On February 11th, 2007 I wrote the first blog post that is included in the archives of So You Want To Teach? I didn ‘t actually set up the blog on this domain until June, but I thought that since the blog was now over a year old (at least as far as some of … Read more
Newby writes: I have noticed lately in a couple of your posts you mentioned how terrible your first couple of years of teaching were. As a new reader, I have gone back into your archived information to learn more about this blog but have not come across why you had such a hard time. What … Read more
Lately, I have noticed a larger number of prospective and newer teachers leaving comments to my various articles. This has helped inspire me to offer what advice I can in a (hopefully) weekly question and answer forum. For lack of creativity, we’ll call it “Ask Joel” and begin next week. Any question is fair game, … Read more
I will begin setting up and writing in a Music Education blog soon. The idea was to include Music Education content on this blog, but I think that might alienate a handful of the readers and that is the last thing I want to do. So when it gets up and running, I will link … Read more
I have fallen behind on the blog lately, but that is because I am actually trying to move forward some more in my personal life. Sometimes sacrifices are necessary parts of progress. I wanted to take this opportunity to highlight a few of the great comments that I have received lately. I am interested in … Read more
It still works. Check it out at NYC Educator. I wish I could say I handle it the good ol’ boy way all the time. I don’t. What I have discovered is that as I get older and wiser (ha), I handle misbehaviors better. The key is coming up with a contingency plan and knowing … Read more
In the Christmas break, I am looking back at this blog’s growth and development. I began writing a little bit for the blog in February, but didn’t officially launch it for real until June. Since that time, growth has been pretty consistent. I now seem to regularly get a small number of comments for every … Read more
The common classroom management wisdom we all hear is, “Don’t smile before Christmas.” I believe that advice is good advice when taken metaphorically. If taken directly as written, it is about the worst advice you can follow. Good advice In the middle of my fourth semester of teaching, when I was learning how to really … Read more
Welcome to the 148th edition of the Carnival of Education! As is one of my signature styles, I want to present this carnival in list format. We’ll begin with a Top 5 list… The Main Attraction Obviously the process of creating any “Top 5” list is subjective and open to argument and debate. With nearly50 … Read more
As we come to the conclusion of Reader Appreciation Month, I want to summarize some of the things that we have learned. Today, I’ll focus on the incredible wealth of knowledge that we have learned about classroom management with these 50 awesome classroom management tips. I found that when I put all of the tips … Read more