Today is my sister’s birthday. Happy birthday Joel’s sister. :) My birthday is also this Wednesday.

It’s not an education post, but the organization stuff covered is great. I love Zen Habits, and Leo once again hits a homerun here. How to Simplify Your Filing System; or, Why Stacking Just Doesn’t Work. How many teachers need to read this one? I am specifically thinking about my high school and middle school English teachers here…

John Pearson over at Learn Me Good has written his 300th blog post. It includes a wonderful review of his recently published book of the same name, Learn Me Good. I think I want to buy me a copy of that book. Or maybe John will send me a free copy as a birthday present…

John Spencer has written 10 reasons he loves teaching. I like Number 7: There is always an abundance of chocolate. One thing I’ll miss about teaching 6th grade this year is that I’ll get less Christmas and Easter and Valentine’s Day gifts.

Cool Cat Teacher has some outstanding list of Tips For Starting The School Year. A must read for anyone going into the classroom for the first or even for the final year of teaching.

Finally, Mr. Heffner gives us 10 Rules for the Good Life by Thomas Jefferson. How much smoother would the classroom run if we all followed this advice?

10 Things To Do While Joel Is Gone

Joel Wagner

Joel Wagner (@sywtt) began teaching band in 2002. Though he had a lot of information, his classes were out of control. He found himself tired, frustrated, disrespected by students, lonely, and on the brink of quitting. He had had enough. He resigned from his school district right before spring break of his second year and made it his personal mission to learn to be a great teacher. So You Want To Teach? is the ongoing story of that quest for educational excellence.