If you’re anything like me, you gained a great deal of academic knowledge about your content area in college and very little actual knowledge about getting students to stay quiet long enough to learn from your abundant knowledge base. Over the years, I have observed young teachers enter the profession and make many of the same mistakes. I have … Read more
So you got that elusive first teaching job. Congratulations. If you experience is anything like mine has been, you now get to spend a few days learning district policies, and then get thrown into the classroom with minimal further instructions. Over the last decade or so, I have been very interested in helping new teachers navigate … Read more
We’ve all had our share of students whose purpose in life seems to be making our own life miserable. If you haven’t, well you’re in luck. Here is a list of ways to make students hate your class. 101 Ways To Make Students Hate Your Class Be boring Be mean Be inconsiderate Be confrontational Be negative … Read more
I want you to watch the first 3:40 of this TED Talk by Benjamin Zander Notice the Dramatic change in the piano player from 7 years old to 11 years. Huge difference. But from 8 to 10, there is seemingly no change. What’s happening is incremental change. Each year, the child improves dramatically, but it … Read more
In this article Lucas Allen, a former math educator from Illinois writes about his experience quitting teaching and the transition into the corporate world. Why I Left About 18 months ago, I quit teaching for a job in the corporate world. This wasn’t a decision I made lightly. IÂ had been a high school mathematics teacher … Read more
While I’ve had my ups and downs over the years as a teacher, my first two years were extremely challenging. Many of these pitfalls were avoidable. If I were going into a middle school band class as a first year teacher today, knowing what I know now, I would approach things differently. Here is an unsorted list that … Read more
I saw this cartoon posted on The Yellow Board yesterday and thought some of my musician-type readers wouldappreciate it. The cartoon is by John Bogenschutz (www.johnmusic.com). Over the Christmas Break, a few of the band directors from around the area got together and played some quartets around town. I’m the only one who has played … Read more
This blog is about sharing ideas. The ideas and conversation are far more important than me personally. For that reason, you are hereby free to take any articles or comments that I (Joel) personally have produced for So You Want To Teach?and use them in whatever way you so desire! Call it Open Source Blogging, call it Uncopyright, … Read more
Mr. Teacher has one of the most entertaining blogs I’ve seen. In fact, I recommend his blog Learn Me Good to most of my friends who are looking for restroom reading material! I have recently written a guest post for him that will be appearing over there sometime in the next week or so. While … Read more
This has very little to do with education, but the concept is brilliant and bears sharing. Foodista is a cookbook with a wiki approach. Some of the cool features include: User-generated and user-edited recipes Easily link to recipes from your blog Click on an ingredient, and find recipes that include that ingredient For instance, here … Read more