Write every day. Finish a draft of the verse novel. Read more verse novels, poetry, and books about writing lyrics/musical structure.

It’s okay to realize you don’t mesh with the grade level/subject in your student teaching placement. It took student teaching and my 1st few years teaching to realize I’m a middle school teacher—not elementary as I thought. Don’t be afraid to try new subjects/grades.

Gift link. #sschat #edusky

This is amazing and I’m planning my visit right now

As I've been saying over and over on our book tour for The AI Con, the inevitability argument (including in the form of "AI is here to stay") is an attempt to steal our agency. We don't have to accept that and I encourage everyone to refuse it.

There are few things more motivating for me as a teacher than the experience of stepping into another teacher's classroom + seeing the world they have built, the tools they wield, the magic they create. My point? We need way, way more chances to see each other teach.

Often I have them building something—high engagement and gets them moving. This year I don’t have enough time for that so doing something challenging and structured.

This is a big reason I only grade assessments. Otherwise, grading is overwhelming. I also give thorough, actionable feedback, which the kids appreciate. If they pressure me to grade faster, I remind them how much work it is to write that type of feedback. And the closed gradebook helps.

Audra McDonald’s version of “Rose’s Turn,” in the latest Broadway revival of “Gypsy,” is reaching audiences on a deeper level than any other song being performed on Broadway at the moment, Ben Brantley writes.

I hope you will listen to the "African-American Passages: Black Lives in the 19th Century" podcast episodes that I did with some other scholars for the Library of Congress several years ago. I don't know how much longer they will be available via the Library's website. www.loc.gov/podcasts/afr...

The more I contemplate my #AIResistance in my FYW courses, the more I’ve found: 1️⃣ Ss respect a clear, reasonable AI Policy, 2️⃣ my assessment approach (#ungrading) is key to removing the incentive to use GenAI tools, & 3️⃣ Ss actually feel relieved that AI has no place in their learning & writing!

Really looking forward to this

Working on one myself, so this is a great source of inspiration.

Love this idea!

Love this! Many of my students research and write about Deborah Sampson during our Revolution unit—glad to see younger students learn about her!

The projects my students say are most meaningful are the ones where they are fully off screens, and I don’t think that’s a coincidence #EdChat

I try to incorporate the arts in class activities but also in my larger projects. Just had a unit where kids designed and built monuments, and I’ve had kids write and perform plays and write historical fiction. The arts isn’t only fine arts!

This is the year I’m pushing myself to take opportunities to present about my work. Presented about one project at a department meeting; presenting at a statewide summit on another; just applied to present at a national conference. Nervous and excited!

Realized today that my Seneca Village unit is happening this month completely by accident! Lucky timing

This is an incredible resource for those of you who teach American history in New England. #BlackHistoryMonth #sschat #edusky #historyteacher 🗃️ apps.bostonglobe.com/metro/2025/0...

I look at what I’ve previously done and think about what wasn’t quite working. I look online for inspiration and also talk it over with our librarian for more ideas.

Wrapping up my Constitutional Convention simulation. I’m still pretty happy with the project and the changes I made—bringing in more data, for example—but I’m already thinking how to improve it next year.

If you're interested, we're holding a Virtual Mini-Con on 2/17/25 (President's Day). All SLs and educators are welcome to register! More info at: bit.ly/NJASLVIRTUALCON

This week my classes are in our Center for Quantitative Reasoning as part of our Constitutional Convention Simulation. Students were assigned delegates, and are analyzing data for their state. The hope is that the data will help them plan what they’re advocating for at the Convention.

There’s a lot of really interesting things to think about here! It’s particularly fascinating to see what #Ungrading looks like at the college/university level. It makes me think about what I’m working towards in middle school.

I am so excited to see this production.

Projects enable students to apply the skills they’ve practiced in a more authentic context. They also give students space to show mastery in a range of ways on a range of skills and content, where they have more ownership of their work. #Bfc530

It depends on the lesson. Sometimes I’ve had a discussion instead. Once this happened when we were hybrid and I was doing a mock congress. Used the hotspot on my phone so the Google Meet was still working on my laptop & kept going #Bfc530

Yes! Plus we should be modeling collaboration for our students.

Had a great meeting with the Latin & French teachers last week about collaborating on the monument project I’ve been doing for the past two years. I cut that unit this year so wasn’t sure about keeping the project. Now I have an idea of how to do it with a unit I’m adding.

Students can feel overwhelmed at the start of the year, as they adjust to the level of challenge. Once they see my detailed feedback and realize they can revise assessments for the higher grade, they generally feel less anxious about their grades #UngradingChat

All my assessments are open resource and open note. This means everything we do builds towards the assessment, and I explicitly tell students how the work is relevant. They can directly see that every activity has a purpose & that the more work they do, the more prepared they are #UngradingChat

And the ability to fix your mistakes!

If you don't know about Mapping West Philadelphia and you study the Philadelphia area and/or the American Revolution, you're missing out! Diving into the recently added plots for Providence Twp to better visualize what wartime Historic Trappe looked like. maps.archives.upenn.edu/WestPhila177...

I try to take opportunities to share/present during in-service sessions and faculty meetings, as well as opportunities for students to present their work #UngradingChat

#UngradingChat A2: One major shift was rebalancing the power dynamic in the classroom. Centering the student voice, de-centering mine. Using personal conferencing to “come alongside” students’ learning & invite them to articulate their progress, process, & growth.

A2: Working at a project-based learning school helped me realize traditional grading is at odds with the philosophy of PBL and my own values. Authentic assessment should have authentic evaluation #UngradingChat

A1: When I taught ELA as well as Social Studies, kids were doing tons of extra reading logs to rack up points instead of focusing on the main assignments. I read an article about standards based grading and then a book (Grading for Equity) and I knew I had to make a huge change #UnGradingChat

I’m caught up on Lower Decks and catching up on Prodigy, and it feels so good to have new Star Trek stories that are rooted in its legacy while pushing it forward. The use of Janeway in Prodigy is a perfect example of this. It’s so good to have her back. But the show isn’t her story.

Alice and I have finally reached Worf and Dax’s wedding and I’m adding Martok’s wife Sirella to my fantasy cast for “Real Housewives of the Federation” along with Lwaxana Troi

Students sometimes struggle to understand the racism of European imperialism. I have them look at the ABCs for Baby Patriots, & they understand how children were conditioned to see the world in racist terms 🗺️🗃️

New to Bluesky? Check out my post on "Bluesky Starter Tips for Educators" including connecting with the EduSky community, following people, using Starter Packs, joining EduChats, adding custom feeds, refollowing Twitter friends, and more! www.controlaltachieve.com/2024/11/blue... #EduSky #EdTech

Loving all the #NCSS24 posts but also having serious regrets over not going. I haven’t been to a conference in years and was apprehensive about going alone. Maybe next year—I have plenty of time to talk myself into it!

So critical in helping kids to focus on learning and not racking up points.

I genuinely find it shocking that anybody would sing out loud at a movie musical. It’s one of the reasons why even if I were more of WICKED person than I am, I wouldn’t see it in theaters. It sounds exactly as appealing as having someone who knew all the lines in a movie yelling them out loud.

"The South Didn't Lose The Civil War. The Confederacy Did." Some thoughts about the importance of language when thinking about the history of the South and the American Civil War. 🗃️ kevinmlevin.substack.com/p/the-south-...

Assessing kids individually on group projects is so important. In my experience it helps kids focus on true collaboration when they don’t worry about being graded on someone else’s work.

No, ChatGPT won't help in the classroom, won't save teachers time, and doesn't represent a set of skills students need to learn. On OpenAI's latest nonsense: buttondown.com/maiht3k/arch...