November is Reader Appreciation Month at So You Want To Teach? Today’s featured reader is Gillian King.

Name: Gillian King
Location: Sydney, Australia
Occupation: I run a marketing consultancy, but I started out as a High School teacher
Blog: School of St. Jude — My blog supports the School of St Jude, a free school for bright kids from the poorest homes, in Tanzania. These kids rarely get to finish primary school, and typical class sizes are 60-70, so the School of St Jude is like a haven for these capable kids.

Tell me some of your favorite things about your job
One of my favourite things about the School of St Jude that it was started by an Australian woman, Gemma Sisia who grew up with seven older brothers!! She has the energy and vision to make a success of this school. She started in 2002 with 3 kids, and next year she will have 1,000 kids in two campuses. She’s a force of nature.

Tell me some things you loved about your favorite teacher(s)
Gemma is a terrific fund raiser – she has spoken to hundreds of Rotary meetings and school groups. Everyone wants to support her project because they can see that it is her life’s work — she is dedicated to it and is a very practical person. Her schools are going to make a huge difference to a whole country. Education is a vital element that will help reduce poverty for generations to come.

List some of your most effective classroom management strategies
Well, looking back, one of the main things I learnt as a young teacher was

1. Never to threaten a punishment I wasn’t prepared to carry out
2. And it’s a really good idea to set the boundaries fairly close at first, then relax them later, once you’ve gotten to know each other

Name (up to) three other blogs that you frequently visit/subscribe

• http://spiritcloth.typepad.com/spirit_cloth/ — a quilter
• http://doug-johnson.squarespace.com/blue-skunk-blog/ — school librarian
• http://www.newscientist.com/blog/environment/ — New Scientist

Reader Appreciation: Mister Teacher

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.

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