Head of the Class

By Joshua Evan Roig

You became an educator to make a difference in the lives of young people but soon found out that's easier said than done. Head of the Class: The Art of Teaching Outside the Lines, was written especially for educators who want to stand out in a crowd and become the teacher their students remember forever. Written by an award-winning educator with twenty-four years of classroom experience, Head of the Class is a crash course on how to skyrocket your practice to superstardom. Part memoir, part how-to, Head of the Class is packed with personal anecdotes, insights, and teaching strategies, written in bite-sized, easy-to-digest chunks designed to elevate educators to legendary status.  

• Language: English
• Publisher: Joshua Evan Roig
• Release date: Oct 1, 2023
• ISBN: 9798223201427

Joshua Evan Roig

Joshua is a retired award-winning educator with twenty-four years of public school experience and an award-nominated author. He writes books to continue serving young and old. He also loves skiing, racquet sports, and maintaining a healthy lifestyle. He is a devoted father of two and husband of one! 

Book preview

Section One: The Early Years

Chapter One

First Things First

Can we be honest for a moment..? Teaching is a BEAR! Did you know when you signed up for this job the size and number of hoops you’d be asked to jump, crawl, and negotiate your way through?! And many of these hoops, for no other reason, are simply there to trip you up. And it seems with every passing year, the number of hoops grows. Never in the history of education, has so much been expected of teachers. You’d have to be insane to take this thing on. And yet, new teachers arrive every day. They just keep coming. And they come because of a deep-rooted desire to give, to impact lives, to make a difference, to touch others, to mentor, to guide, to inform, to uplift. It’s why you and I took the gig, right?

Sadly, though many of us entered the education business radically unprepared. No one and I mean NO ONE told us how challenging, heartbreaking, frustrating, and scary it would be. Our university and school district teacher preparation programs were so busy instructing us on teaching pedagogy that they forgot we needed survival skills. Like trench warfare, Man! I don’t know about you, but I needed a flak jacket that first week!

What I really needed was ‘big thinking’ insight into what makes kids tick. I needed instruction in child psychology; not antiquated classroom management practices. Because on that first day, I was like a deer in headlights. No roadmap, no direction, no clue. This couldn’t be what I signed up for. Is it too late to change my mind..?! There’s got to be a hole somewhere around here I can crawl into!

Raise your hand if you’ve ever said, If only I knew then what I know now. That’s why I’m writing this book: to provide you with the insights and unconventional skills and practices that helped separate me from my colleagues and ensure a long and fulfilling career. It took years for me to feel I had a grasp on this teaching thing. Let’s face it, your early years as a teacher are going to be rough. You can either do what I did which was stick my head in the sand and wallow in my own self-pity OR you can empower your practice by considering and possibly adopting the ‘slightly unorthodox’ ideas I share in this book. As you read, you will need to decide what you are comfortable with. Some of the stuff I share may just not be in your wheelhouse. I get it. But at the same time, I am confident that after reading this book, you will not be the educator you started out as. I want you to teach with the peace of mind and sense of ease reserved for the MVPs of this business. I want you to swim circles around your colleagues. I want you to jump out of bed every morning with enthusiasm, knowing that a wondrous day lay ahead of you: It will be a day of surprises, wins, and joy! Let’s ride!

Chapter Two

Dipping Your Toe in the Water

Congratulations, my friend on taking the first step in catapulting your teaching practice to a place that is light years from where it is now. Your flight destination: Head of the Class! You will be the envy of your colleagues because how you choose to use your time and energy and where you place your focus, will be very different from them. You will carry a big dog posture; a posture of confidence and ease.

You may not realize it, but by hitting the proverbial ‘play’ button, you are making a commitment to yourself and your teaching practice. In case you didn’t notice, the world is in short supply of commitment. It’s no wonder so many businesses fail, divorce rates are high, and too many teachers are dropping out of the race after that first hurdle. That is not meant to be a diss on teachers. If anyone knows how hard it is to sustain a career as a teacher, it’s me! The drop-out rate statistics are enough to scare anyone away! Fortunately, I didn’t know going in that 43% of teachers never make it past year five. I might’ve thought, What’s the point of starting something that so many never finish? The majority of teachers will tell you that it is their students that drive them. But no matter how much teachers love their students, burnout is a real thing. Some say it’s a result of the number of work hours required outside of the classroom. Some say it comes from feeling under-appreciated. Whatever the reason, we need to make sure that YOU, my friend, keep swinging away. Too many kids are depending on you. Finding sustainability in your teaching career won’t be easy. Just look at the numbers. But, what I’ve set out to share with you in this book, potentially could make a lasting difference. Everything I share with you is meant to serve one purpose and one only: To provide you a pathway to power, to help you level up your game so that every season is an MVP-type season for you! But first...

Chapter Three

An Auspicious Start

Have you ever felt so primed for a life event only to have it spiral into a tailspin? That describes my first year as a teacher. If there was a word to describe that first year, it would be FORGETTABLE. Because I had no idea what I was getting into, I figured, I worked in the TV business for seven years. If anyone can teach kids how to camera frame a shot, it’s me. There’s really no need to prep.

Lesson #2: Come prepared!

If it counts for anything, I was excited. Hell, excitement alone should have carried me through, at least the first few months, right..?

In the weeks that led up to my ‘Video production teacher at Cool Magnet School’ gig, whenever I told people that I was going to be a middle school teacher, they always said, God bless you! I couldn’t figure out why they were all ‘blessing’ me. It seemed such an unnecessary gesture until I started to think of it more as a curse.