About Us
About Harry K. Wong
Harry K. Wong authored over 130 publications, including the leading book in education on how to start THE First Days of School, a monthly column in an online site for teachers, a CD set, and books on new teacher induction, classroom management, and instruction. He co-created an eLearning course on classroom management and appeared in the award-winning video series, The Effective Teacher.
His techniques have been adapted by thousands of educators for success in their schools and classrooms. He was called “Mr. Practicality” for his common sense, research-based, no cost approach to managing a classroom for high-level student success.
His many journal articles were featured in such publications as Educational Leadership, KAPPAN, Principal Leadership, NASSP Bulletin, American School Board Journal, Kappa Delta Pi Record, School Business Affairs, Education Week, and Instructor.
He was credited with transforming schools and turning around the lives of tens of thousands of teachers.
Because of his achievements, Harry was awarded the Horace Mann Outstanding Educator Award, Upton Sinclair Award, Outstanding Secondary Teacher Award, the Science Teacher Achievement Recognition Award, the Outstanding Biology Teacher Award, and the Valley Forge Teacher's Medal. He was also the subject of a story in Reader's Digest.
Instructor magazine (March 2006) announced their readers’ poll for the most admired figures in the world of education. Harry Wong was on the final list of 20 alongside Maya Angelou, Laura Bush, Hillary Clinton, Ron Clark, Marva Collins, Howard Gardner, and Oprah Winfrey.
In 2012, the National Teachers Hall of Fame in Emporia, Kansas, presented him with its first ever Lifetime Achievement Award.
For years, Harry K. Wong was the most sought-after speaker in education. He gave some 4,500 presentations to over 1.5 million people and was booked between two to four years in advance. He served as the general session speaker at every major educational meeting and Toastmasters International. His lectures took him to every American state and Canadian province, as well as to Europe, Asia, South America, Africa, and Antarctica. His wife, Rosemary, shared the stage with him as they traveled the world helping teachers.
Prior to public speaking, Harry was a secondary science teacher. As a classroom teacher, he developed methods that resulted in his class having no discipline problems, a dropout rate of zero students, a 95% homework turn-in factor, and the ability to demonstrate mastery learning for each of his students.
A San Francisco native and lifelong resident of the Bay Area, Harry graduated from Lowell High School before earning his undergraduate degree at the University of California, Berkeley. He later earned his doctorate from Brigham Young University in Utah.
Harry was the father of three children, four grandchildren, and was madly in love with his Sicilian, mentor-teacher wife, Rosemary. She continues their shared legacy of being new teacher advocates. Together, they created The First Days of School Foundation (www.FDSFoundation.org) which built and maintains a school in the jungles of Cambodia, giving over 1000 students each year and more than 40 faculty members the opportunity to succeed.