Week 4 of the school year + students are learning + somehow all this is happening without any AI being used + maybe just maybe that isn't the end of the world.

It happened today. Student: "Mr. Luther, there's a spider!" Me, parent of 3-year-old and 5-year-old: quick solution—stomp on it and then clean it up. Problem solved. Student: "Mr. Luther, what did you do? I was going to ask you if we could save it." Me: 😶

This graph with the stark rise of "unknown" is disconcerting and tragic...

But WAIT this poem by Jacqueline Woodson is so beautiful! #PoetryPeople @thevogelman.bsky.social @marcusluther.bsky.social

Maybe an extension of heavy is “overwhelming” — I think this job in *this* world is just a lot to hold right now. But I listened to Mark Ruffalo talk about how “heartbreaking” events in the world have been this year and things have definitely oscillated between hope and heartbreak for me this year.

👀

I may not have had any insightful answers, but chatting with @marcusluther.bsky.social always fills my cup. We need to normalize reflective conversations with colleagues. It makes a huge difference! #TeacherSky

Both @mrneibauer.bsky.social and I had the same word to describe how the school year feels so far this year, even with things going relatively well: Heavy. That track with others?

Four small adjustments I've made so far this year: 📌 embedding "challenge scaffolds" 📌 "interlocking learning" across lessons 📌 more writing as a tool to capture thinking 📌 whole-class guidance --> individual follow-ups

Great timing—just did this today!

"What % of who you are as a person is in your control?" Quite a way to begin our discussion today with sophomores—and, as you can see, the #'s were all over the place when they shared them on the whiteboard!

Recognizing and inviting students’ growing expertise can transform them into more active contributors in the classroom. 🪄 These ideas from @marcusluther.bsky.social, @toddfinley.bsky.social, @civicsqueen.bsky.social, @mrrablin.bsky.social, and @cathleenbeachbd.bsky.social can help! #EduSky

Only a few weeks into this school year but one of my immediate takeaways is that the gap between how adults not in classrooms see education + how those who are in classrooms daily see education? The gap is wide and widening.

Today, I will do a damn good job of educating the youth of my community in spite of a state and a nation that wants me to cower.

When everyone was clamoring for more civics education over the last couple years, some of us warned that that meant a very different thing to people on the far-right. This is the white nationalist version, a Trojan horse for religion in the schools and for censorship of a full history.

Asking students to write more in their spiral notebook this year to capture their thinking = major win. That's all. (But seriously: such a major win)

Student feedback is an opportunity to build rapport. Student feedback is an opportunity to build rapport. Student feedback is an opportunity to build rapport. (Don't forfeit that.)

There's a lot of bad right now and certainly a lot of difficult. Overwhelming to take in, really, even though we must. But in the classroom? There is so much good. Kids are good. So, so good.

It is boggling and infuriating to me how many adults in education seem to be 1️⃣ 100% okay with prolific AI usage in their own practices but also 2️⃣ adamantly AGAINST disclosing or being transparent at all with their usage—especially with their students. That's it. Happy Wednesday!

Always a favorite activity. The title seems simple…until we start mapping the connotations of each word, unlocking meaning and anticipation. #TheOldManabdndtheSea #APLit

quite a discussion we had today in class around kindness (and I'm very glad we had it)

I want you to read one of my 2022 investigations again + understand that the response you’re seeing from your children’s school boards-the harassment + firing of teachers, administrators & staff-is tied to a network of folks who have been in this game for years: www.propublica.org/article/geor...

I don’t think of myself as a edu-celebrity or education influencer, but I have built a community of folks who take what I say seriously, so I offer this advice to anyone whose mission is edu-acclaim: Be authentic. Be honest. Be vulnerable.

What I’m aiming for is to make this an ongoing dialogue between me and the Ts… like “here are my goals for the school year, here’s our collective vision, how can we help each other get there?” Will I still have to fill out dumb forms? Sure. But it’ll be in the context of their classroom vision. 🤷🏾‍♂️

"How can teaching contribute to the betterment of society if following rigid pacing guides is valued more than my individual students?" This entire piece. So much. Today especially.

So cool! (did whole-class feedback in my classroom today, too!)

Powerful piece by @mrneibauer.bsky.social about the challenges of teaching today. It should illuminate for everyone--not just teachers--how resisting conformity, standardization, and authoritarianism by promoting creativity, community, and communication in our workplaces is essential right now.

i have said this before but when “getting rid of race in admissions” for the administration means “you can’t even try to reach out to underrepresented communities and encourage them to apply and if you do it is illegal discrimination against white people” then the actual goal here is segregation

"The public safety. But somehow, whatever measures are taken, one never feels any safer. I wonder why that is?" —from "A Place of Greater Safety" by Hilary Mantel (Reading a historical novel about the French Revolution really is quite a thing right now. Quite a thing, indeed.)

"Do you know who else was less hopeful about the upside of the access and connectivity afforded by the Internet? My students." Really appreciated this read by @biblioracle.bsky.social this morning and the reflection it offered: biblioracle.substack.com/p/are-platfo...

I remember showing up as a 1st-year teacher in Arkansas and finding a plaque with the Ten Commandments that was "optional" to hang up in the classroom. Cannot imagine how much challenging situation is now.

Add in the fact that our understanding of events changes as time proceeds (see: this week!) so the rush to "discuss every big news item in your classroom" seems like it will more often do more harm than good. That said, I also agree that it is important to be ready for what might be brought up.

Wrote this before school started and, yep, already very much having these situations—and reminding myself that the most important thing is that my actions as a teacher (not just my words) express hopefulness. The only path forward, I think. thebrokencopier.substack.com/p/when-a-stu...

It really is surreal to go from a week of watching kids collaborate positively and productively in the classroom—even as they're just getting to know each other!—and to then see how vastly different it is from how so many adults experience and communicate their worldview on social media.

Being a teacher in Texas who really loves teaching, my heart and my spirits are breaking more and more every day. I’m watching lawmakers, district personnel, and community apathy drain the life out of my colleagues and me and I don’t know how to combat it.

Yep, adding to my quite-long-already list of "things not to assume": That a group of high school AP Literature juniors can make their way on their own to the gym for pictures without getting lost. (Happy Weekend!)

We recorded this conversation right before my own school year began—being able to listen back now as I get ready for the first assessments in my classroom coming up soon? Super valuable. Talking teaching never gets old, which is why I enjoyed this so much: podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/a...

"I think my experience as a disillusioned math student makes me a stronger math teacher because I relate to those kids who don't get it." Loved this point and loved this entire conversation with Melissa Dean—so excited to share tomorrow morning!

"thank you/gracias for surrendering the past tense of your life so that I might conjugate myself here in the present of this country" Hard to put into words how grateful I am to be able to bring this text into the classroom. It is immense.

One of the many, many reasons that I am skeptical of placing all our eggs on "college readiness" in the K-12 system. Readiness...for this?

As someone striving to be a glorified HS teacher in the eyes of my students 😂 I do appreciate this perspective—there is without question something lost when independent, unsupervised learning is lost

The professor has been fired and senior administrators removed from their post. No mention of this in the New York Times, The Free Press, The Atlantic or other outlets who drove the campus speech moral panic.

The latter leads you straight into conflating engagement with entertainment, which generally leads all involved astray

Oh my this this this

Big update today: I successfully passed out the school picture day packets they give to all the English teachers to pass out—because, of course it's us—for the first time in yearsssss. (Seriously—I always forget this)

I am undone @marcusluther.bsky.social @thevogelman.bsky.social

Update: it went so ridiculously well

love teaching this poem by @chenchenwrites.bsky.social so much and cannot wait for students to dive in today!

I'm sure Jonathan Haidt, who was outspokenly against cancel culture in education for a good stretch, will have much to say about this. (*Waiting.*)

To pick up something a student actually wrote as a teacher, adding notes and feedback to return back to them? Anyone who thinks forfeiting this, even partially, isn't a substantial loss... I don't know what to tell you.