Harry Wong Has Passed — How Did He Impact Your Career?

We lost a giant today.

Harry Wong, author of The First Days of School, which sold more than three and a half million copies, died at the age of like 91 or 92.

And I just wanted to take a minute to recognize his contribution on our profession and And to say thank you because this was a book, I received multiple copies of this book as a new teacher, you might have also.

And I just can't tell you how much that book helped me and how much I know it has helped millions and millions of other people.

And think about how many students were helped by Harry and Rosemary Wong through their work and through the first days of school because like everybody starts as a new teacher right like nobody is is not a first-year teacher at some point right like everybody has to be a first-year teacher and if we can improve the learning curve for new teachers if we can make things a little bit easier think how many tens of millions of students that matters for.

So I'd love to know how you have benefited from Harry Wong's work.

Maybe you saw him speak.

Maybe you read his book.

Maybe you bought his book for someone else.

Maybe you benefited from his book in a certain way.

Leave a comment and let me know what your memories of Harry Wong are and share an appreciation if you would.

One of my favorite stories from his book is the one about the day that the teacher didn't show up.

And I think this was the story somebody told him after they worked with him and he kind of followed some of his advice where like they weren't gonna be there that day.

They made up their sub plans and they had of course taught their students routines and procedures.

And then the sub didn't show up, but the students still followed the lesson plan and got everything done and had a great day, even though no teacher ever showed up.

And of course, like, you don't want that to happen.

There's some failures on the school level there that led to that happening.

But I love that story because it gave me a vision for how my class should run itself.

And later on, I think in about my third year of teaching, I did a pro-cert program where we had to go through the Danielson framework.

And I was looking on my bookshelf for the first days of school just now, and I found the original framework book from Charlotte Danielson from the 90s.

And it struck me just how much Harry Wong...

had a vision for helping people achieve what Danielson describes as a level four.

So again, I just can't say enough about this book.

I know this is not the most recent edition.

It's changed.

It's been through, I think, five printings, three and a half million copies sold.

Let me know how Harry Wong impacted you, and may he rest in peace, and may his memory be a blessing.