Then hop on over to Learn Me Good and buy a copy of his book. It is undoubtedly one of the funniest books I’ve read since becoming a teacher.

I read it on Fridays in the fall while I was monitoring our school-wide detention. I keep the kids absolutely silent during detention, and that’s hard to do while you’re reading about 3rd graders named Plakton, crazy antisocial ex-coworkers, Star Trek jokes, and TAKS tutorials.

The book documents the struggles of a first year teacher as he makes the transition from the business world to the education world.

If you can’t afford the price of the book, then his latest offer to email you a copy of the book might be right down your alley. While you’re there, subscribe to his blog to read his further experiences. Mister Teacher even wrote an exclusive top 10 list about TAKS on my blog. Now is the perfect time to go back and reread that one too!

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.