By Eric Hall
Twenty-seven years. That’s how long I taught. Twenty-seven years of laughter, tears, celebrations, struggles, victories, and that mysterious smell that appears in classrooms around April and never fully leaves. It was a career filled with moments so joyful they felt scripted and others so chaotic they could only be explained by saying, “Well, kids.”
Like any long teaching career, mine had its highs and lows. Some highs were pretty surreal. Three appearances on The Ellen DeGeneres Show still sounds made up when I say it out loud. The lows? Let’s just say they involved copier jams, surprise assemblies, and lessons that flopped so hard they still echo in my nightmares.
But somewhere between all of that, I learned the real magic of teaching doesn’t happen during evaluations, data meetings, or professional development sessions with PowerPoint slides written in size nine font. The magic happens when the classroom door closes and it’s just you and your students, learning together.
Inside those four walls, anything was possible. I once took students up in a Cessna so they could better connect to a book. Another time, I dressed up like an ornery French chef to help them understand adjectives. Were these ideas normal? Probably not. Did they work? Absolutely. Those moments, ridiculous as they sometimes looked from the outside, were where curiosity, trust, and joy lived.
As I got closer to the end of my teaching career, my students started telling me I should write a book about the crazy and inspiring things that happened in our classroom. I laughed it off at first. I never set out to write a book. But there was a problem. I’d spent decades telling kids to dream big, take risks, and go for it even when it feels uncomfortable. When they threw my own speech back at me, I realized I couldn’t say no without becoming a hypocrite.
When I finally told them I’d do it, they immediately set a new goal for me. “Mr. Hall,” they said, “you need to sell 10,000 books the first week.” Why 10,000? No one knows. They didn’t have data to support it. No spreadsheet. No rubric. Just confidence. I gently reminded them I didn’t even have 10,000 friends. They were not concerned.
That’s when the idea really took shape. I didn’t want to write a book about me. I wanted to write a book that celebrated teachers and helped people understand the powerful role teachers play in students’ everyday lives. The lessons. The laughter. The quiet moments that matter just as much as the big ones.
The result is Controlled Chaos: Lessons They Didn’t Teach You in Teacher School, a collection of 27 short stories about learning, growth, humor, and the beautiful madness of teaching. The book is set to be released on July 9, 2026, and is now available for pre-order.
As a contributor to TEACH, I’d love to offer this book to one lucky reader. Consider it a small thank-you to the educators, supporters, and believers who know that the real magic of teaching has always lived behind a closed classroom door.
Eric Hall and his students have been featured on different national outlets, including The Ellen DeGeneres Show. While the accolades are nice, Eric will tell you his greatest rewards come in the form of high-fives in the hallway, students who finally “get it,” and the joy of watching kids realize they are capable of more than they ever imagined. If you’d like to reach out to Eric, feel free to contact him at [email protected].