It's a nationwide digital spotlight on ICE arrests and detention centers.

I don’t know if this will help anyone but I made a slide with Pavarotti next to a limo to show that in a metaphor a tenor takes a ride in a vehicle, and their destination is some big insight.

It bothers me that when students struggle with complex texts the proposed solution is so frequently “We need to give them easier stuff to read.” Although now it’s not even we need to lower the text, now it’s “We need to ask Notebook LM to turn it into a video.”

Forth Worth teacher Chanea Bond says sticking with pen and paper keeps generative artificial intelligence out of her American literature classes. n.pr/4c3cdzs

The most inspiring thing I have ever heard a politician say is “Will you fight for someone you don’t know?” The answer, for an awful lot of people, is yes.

I propose a national day of horny book-reading bookshop.org/p/books/whit...

I loved Hamnet!

I have never witnessed such a spiderweb of collective action, just average everyday people showing up. Not the heroism we’ve been sold by the movies but collective heroism, a fabric of care and resistance to fascism.

DHS has shot 12 people during immigration enforcement operations since September:

imagine if all that money had gone to teachers instead

They called Martin Luther King Jr. an outside agitator. www.csuchico.edu/iege/_assets...

This moment in history provides us with incontrovertible evidence that all the conservatives who claim to be extremely devoted to freedom of speech and the right to bear arms, and opposed to the encroachment of tyranny, are completely and totally full of shit. It's all white supremacy and greed.

ICE agents are America's failures, basically indistinguishable from lazy school shooters, losers who want to play Call of Duty on our streets against people who can't fight back. They have unlimited ammo and toss tear gas like they're pressing L1. They have to be defunded and jailed. All of them.

New story for you today via @somewordslit.bsky.social “On the day they ran the new system at work, they had us speak our names into the machine … I said my name, slowly, clearly, with conviction. The machine spat out a new badge that read Slulder Bilnie” somewords.boards.net/thread/52/sh...

I read a really nice poem today www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/56201/...

my Blackest opinion is that the presumption of conflict between "America has a long and deeply rooted history of violence" and "we can and should fight against today's version of that, as did those who came before us" is less a philosophical debate about how to treat the past and more a skill issue

I need a banger poem to take to poetry club tomorrow.

On the latest episode of the Turek Books Podcast, Lauren Lavin talks about books that have influenced her and she talks about Still Alive and @malarkeybooks.bsky.social at 42:56! Listen: podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/t... Preorder her book The Third Beat here: autofocusbooks.com/store/p/the-...

I don’t know how we do three more years of this.

Patrick Trotti is a master at writing gritty, real characters that navigate the hand they're dealt. Do yourselves a favor and get his newest collection. QUIET HOURS by @patricktrotti.bsky.social is out today from CJ Press: www.cowboyjamboreemagazine.com/quiet-hours....

I’ve struggled with ways of getting students to take notes over what they’re reading. This semester I assigned a commonplace book, with two “quotes that stand out to you” required per chapter, with some kind of brief commentary, and so far I like it. Simple but flexible with room for doodling.

Ogden Nash, everybody

My increasing comfort in the classroom in the last few months is at least partially attributable to my increase in wearing flannel shirts to work.

Pushed the desks out of the way and circled up the chairs for Shakespeare in one class and Animal Farm in the other. Magic!

Plese repost & share: "The risks of using generative artificial intelligence to educate children and teens currently overshadow the benefits, according to a new study by the Brookings Institution's Center for Universal Education." www.npr.org/2026/01/14/n...

I assigned students to memorize a poem and spending a whole school day listening to students recite “I am the master of my fate, / I am the captain of my soul” is a highlight of my life now.

[Exit Bastard.]

After doing Shakespeare insults in class I asked students to write a reflection advocating for what grade they deserved, the catch being they had to use at least three additional insults in the reflection. The results are fun, although some had a little too much fun roasting me.

Some new testimonial graphics for my books because I put my heart + soul into them, readers enjoy 'em + they're out with small presses so I need to bang the gong twice as loud Anti-fascist, genre-agnostic stories about regular folks + myths, demons, freaks, fools + lovers Links at johnchrostek.com

Happy birthday to Common Sense 🥳🎂 America got rid of a tyrant before, it can do it again ✊

I bought Hamnet!

This is a cover reveal blog post about @suzyeynon.bsky.social’s book and @angeelio.bsky.social’s cover for it and I think you should read it; it starts with a Maggie Smith poem and veers into authenticity and close reading, all in celebrating this book. malarkeybooks.com/news/terrest...

Never try to predict the taste of a teen. There is no logic. Just give them stuff you find interesting.

So excited to share a cover reveal for Terrestrial, out May 2026! I've admired Angelo's book covers for other Malarkey books and I'm thrilled it was my turn to need one. I love what he designed for it.

There's this episode of Star Trek where Captain Picard is captured and tortured, and the main way that the torturer tries to break him is by showing him four lights, and telling him that there are five. There are four lights. This is not a post about Star Trek.

This is not to say everything is going to be okay but yesterday a sophomore listed The Goldfinch as one of the books that has shaped her and now I’m finally going to read this 700+ page novel.

My anger at having to stand outside my kid’s school for two hours to ensure none of their classmates, parents, or teachers get kidnapped by my own government is only slightly tempered by the amazing outpouring of support from other parents and especially neighbors who stand against this bullshit.

The vice president’s comments justifying the death of Renee Good are a moral stain on the collective witness of our Catholic faith, writes digital editor John Grosso.

The woman killed by ICE today was a poet. She won the 2020 Academy of American Poets, University & College Poetry Prize at Old Dominion University. (And this is Renee from confirmed socials- a photo of a different woman with red lipstick is going around, but that was a classmate.) /

This place could be beautiful, right? www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/89897/...

Rethinking Schools published my article about pushing back on some of the arguments made by those seeking to rush AI tools into schools.

This is billionaire-controlled media. They want to sleepwalk us into another forever war. We must break free.

If you buy a copy of HAIR SHIRT at midnight on New Year's, it's good luck! (It's also good luck if you buy it right now)

There's a new excerpt from my first novel, Our Saturnalias, over at @new-sinews.bsky.social. A warm thank you to @illepitaph.bsky.social. You can read it here: newnewsinews.com/issue9/actaeon

Maybe we can get 50 new orders before the end of the year. Don’t care if they’re big or small. Join the book club, buy one of your friends’ books, drop a fiver on The Grift. Everything helps! malarkeybooks.com/store/grift

Tonight could be the very last night of elf on the shelf for us…

bell hooks on educator burnout and overwork (from “Teaching to Transgress”), www.hampshire.edu/sites/defaul...