single piece of advice to a beginning teacher, what would it be? Just curious!

That challenged me to see if I could come up with something I hadn’t written before that was better (or close to it) than all of the other advice I have gotten. Then it struck me.

One of my mentors told me before I went into my first job that, regardless of how long I stayed there, I should personally make a commitment to be there for at least two years.

Why do that?
The commitment keeps you from giving up halfway through when it gets hard, and becoming someone who runs from school to school throughout their entire career. We’ve all seen or heard about people like that. Don’t let it be you. If you commit to sticking with the program, it will keep you in there fighting when the odds seem to be stacked against you. It also keeps you actively involved in the classroom until the end of the year.

I remember as I was finishing my second year, I pretty much shut down as the school year came to a close. It was for no other reason than because I knew I wasn’t going to be there next year. I wanted to quit after my first year, but I kept the idea of commitment running through my head. It kept me in there, working to try to figure out how to do this whole teaching thing.

Ultimately, it’s a mental game. It forces you to submit just a little bit. It pushes us to exhaust our supply of possible solutions, and look to others for help. We never like to submit, but it’s often a good thing.

What else can you tell me?
Read the blog. Let me recommend these 100 articles first…

1. 4 Ways To Effectively Deal With Important People
2. 5 Habits of Highly Effective Teachers
3. 5 Keys To Educating People
4. 5 Surefire Tips For Handling Misbehavior
5. 5 Ways To Win When Children Test Your Limits
6. 6 Motivation Techniques
7. 8 Ways Blogging Makes Me A Better Teacher
8. 9 Reasons To Quit Teaching (And 10 Reasons To Stick)
9. 10 Things I Wish I Knew As A First Year Teacher
10. 10 Tips To Stay Motivated And Love Teaching
11. 15 Tips To Stay Positive
12. 50 Classroom Management Tips I Have Learned This Month
13. 50 Reasons To Love Your Job As A Teacher
14. 65 Things You Should Do Right Now To Avoid Burnout
15. A Customer Service Oriented Classroom Experience
16. All Time Best Teaching Advice
17. All Work And No Play Makes Joel A Dull Boy
18. Apologizing
19. Are Classroom Rules Needed?
20. Are You Still Out Of Control In Your Classroom?
21. Arguing Is Normal, isn’t It?
22. Be The Best Teacher In The World
23. Blogging Your Way To Being A Great Teacher
24. But It’s Not Your Fault!
25. Calling Home
26. Can We Reach Every Student?
27. Clarity Leads To Organization
28. Classroom Management: The Key To Your Success
29. Do You Run The Risk of Becoming Successful?
30. Efficient vs. Effective
31. Finding Excellent Educators To Emulate
32. Gone Wild: Classroom Jobs
33. Habit 1: Communication Procedures
34. Habit 2: Classroom Procedures
35. Habit 3: Relationship Procedures
36. Habit 4: Personal Procedures
37. Habit 5: Community Procedures
38. Help! I’m On The Verge of Burnout!!! Do I Quit Teaching Or What Do I Do?
39. How Do I Keep My Sanity?
40. How Do I Keep My School Administration Happy?
41. How Do I Keep My Students Away From Me?
42. How Do I Keep My Students Engaged?
43. How Do I Keep My Students Interested?
44. How Do I Keep My Students Learning?
45. How Do I Keep My Students Quiet?
46. How Not To Waste Spring Break (or Summer Vacation, or Christmas Break, or Saturday, or Tonight!)
47. How to Empower Your Students
48. If You Don’t Fill Your Schedule, Someone Else Will
49. If You Make Only One Change This Year…RELAX!!!!!!
50. If You Really Must Have Classroom Rules…
51. Interview Tips
52. Invalid Reasons Teachers Quit
53. It’s The End Of The Year…Let’s Act Like Fools!
54. It’s Time For An Attitude Adjustment
55. Less Stress: Don’t Take Work Home
56. Less Stress: Only Work At Work
57. Less Stress: Play At Work
58. Less Stress: Reduce Paperwork
59. Less Stress: Reduce Phone Calls
60. Less Stress: Reduce Responsibilities
61. Less Stress: Work Hard At Work
62. Less Stress: Work Only At Work
63. Life Lesson 4: Choose Your Battles
64. Make Love not War – How to Control an Unruly Class
65. My Teaching Philosophy: The 50 Word Version
66. Networking To Save Your (Teaching) Life
67. New Classroom Rule: Don’t Talk To Me
68. New Teacher Survival Kit
69. Not The Best Day Ever
70. Not The Best Day Ever Revisited
71. Old School Classroom Management
72. On The Brink Of Quitting
73. Organization Leads To Sanity
74. Overcoming Adversity
75. Pacing: What Every Great Band Director Knows
76. Questions That Will Save Your Career
77. Repiteaching
78. Sharpen The Saw
79. Shut Up And Teach!
80. Slow Down!
81. So You Got A New Job! Should You Go Out And Buy A Bunch of New Crap?
82. The Dip
83. The Essence of Hope
84. The Honeymoon Is Over: What Killed My First Job And 7 Tips For Getting Your Next Job
85. The Single Most Important Advice Anyone Can Give To A First Year Teacher
86. The Twelve Days of Teaching
87. Three Basic Classroom Skills
88. To Shut Up Or Not To Shut Up? That Is The Question
89. Tools For Success
90. Top 5 Character Traits Of Great Teachers
91. Transforming A Tense Relationship Where There Is Low Respect
92. Turning The Ship: Overcoming A History of Poor Teaching
93. Valid Reasons Teachers Quit
94. What If…
95. Where Have All The Good Teachers Gone?
96. Whitespace
97. Why I Hated Teaching During My First Two Years
98. You Better Smile Before Christmas!
99. You Think You Pay Attention? What Else Are You Missing Out On?
100. You’ve Been Teaching HOW LONG???

Wow. 100. Where has the time gone? All right. I admit, I didn’t write them all. But they all contain great information. I’ve learned a great deal through reading and writing them.