I saw a great post on The Yellow Board today. The author asks a simple question:

This is a little “out there”, but let’s say you could go back in time and and meet yourself when you were 18. You could tell yourself one thing, and zap, you were back to the present. What one thing would you tell yourself, even if it changed the present? I thought about this and decided I would let “me” know about Sept.11,01. What about you? I hope you don’t tell yourself not to be a band director or to buy stock in Microsoft. What would help the world or others instead of just you?

My response would be, “Avoid debt entirely.” If I got a chance to tell myself something else, it would be, “Put down that twinkie and get off the couch.”

My follow-up question is, “Why aren’t you doing that now?”

2009 is quickly approaching. I’m going to be doing a lot of looking back and forward over the next few weeks. I am really excited about what this year holds for me personally. Oh yeah, keep your eyes open for a little giveaway coming soon too.

New Classroom Rule: Don’t Talk To Me
9 Reasons To Quit Teaching (And 10 Reasons To Stick)
Not The Best Day Ever Revisited

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.