@annieabrams.bsky.social "In English class, teachers can show students what has moved others to use language with care and pleasure, and invite them to join a long tradition of people who have found a way to say something new." So grounded. So sane. thepointmag.com/examined-lif...

IDK seems like a bad idea to offer cover to a social arsonist…also Common Sense Education and OpenAI partnered to produce an industry-friendly AI literacy curriculum so 🤷🏼

Drew Bent, the education lead at Anthropic: "'We’re at a point now where we need to make sure that these things are backed by outcomes and figure out what’s working and what’s not working.'" Convenient that *now* is the time for evidence, once these products are released and pushed into schools.

New piece up on Pope Leo's "Drawing Maps of Hope": zachczaia.substack.com/p/discerning...

"We should also imagine new tripartite forms, such as AI ethics boards that place organized labor and civil society (including the Church) across the table from technologists." @sohrabahmari.bsky.social Yes. New essay up in @commonweal.bsky.social . www.commonwealmagazine.org/future-chris...

Everything is so stupid

"Big Tech and data center developers appear to be siting data centers in vulnerable communities...These locations show a troubling trend - they primarily impact working class and Black and Latine communities."

Omar El Akkad's One Day, Everyone will have Always Been Against This has won the National Book Award. This is a deserving, necessary win. His words need to be on all of our minds and in all of our hearts. "When it mattered, who sided with justice and who sided with power?"

I’m good in the hood.

Last week, I gave a talk pushing back against claims that AI will democratize education, and I included this slide meant to trouble narratives - and self-serving programs like OpenAI's new "free" ChatGPT for teachers - that focus narrowly on access to technology as some kind of transformative force.

Okay, so let's do officially do this! a slow-read of Macbeth with Sunday discussion threads starting November 23rd! #SundayMacbethChat Everyone's welcome! And just like Beloved, I am definitely going to be looking at this with very-fresh (i.e. humble) eyes! docs.google.com/document/d/1...

What do playing with toddlers and almost becoming a professional clown have to do with teaching? They remind me of why I fell in love with teaching. #TeacherSky #EduSky #SubstackSky open.substack.com/pub/adrianne...

"To tell students not to use AI for the work that was AI-generated for us is, in my opinion, beyond ridiculous. She wants to know what we know. It’s only fair that the same should apply to teachers." Thanks, Scout Snider, for telling it like it is. And @jsanofranchini.bsky.social for sharing.

"Never a Dull Moment, Babe": Notes on Surprise--in Teaching, Writing, and Publishing zachczaia.substack.com/p/never-a-du...

AI is not a mere tool for helping teachers. When you remove the human element of teaching and learning, you are not being more efficient nor effective. The ability to learn is what makes us human, and humans teaching humans is a fundamentally human act that is necessary for meaningful engagement.

Teachers! If your students are using AI to write their papers, maybe it's because you personally are not using AI enough. Here's my new @mcsweeneys.net www.mcsweeneys.net/articles/i-n...

"Scrupulous and well researched, this is a much-needed portrait of an often-overlooked area of American Catholicism." ~Publishers Weekly #Racism #Identity #Religion Read the review: https://bit.ly/4mGTM6z#Racism#Identity#ReligionLACK AND CATHOLIC by @tiaphd.bsky.social is coming soon!

It is important to not mistake the demands of the job for your real work in the classroom. Show up for the students in ways that count the most and that the system can’t measure. That’s where your agency lives. Where your work matters most. #EdChat #EduSky

1/2 My new essay on AI (www.alfiekohn.org/article/ai/) includes quotes from, or links to, writings by @emilymbender.bsky.social, @palan57.bsky.social, @stopgenai.com, @ddmeyer.bsky.social, @zachczaia.bsky.social, @lutzfernandez.bsky.social, @empittsdonahoe.bsky.social, @garymarcus.bsky.social ....

‘AI Literacy as Sex Ed?’ zachczaia.substack.com/p/ai-literac...

‘Consider the bad times, and who they are good for.’ Brilliant line and brilliant piece.

‘Know Where You Stand and Stand There’: Notes on Some of Daniel Berrigan’s Poems and Another School Shooting zachczaia.substack.com/p/know-where...

One Subject Press just released our first new book, and it is a beauty. TEACHING WITHOUT TEACHING by Scott F. Parker. zachczaia.substack.com/p/teaching-w...

Minnesota is taking an ungodly amount of hits this year.

This is one of the absolute toughest things about predatory inclusion — the predation is often fun or a little useful. Criticism makes a reasonable person sound like an asshole. LowerEd weathered me for this kind of social death. So I’ll say it: your enjoyment does not matter & should not matter.

asking the non-sentient sentence generator that uses sentient authors’ works without their consent if it consents to you using a pastiche of others’ work that you commanded it to produce is some of the highest decoupling I have seen Lo these many years

New post out, “Another Round” up on Substack. zachczaia.substack.com/p/against-co...

This about sums it up

Some thoughts on the Instructure/OpenAI partnership. open.substack.com/pub/zachczai...

Thank you @alvinahoffmann.bsky.social

Israel is starving Gaza. And killing those trying not to starve. God who keeps faith with all who sleep in the dust, have mercy. Give us courage to act, to end & atone for this evil, for the blood we have spilled & watched being spilled, for the universes forever lost through our action & inaction.

I’m pleased to announce the formation of a new political party, the United States party. Our core platform: tax the rich until every last one of them is middle class; use what our gain$ to save the planet.

Starting Tuesday: #PoemADayJuly with myself, @heymrsbond.com and @thevogelman.bsky.social 😎 The first seven poems listed here—we'll discuss one each day, and everyone is welcome! Building community by talking about poetry is a pretty cool thing, so let's do it! docs.google.com/document/d/1...

New post up on Classical Education Movement and Heritage Foundation’s ‘Phoenix Declaration’: zachczaia.substack.com/p/the-best-t...

Thank you @frankstrong.bsky.social and @annieabrams.bsky.social ! Such a helpful and nourishing conversation to listen in on.

Strong words from the Pope on Netanyahu’s crimes & the complicity of the west: “Herod, for fear of being deposed, murdered children, who even today continue to be torn apart by bombs; Pilate washed his hands, as we risk doing every day until we arrive at the point of no return.”

“All true artists suspect that if the world really knew what they were doing they would be punished.” Ben Okri New essay up on Substack, “On Distance & Closeness”: open.substack.com/pub/zachczai...

I did an event in DC & there was a party for donors etc after. Was talking to 2 ppl & I said "Things are so bad." They said "No this is how it is. Things swing one way, then another. It's normal." That's when I realized why Dems are toothless. They have no idea what this is. Frogs boiling in water.

Yes to this sane response. Thank you for sharing

New essay, ‘I’ma Catholic School Teacher. Chris Rufo Doesn’t Speak for Me’ up on Substack. open.substack.com/pub/zachczai...

The new pope is so focused on AI that he actually chose the name Leo XIV *because of AI* Is it weird for the Catholic Church to be making this a priority? Not at all! I argue it makes perfect sense — other religions should do the same www.vox.com/future-perfe...

20th anniversary of first year of teaching this coming fall. I’ve got some thoughts. open.substack.com/pub/zachczai...

"ChatGPT Is a Gimmick" – a great read from Jonathan Malesic hedgehogreview.com/web-features...

I crave the end of the semester. There's a rhythm to the year: 10 frantic months/2 reflective months. I just read #TheEndofBurnout by Jonathan Malesic. He's a former professor who left academia after earning tenure. It's both memoir & history of American burnout culture. 🧵 1/X #booksky #academicsky

Want to stop anti-intellectualism from spreading even further? ✅ End corporate influence in schools (Lexia, iReady, College Board, etc.); start trusting teachers, caregivers + kids. ✅ Give a damn about what kids are reading. ✅ Think about purposes for learning beyond "metrics" + "outcomes."

Pope Leo’s ancestors had roots in Black Catholic communities that were deeply impacted by the Church’s involvement in and support of slavery/segregation. That they held on to their faith and worked to make the Church responsive to a diverse flock – and produced our new pope! -- inspire me.

Everyone is capable of writing a good essay. I firmly believe this is a skill that can be taught to anyone, and we should be teaching it. And I don’t mean a stupid 500 word AP exam essay. I mean a real one that people might want to read.