Five years ago, I wrote a series of seven articles called “Questions That Will Save Your Career†that still remain among the most visited articles on this site. When I wrote those, I had successfully completed my 5th year in education. This summer, after 10 years, I am revisiting some of these older concepts. Today, … Read more
Emails like this are the reason this site exists. I am an 11-year high school English teaching veteran in the Los Angeles area. Most of my teaching was done in the trenches of suburban, low-SES “nay-bah-HOODS” and the fringes of, um, gangsta lands. (I teach English … go figure.) I’ve had my share of awesome … Read more
This is an article in the Total Teacher Transformation series. Click here for a complete table of contents. As discussed last time, part of gaining respect from students comes from being respectful. The second element of earning the respect of your students (and their parents), comes from being respectable. No amount of courtesy to your students can … Read more
Reader Appreciation Month didn’t quite turn out the way I had envisioned it would. That is primarily my fault. As I sit here, I realize there are some things that I used to do with blogging that I don’t do any longer. I have decided it’s time for me to change some things. You may … 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
In November of 2007, I had Reader Appreciation Month. During the course of that month, I interviewed a number of my readers and gained some powerful insight into what makes teachers tick. This article summarizes 50 reasons to love your job as a teacher. As we come to the conclusion of Reader Appreciation Month, I want … Read more
In November of 2007, I had Reader Apprection Month where I interviewed some of my readers, most of whom were fellow bloggers. Through the course of that month, I picked up a number of responses to the question “What Makes A Superior Teacher?” This article aggregates them and looks at the top answers. I’d guess if … Read more
With all of the great responses I have read with the Reader Appreciation Month, I decided to go ahead and fill out the survey as well. Name: Joel Location: The border of Texas and Mexico Occupation: Middle School Band Director Blog: So You Want To Teach? Tell me some of your favorite things about your … Read more
We come now to the final chapter of our 25 Tips For Less Stress. This is perhaps my favorite one of all. Without this decision, you cannot have a stress-free life. The key is to choose to have fun at work. No matter what industry you work in, if you love your job, you will … Read more
Life as a teacher can be awfully challenging. While the challenges change as we gain experience, there are always new ones. It can be an awfully lonely time for many teachers. This article looks at 9 reasons to quit teaching and also raises 10 reasons to stick with teaching. Think of the many reasons you have … Read more