Today is the first day of school in Texas. Even though the school year starts later, the football season doesn’t. I’m sure some of the kids have already begun to burn out because of so much practicing for the last four weeks or so. But the high school band has a football game to play at next Friday, so we have a lot of work yet to do. Fortunately, it has been a terribly mild summer in South Texas, so it could have been much worse.

John shows that I’m not the only educator out there who places a high value on personal productivity. Check out his list.

A different John shows the value of custodians. We had a speaker this Monday who made the point that they are not just sitting in some room WAITNG to be called to clean up an accident somewhere in the building. Sometimes we overlook them.

Michelle has some tips for success, gangster style.

Darren shows how poor planning can overturn the best intentions. Aloha!

Finally, Louisiana Educator has finished her second week of school and is beginning to have doubts about the teaching career. Go encourage her.

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.