This new article, "Advanced Placement African American Studies as a Master’s Tool," by Dr. Suneal Kolluri is just amazing. One of the best pieces I've read in the last year. Check it out! journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.....

Apparently, I have fans on Reddit.

I've been listening to my students, and they've been telling me that they want to participate more in class, but they haven't been in many discussion-oriented classes and want help building the skills necessary to succeed. So this semester (in about 30 minutes!), that's our starting point!

It's the first day of the spring semester here at @olemiss.bsky.social! Wishing everyone a term filled with new knowledge, big questions, bold curiosity, and compassionate inquiry. And remember, in the words of Nel Noddings, "The student is infinitely more important than the subject matter."

I've re-booted and updated my old Wordpress site. This will be my sole professional website and blog going forward. It has information about my books, details about speaking inquiries, some musings about the state of education, and more! josheyler.wordpress.com

"The sweeping study... found that using AI in education can 'undermine children's foundational development' and that 'the damages it has already caused are daunting.'" They include limiting kids' cognitive, social, and emotional developmen, and increasing inequity. www.npr.org/2026/01/14/n...

Shout it from the rooftops! www.npr.org/2026/01/14/n...

Great talk by @josheyler.bsky.social at Temple this morning! “Ariadne’s thread” (thank you for the myth references!) leading us out of the labyrinth of pedagogy misconceptions: human-centered learning through curiosity, authenticity, emotion, sociality, and (low-stakes) failure

I didn't think the finale of Stranger Things was meh, but I did think it suffered from Lord of the Rings syndrome--they spent at least 45 minutes saying goodbyes over and over again.

Quantum Leap, The Good Place, MASH--that's just off the top of my head. I can think of many more that were terrible, which is evidence that it's really hard to do endings well.

I'm hatching a new nest of syllabus eggs (see #SnafuEdu Intro @oupress.bsky.social)! Next week I start teaching an honors seminar called "Problems with Grades." We're reading @josheyler.bsky.social's Failing Our Future & using negotiated grading system (@drtink.bsky.social @writandrhet.bsky.social).

It's hopefully a good sign that more people are reflecting on meaningful learning now, though I wish it hadn't taken this much of a push to get back around to it!

Over the summer, I spent time working through pretty severe burnout. One tool that really helped me was the work of Thich Nhat Hahn. Wishing everyone a 2026 full of meaningful, joyful engagement with each day!

I've noticed something interesting happening. I have been getting a lot of speaking requests related to my older book--How Humans Learn. I'm still having many conversations about grades, but in an age of AI, people want to talk about learning itself & how to preserve it. bookshop.org/p/books/how-...

“Grades have also been shown to cultivate a fear of failure among students, at all ages, and inhibit them from taking intellectual risks and expressing creativity. We want students to be bold, creative thinkers and to try out new ideas. “ theconversation.com/a-b-c-or-d-g...

Grades might not say all that much about what students are actually learning. "Grades are a standard part of our educational systems that most students and teachers take for granted. But what if we could rewrite what are not rules in the first place? theconversation.com/a-b-c-or-d-g...

A, B, C or D – grades might not say all that much about what students are actually learning @us.theconversation.com Joshua Rowe Eyler theconversation.com/a-b-c-or-d-g...

Today in "something I've been saying for decades." theconversation.com/a-b-c-or-d-g...

"We envision a resistance that is...a repudiation of the efficiencies that automated algorithmic education falsely promises: a resistance comprising the collective force of small acts of friction." "How to Resist AI in Education" by me & @cnygren.bsky.social www.publicbooks.org/four-frictio...

If you like what you read here, consider checking out *Failing Our Future* from John Hopkins UP: amazon.com/Failing-Our-Future-Grades-Students/dp/1421449935

Amy Lieberman from *The Conversation* recently interviewed me about the problems with traditional grades and the alternative models folks are using to mitigate the harms of these practices that are far past their expiration date. Excited to see it up today! theconversation.com/a-b-c-or-d-g...

#Empathy in teaching isn’t about fixing problems, but about helping students feel seen and supported, writes Bhawana Shrestha: https://www.timeshighereducation.com/campus/how-can-we-model-empathy-classroom#Empathy#HigherEd #AcademicSky #EduSky

Just kind of a fun thread for history and lit folks wherein something begins to dawn on me that historians have clearly known for many years, but--hey!--this is what learning is all about, right? I decided to read Hugo's *Les Miserables* as my slow-read for 2026. It'll be *War & Peace* in 2027. 1/x

In order to make the case for going gradeless in our classrooms, we also have to shine a light on the ways in which traditional grading practices are inequitable. @josheyler.bsky.social growbeyondgrades.org/blog/danger-...

Everyone always proposes this as the answer without understanding that an oral exam requires very different skills than a closely argued research-driven essay. If you want to argue those skills don’t matter, then fine, argue that, but don’t pretend that oral argumentation is identical.

www.kqed.org/news/1206519... it's going to be a month in a few days which is surreal and wild. I cried reading this, and, got a lot out of people sharing how we are carrying @sfdirewolf.bsky.social 's work forward.

It’s up! @biblioracle.bsky.social asked me to contribute a guest column to Inside Higher Education on alternative grading and studying it’s efficacy.

This! 1000x This!

This essay completely misses the point. The issue isn't whether we agree with the way the assignment was graded (and there are 1000s of similar kinds of grades for similar reasons being given at this very moment as we speak, I guarantee it). 1/x www.chronicle.com/article/the-...

Weird situation. AI adoption in the work world is stagnating, while higher-ed institutions are rushing to embrace it so that students will be prepared for…the work world?

Read the whole thread, but I'm highlighting this part because calling students in for a face-to-face meeting to discuss a problematic assignment is an underrated strategy ⬇️

All of this would have helped!!

All of this.

sure, i do get tired of making this recommendation on the advisory committee every single year and it doesn't go anywhere. but there's room for lateral resource sharing and an imperative to make it part of how we train students.

Good thread. To support our colleagues, we need to recognize that there are bad-faith actors in the system working to attack higher ed. Then be prepared for how to manage potentially disruptive situations.

Our department handles these kinds of complaints exactly this way, and it has worked well for us. If a student goes to an upper admin, they always kick it back to the department. It takes a lot of time, care, and attention, but we have found resolutions that protect everyone.

My suggestions here should in no way be construed as ignoring the fact that the grad student was trans. This is clearly a (the) major reason why she is being targeted right now. I'm trying to propose below a way forward for protecting all marginalized instructors in similar circumstances.

This is all true and good but I would add that we can't ignore the fact that the instructor was trans. Faculty and admins who are less marginalized need to be prepared to step up big time for their colleagues & students right now.

Just going to keep saying this: everybody in higher ed needs training about this. Everybody. From TAs to presidents, what to do it it’s you and how to respond when it’s somebody else.

while I appreciate the suggestions in this thread, a paper conference mtg would not have protected this grad student from anti-trans harassment, which is what this is. the undergrad didn’t go to the media *only* because of perceived “religious persecution” — she did it to harass the grad student.

That was my impulse. "Who has the time?" But on a pretty easy 2nd thought, how much more time are this TA and her department losing now? I'm trying to anticipate how this behavior will trickle down to K-12 schools and prepare myself to intercede for colleagues. I just want to teach, you know?

this thread is good in several ways but one way in that it highlights another aspect of the incompatibility of college instruction with the right-wing ideologically-based outrage machine.

This is an eminently sensible thread and should be read and taken to heart by anyone in a faculty supervisory/academic leadership role. This is, tragically, the new landscape, and just because you don't like it doesn't mean you can ignore it.

This is a terrible story--both because of the trap that was set (either in advance or ret-conned to seize a moment) for this graduate student but also because the student's department failed her. The 1st problem is easy to see, but I want to explain the 2nd one. 1/x

You can read my book #OpenAccess but if you want your very own hard copy, check out the UMP winter sale! Half the price, but 100% of the puns so subtle you wonder if I even did them on purpose. #MedievalSky doi.org/10.3998/mpub...

Folks, Lane Kiffin was always, always in it for himself. It just so happened that for 6 years, his priorities aligned with those of our university’s football team. He was going to jet the first time something came along that filled his ego more.

Do I have a totally baller slide for tomorrow's seminar on curiosity and learning? Yes. Is it based on an impromptu exploration of "hwæt" with my 8YO from reading Weinersmith (@smbccomics.bsky.social) and Boulet's Bea Wolf together? Also yes. Are we talking @josheyler.bsky.social? Still yes.

Fantastic new essay on AI refusal from @dbuckedu.bsky.social! zeal.kings.edu/zeal/article...