✊🏾✊🏻✊🏾 This 4th of July, we stand with U.S. educators fighting for inclusive public schools and for democracy. From around the 🌍, you have our #solidarity. ➡️ eiie.io/4lxMLUA #GoPublic4Solidarity @neatoday.bsky.social @aft.org @neapresident.bsky.social @rweingarten.bsky.social @daveswords.bsky.social

What a pleasure to listen to 2025 Pennsylvania Teacher of the Year Leon Smith keynoting the PA Educators Rising Conference. @pseaorg.bsky.social

I got a question from someone on FB questioning whether the US Department of Education has failed its mission since 1979. Here is my answer: First, there is no truth to the claim that test scores or US education performance has been declining since the opening of the USDoEd in 1979. 1/

Behave accordingly

Dismantling the US Department of Education will devastate students and rural communities like mine. The justification is that American education is falling behind other countries. So, let's examine what other countries do to get better outcomes so that we can implement those changes. 1/

It’s a great day for the PSEA Artificial Intelligence Task Force to have important conversations about how human educators can shape the future of education.

Using AI to scrub web pages and research studies based on banned keywords is the new book burning.

There is no ethical use of Artificial Intelligence in schools if that technology is controlled by for-profit companies operating in an unethical system that rewards immoral behavior. "A bad system will beat a good individual every time." - Deming

I’d like to talk about some of the changes we’re seeing locally due to attacks to/from the USDoEd, but the first rule of Fight Club prohibits me from disclosing anything. #BFC530

Another sign we are living in a dystopia:

Someone asked me today to justify a claim that school vouchers are overwhelmingly used to subsidize wealthy families rather than helping poor children. You can go ahead and Google other states, but here is the data from Arizona to support that claim.

Another fantastic Second Breakfast from @audreywatters.bsky.social:

With US leaders attacking the Ukrainian President and undermining our alliance with Europe, I am resharing this piece that Armand Doucet, Noah Zeichner, and I wrote for Education International after Russia invaded Ukraine. www.ei-ie.org/en/item/2639...

I’m really excited to spend time working with these amazing future teachers at the SPSEA conference next month! Also excited to have a bunch of fellow PA Teachers of the Year along side me!

If you look up the bio of recipients of the US Presidential Award for Excellence in Math & Science Teaching on National Science Foundation site, you get this. Probably b/c we’re doing things POTUS finds abhorrent, like teaching actual science, giving all kids equal opportunity, & including all kids.

If your child has a disability, their legal right to accommodations is in serious jeopardy. Those accommodations are efforts to provide equal opportunity (equity - the E in "DEI"), which the current administration, & now 17 states, are vigorously attacking. theeducatorsroom.com/in-a-new-law...

Great post by @ddmeyer.bsky.social on AI and education. “You either bet on teachers or you bet on software, and if you bet on software, you eventually learn you have to build a teacher.” You can't build a teacher. #EduSky #AIinEducation #EduSkyAI danmeyer.substack.com/p/in-edtech-...

Nobody is better than @audreywatters.bsky.social at explaining the intersection of edtech and AI with education and crony capitalism.

If human-influenced climate change isn't real, then what's the need to delete all climate data from NOAA and other government websites?

A former university student reached out to ask how I used MSFT Powerpoint as a translation tool when I had a Ukrainian refugee ESL student in my elementary class. You can do this for many languages. For anyone who might need this, here's what I shared w/ her: support.microsoft.com/en-us/office....

My fellow educators (and anyone who cares about public education), we need to use our voices and take actions outside of social media spaces.

If you are in #Pennsylvania and believe that billionaires should not be allowed to rig our democracy, you need to keep an eye on www.alleyesonyass.com, which tracks the way PA's richest billionaire is using his money to impose his agenda on working-class Pennsylvanians.

Organizing and collective action are always the best way to fight against those who wish to use power, corruption, and division to exploit you. We have agency and power when we fight together. Find your people. Join a union. Volunteer to learn more and help. Don't dispair. Unite and act.

When we use "the future of work" to solely drive decisions in education, we prepare students solely for a future as "workers" rather than a future as citizens, community members, & unique individuals. We prepare them to be exploited by those with money & power rather than to shape their own future.

Teaching and learning are human activities. Technology, including generative AI, can be a tool in the process. But, systematically passing skills and information to the next generation will always be best accomplished by professional, qualified, human teachers. #edusky

Welcome @unionjoe.bsky.social, @pseaorg.bsky.social, @aeaeducators.bsky.social, and @neunion.bsky.social to the Teacher's Union Leaders and Education Association Starter Pack, which now includes 105 great accounts to follow. We're stronger when we network together. go.bsky.app/AjeZG6X

💌 Virtual Valentines 2025 is OPEN! 💌 Join classrooms worldwide in a fun, creative global Valentine exchange! 🎈❤️ 📅 Register by Feb 9 🔗 virtualvalentines.weebly.com Create & swap digital Valentines, connect globally, and spread joy! 🌏💖 Tag a teacher & invite them to join! #K12Valentines

The US Department of Education’s current Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) website:

In case you were unsure of what to call the systematic forced removal of an ethnic group from a given area. It is a crime against humanity, according to the Geneva Convention.

Sometimes a penguin can make you smile for a minute, even though there's a category 5 crapstorm raging.

Getting ready for the weekend? Remember to thank a union - now more than ever.

FYI - from USDoEd. Keep in mind the opposite of DEI is uniformity, inequity, and segregation. An education system built on those principles is harmful to children and society. It's a Brave New World, folx. #edusky

If you are looking for help handling the new reality that ICE may make arrests in your school, NEA @neatoday.bsky.social has published a guidance document that can answer some questions on this & many other immigration/education issues. h/t @irispoppy.bsky.social #edusky

If you haven't already, all my US educator friends need to start thinking about what you are going to do when ICE shows up at your school looking to arrest a student or colleague. #edusky

Huge congratulations to @mpryle.bsky.social for being shortlisted for the 2025 Global Teacher Prize! The global teaching profession would be lucky to have you as a spokesperson! globalteacherprize.org/pages/2024-f...

Unbound Academic Institute has applied w/ PA Dept of Ed to open a cyber charter school that uses 2 hrs of interaction w/ for-profit AI per day & no human teaching. The rest of the day, students will be allowed to "pursue personal interests." Decision pending. This is horrible for kids and society.

Just finished my first edtech and communications class of the semester with pre-service students. Seems like a great group. I’m excited to help them define their “why” as future teachers, and to help them learn to evaluate edtech decisions through the lens of their personal value systems. #EduSky

Book bans, censored history, attacking LGBTQ kids, underpaying teachers, funding cuts. It’s all coordinated to delegitimize public education & push for-profit charter and religious schools — paid for by billionaire dark money. School vouchers are a scam. www.propublica.org/article/scho...

The Education Association & Teacher Union Leader Starter Pack now includes 100 union leaders, including new additions @richaskey.bsky.social @detcheverry4ed.bsky.social @pennyallmanpayne.com & @troyers.bsky.social. If you know a BlueSky teacher unionist who belongs on the list, let me know! #bskyedu

Stockholm Syndrome - when those who are taken hostage start to sympathize with their captors and start actively helping them. That seems like what's happening in some of the pro-AI posts I see in edtech spaces. Profiteers have kidnapped public education. We shouldn't be carrying their water.

Today's education on AI-driven dystopia: Learn about EviCore, a third-party contractor insurance companies use to deny pre-authorization for necessary medical procedures. EviCore uses #GenAI to strategically deny procedures, saving $$$ at expense of patients. See: www.propublica.org/article/evic...

My motivation for teaching has certainly changed over my career. Now, it's about leaving the world a little better than I found it by empowering the next generation with the critical thinking, problem solving, and interpersonal skills they'll need to have a functional democratic society. #bfc530

If you were teaching a university #edtech and communications class to preservice teachers in the current education climate of generative AI and a likely tech-bro policy push, what topics would you be sure to include? #bskyedu #AIinEducation

Generative AI is to education what McDonald's is to food. It makes things faster and easier, but a society that is overreliant on it becomes incredibly unhealthy. #bskyedu #AiinEducation 1/5

Organize. Fight for your fair share. Hold billionaires and greedy corporate CEOs accountable. Win. aflcio.org/formaunion

Meet my Educator Starter Pack: amazing teachers fighting fascism & championing fact-based, open-minded learning for ALL students. Seeking more diverse voices—if you're a teacher from a minority group, reply to join my next pack #BlackEduSky #EduSky #Latinosky #JewSky #AAPI go.bsky.app/126JfoD

We teachers know this narrative well. New technology is introduced, then mandated, with the promise that it will make your work easier. Next thing you know, there’s more on your plate then ever before and managing the tech takes more of your time than working without it did. See: SMS, etc.

I’ve had a lot of new followers in the past few weeks - far more than I could keep up with. If you are a teacher and think we should be connected, reply with your role in education and I’ll follow you back. If you are a teacher union activist, let me know and I’ll add you to my starter pack.