There isn't a single problem "solved" by edtech that couldn't be fixed with smaller classes led by well-paid teachers given real academic freedom

BECOME UNGOVERNABLE

Today is World Aids Day. The current administration has barred federal offices from acknowledging it. In middle school I memorized Elizabeth Glaser's Address at the 1992 Democratic Convention for a forensic competition, and I've never forgotten it. awpc.cattcenter.iastate.edu/2017/03/21/a...

I have discovered so much fantastic stuff from browsing the new fiction / new nonfiction shelf at the library. One book sent me down a years long rabbit hole of reading everything else I could get my hands on about heroic age Polar exploration.

From Frederick Douglass's 1867 "Composite Nation" speech, a defense of Chinese migration to the United States at a time when anti-Chinese sentiment was intensifying. teachingamericanhistory.org/document/our...

“If a Negro should improperly approach a white woman his body would be hanging on the nearest tree…If the same rule were applied on the other side, and white men who insulted or debauched Negro women were treated likewise, this Convention would have to be adjourned for lack of a quorum.”

@derfbackderf.bsky.social floored by this, an incredible feat of both storytelling and research!

DO ATTEND

chapter infinity in the saga of "Philip Pulley is a plague on humanity"! I lived in a building owned by this notorious slumlord for about five years. I brought my son home to that apartment. Every single news item that comes out about him just makes him look worse. www.inquirer.com/news/phil-pu...

the GOAT.

BREAD AND ROSES TOO!

everyone should have a life of individual free inquiry/creative pursuit and participation in collective versions of that as well.

As I get ready to take the beloved veteran in my life out to lunch this Armistice Day, I am thinking again of this piece by S Brian Willson, which I often return to.

what I normally do for homework is have students read (usually a book of their choice, occasionally an assigned text) and fill out a log where they have to write a few sentences. this week I rolled out an alternate format where instead of writing every day they just write a book review at the end.

@marcusluther.bsky.social I SUCK at bulletin boards and the last two years I have fully intended to do this and it just…stayed blank thru June. but this is gonna be the year! finally got it populated! will let you know how the youth respond!

the youth of today are divided over whether John Proctor or Giles Corey has more aura. "...but just think about the way he went out in that last scene! refusing to lie on his name!" "...nah Giles Corey is peak aura. "MORE WEIGHT." as they are CRUSHING HIM to DEATH. bro WHAT."

third grade was in many ways a hot mess but my son STILL talks about reading Number the Stars, two years later. I can barely get him to tell me anything about his day at school but I can usually get a couple sentences out of him about what happened in Esperanza Rising.

me at 20: ugh I can’t imagine spending my life writing criticism about Homer that nobody outside the academy will read, what else can I do w/ my classics degree me at 40: yesss it’s my leisure time, can’t wait for my weekly Iliad zoom and then gonna crack open this new book of Homer criticism

“Why rush to adopt new technology that we know to make us dumber when we have old technology—books—we know to make us smarter?” bars!!!

BARS from @mattrkay.bsky.social, an educator I respect a great deal.

Your feel-good #phled story of the day, courtesy of @newskag.bsky.social, featuring my amazing students and my equally amazing colleagues! I thank my stars every day that when I go to work I leave with so many reasons to be hopeful.

…the feeling when you’re in the teacher’s lounge yapping about the recent @laborjawn.bsky.social episode about the 1981 Philly teachers strike and your amazing colleague perks up and says “I wrote my undergrad thesis about that strike!!”

@uniondrip.bsky.social idk if this is official union gear but it is truly magnificent

I did a big research project in 10th grade US history about the IWW, and it made me the person I am today (union schoolteacher & shop steward who closes out union meetings with a playlist of classic Wobbly songs)

The hours wasted on shiny new tech in the past 20 years by K-12 teachers across America is an astounding number of human hours

“You can’t get into heaven without that union card” 👼🗑️ Day 8 of the DC33 strike in Philly, set to the melodious tunes of our dear city’s pub sing led by Ben Fink. Mayor Parker, PAY THESE PEOPLE. #parkerpiles #phillystrike #dc33

I am BEGGING for a comprehensive account of how much tax money has been spent as a consequence of Parker’s refusal to offer DC33 a fair deal—not just OT for supervisors at PWD & elsewhere but the cost of hiring contractors to service dumpsters / handle the July 4 set-up and breakdown / etc etc etc

It’s honestly so disrespectful and irresponsible that the national media has mostly ignored the DC33 city worker strike in Philly so far. It’s a huge story with massive implications for the 6th biggest city in the country. Hell, I’ll write about it for ya! Email me! www.inquirer.com/politics/phi...

Trash piling up? Libraries & pools closed? Long wait times for emergency calls? Text DC33 to 30403 to contact the Mayor's office & tell them to give striking AFSCME DC 33 workers a fair contract.

Dropped my son off for his first day of camp today. The pool at his rec center is closed, and the rec leader, a guy I trust and admire greatly, is on strike. THIS is who I want my tax dollars going to, not the “deputy director of strategic patronage”! FAIR CONTRACT NOW for @afscme.bsky.social DC 33!

AFSCME District 33 workers are on STRIKE for fair wages, dignity and respect. They’re holding the line no matter how long it takes. #AFSCMEStrong

@pftlocal3.bsky.social a beautiful day to support the DC33 strikers on the picket line! the workers where I was at had a lot of appreciation for our union—one that I talked to was a former PFT para.

Come gather round Philly Bad news to you I’ll tell The streets are piled high with trash And you can thank Cherelle! Solidarity with the striking workers of DC 33 from a member of @pftlocal3.bsky.social!

I should be asleep, but can’t stop thinking about a striking sanitation worker I met today. He told me about the time a trash bag full of human shit burst in his face, and he had to spend two days in the hospital to ensure he hadn’t contracted any dangerous diseases. He makes $19 an hour.

From @inquirer.com-- why I keep paying for a subscription even though they keep hiking up my rates. "Ms Parker, Cherelle Parker to be exact, give them people they money! It's summertime."

A message from the striking municipal workers of Philadelphia:

‪If every site is like this, it’s literally going to be 63 dumpsters versus the combined detritus of the sixth largest city in America during a 90 degree heatwave. JUST PAY THEM

you can’t spell unicorns without unions

in addition to all the fascism, I found out today that one of my former students passed away. if 2025 was a movie I’d walk out and go sit in the mall parking lot and eat sour patch kids.

somewhere along the way, teaching fiction and poetry became a kind of squishy thing to do, as opposed to drilling "real skills," but for centuries reading literature was at the heart of serious education and it's a mistake to dismiss it

if you are my 10 year old reading this, please know that this does NOT change my answer about whether we can talk about Jason Voorhees lore before bedtime.

interior, bedroom, 10 pm. my child: "mom can we talk about jason voorhees lore?" me: "absolutely not right now, after one episode of ghost hunters you wouldn't sleep in your own bed for months" child, rolling eyes: "mom. MOM. seriously. our aunt is a... horror girl. uh, horror WOMAN."

this banya poem, by @rudemechanical7.bsky.social, slaps

Deborah Beck is one of the best teachers I ever had; she taught me ancient Greek, but also how to read carefully and how to articulate and defend my ideas clearly in writing. She knows what she's talking about here. We strangle the liberal arts at our peril.

one thing social media has done that makes me reluctant to just quit wholesale is beam poems into my eye holes that I would not have found otherwise and now don’t ever want to stop carrying around.