“They didn’t just walk in chasing one person, they went into multiple rooms asking and looking for teachers while children were present,” Ramirez said. “This is an agency that has gone rogue and it an agency that believes that as long as they can cover their face, they can get away with anything.”

Huge thank you to @joshuaseigal.bsky.social for sending a signed copy of I Don't Like Poetry to my son! I can't wait to show him after school. 😊

Imagine someone coming to this country to take care of *your children* to not only be treated like this but have the "law" impose such harm on a community. Nobody was hurt by this person's immigration status, only by indiscriminate & dehumanizing enforcement, and that includes your kids.

Teachers often get told what "Best Practice" is, but I worry they don't get enough intentional visioning time to reflect on what their classroom practice/culture looks & sounds like at its ideal and collaborate to address stressors/barriers to that vision. Here's a simple reflection for just that:

Note: also not a great teaching strategy

"The world does not have to be stagnant to be comfortable" Students write cool things—and, without question, it is worth it to take the time to showcase and celebrate those cool things (Probably favorite space in our classroom!)

A poll from the journal Nature found that 75% of researchers in the U.S. are considering leaving the country. That includes a man who’s been dubbed the "Mozart of Math." (This PBS story on the scientific brain drain is heartbreaking & ominous for medicine, imo.) www.youtube.com/watch?v=yLvO...

The whole Daylight Savings thing really gives away the game, doesn't it? We collectively decided to make a day in November 25 hours long but you're telling me we can't have a functioning healthcare system?

+ I sometimes forget that my humanity is my superpower. I’m grateful to work in community with young people who remind me that being me is enough. I’ll treasure this letter forever. Always choose humanity.

I thought I was holding it together. I didn’t think they could tell. Working in a politically regressive state during a takeover of my district while my marriage falls apart takes its toll and that shows up in my classroom. That initially filled me with a deep sense of shame and disappointment. +

Such a perfect example of what we all give up when we refuse to address basic inequalities. I don't want to live in a country where all the public space is militarized to keep hungry people from stealing food, just give them money to buy food!

Huge implications for orgs seeking federal research grants: anti-diversity, equity, and inclusion contract clauses extend to *all* organizational efforts, not just those funded by the grant, with the provision to "claw back" spent funds from violators. cyberscoop.com/python-softw...

I know everyone wants the best education for their child, but the anti-intellectual authority we’re currently under makes me want to throw personalization and individualization out the window. Everyone needs a great education and I’m sick of people arguing otherwise.

Proud to be a member of a truly grassroots rural/suburban/urban coalition of Iowans dedicated to revitalizing a vision for thriving public education in our state. www.amestrib.com/story/news/l...

youtu.be/gYG4bA6MxAY?... The antidote to everything bad in the world is a Swiss folk black metal band who dresses up like medieval apiarists and sings about bees.

In short, the ANES data shows: 📉 Social media use is shrinking 💥 Twitter/X posting has moved ~50 points to the right 🧩 Platforms are splintering 🔊 Fewer people are talking — but those still talking are more politically extreme

Legacy platforms are losing ground: ⬇️ Facebook ⬇️ YouTube ⬇️ Twitter/X But ⬆️ TikTok and Reddit "Other" platforms - including Bluesky - has not seen significant growth as a whole. (But huge compositional changes)

Overall social media use is declining. Between 2020 and 2024, more Americans — especially the youngest (18–24) and oldest (65+) — report using no social media at all. A small group of heavy users remains, but the middle is thinning out.

Cooperative behavior is why humans survived as a species.

I just don't see how a vision of us all as independent contractors constantly competing in zero-sum interactions, a nation of 300 million homesteads and little suburban fiefdoms, is any way to organize a functioning society, let alone a supposedly self-governing, democratic, civic nation.

Immigration officers have hit the city of Hillsboro hard in the past two weeks. To help students and parents feel safer, staff at an elementary school and nearby middle school, along with representatives from the local teachers’ union, have responded by standing watch in the neighborhood.

Israel killed at least 104 people in Gaza, including 46 children, in overnight strikes on the Palestinian territory. The attacks came after Israel claimed its soldiers came under attack by Hamas militants, though the group denied responsibility.

We’ve reached the opposite pole of the post-Covid scramble for workers. “.. Nearly two million people in the U.S. have been without a job for 27 weeks or more ..” @wsj.com www.wsj.com/economy/jobs...

Q3: As someone whose doctorate began at the dawn of the pandemic, I don’t know where I’d be (from a scholarly/professional POV) without the #literacies crew I met online. Truly a space where lasting collaborations, and friendships(!) are built and sustained. Glad I get a lovely monthly reminder!

The most frequent genre of private message/email I get from Iowa educators is that they're intimidated, isolated, & unsupported. Most of them are closer to retirement than not and feel like they have to stick it out for themselves & their families.

let me know when it is Humanities Week

Walking your dog, school pick up, grocery shopping. ICE agents are hitting everyday Chicagoans with tear gas with increasing frequency. The press & vigilant residents are capturing these unwarranted attacks so the world can see Trump's abuse of power. My latest: open.substack.com/pub/jennifer...

A new report from a prominent food and environmental advocacy group reveals that at least one in four Iowa children under the age of five and their families are at risk of losing critical nutrition assistance due to the government shutdown in Washington.

Each year, I ask students to write down the % of people they believe are good + then share out 1 at a time each year with my junior classes. Here are this year's results: (Also worth mentioning: the X's most to the left every single year—never had this many at 20% and below.)

ICE followed the mother into a school and aggressively detained her along with her children. This is so heartbreaking 💔

"I think we need to hit the reset button." Like former Oklahoma Superintendent of Schools Ryan Walters, the social studies standards recommended by his committee of extremists are out: youtu.be/hQnT4vTf3nw?...

Gilroy workers have started to package pots of marigolds to sell for #DiaDeLosMuertos altars. The pots weigh about 15 lbs. This is the busy season for these flowers and workers are laboring long hours. While flower prices have gone up, farm worker wages did not.

Whenever people complain about the number of folks relying on food stamps, it is worth reminding them that SNAP is, by too large of a degree, a subsidy for corporations that refuse to pay a living wage and their political allies who reject public policy prescriptions to reduce income inequality.

4 out of every 10 SNAP recipients are children.

So, a child was losing weight (the implication is the stress of the Alpha School's methods) so much so her pediatrician recommended additional snacks, and the School's untrained "guides" (who are not teachers) withheld those snacks from the child until "she met her learning metrics"?

An unprecedented disruption in food aid will have a disproportionate impact on children as ~1/3 of SNAP beneficiaries are school-age kids. Remember as they sit down for November iReady & MAP benchmarks: which of your students are missing meals & are expected to come to school "ready to learn"?

When authoritarians consolidate so much power that they become the central fulcrum of economic, political, and cultural life, it inflicts a psychic toll that I don't think we've taken full account of: True Liberty is not having to think about One Guy for a day.

Hey institutions that host professional development, podcasts, ed news, ed conferences, etc: Educators are desperate to hear from other educators about what’s working in their classrooms TODAY. Find the practicing educators and give them resources to teach other educators.

When authoritarians consolidate so much power that they become the central fulcrum of economic, political, and cultural life, it inflicts a psychic toll that I don't think we've taken full account of: True Liberty is not having to think about One Guy for a day.

When I was out book shopping on Friday I saw these super cool LEGO ReCreate kits! You get 25 random pieces and a deck of Create, Twist, and Boost cards that provide design challenges & narrative prompts. My son had a good time playing around with 'em this morning. Only $10!

Kate McAllister's life as an educator is define by "what if?": "What if learning could be different? What if we did education with not for others? What if we can become more self-determined in our learning? What if education can help regenerate the planet?" shorturl.at/90liA #edchat #UK

Also: Medicaid cuts = hospital closures so there go a lot of doctors l, nurses, lab techs, etc -- all of whom studied STEM. This regime destroyed a lot of career pipelines, and they're not done.

*taps the board*👇🏾👇🏾👇🏾👇🏾

What are the tenets & beliefs of the Fantasy Economy as they relate to education reform? www.humanrestorationproject.org/podcasts/the...

The central idea of Neil Kraus's "The Fantasy Economy" has stuck with me ever since our conversation last fall: American public schools became “failing schools” exactly when they needed to, to fit the needs of the Fantasy Economy. www.humanrestorationproject.org/podcasts/the...

"Rather than viewed as shaped by public policies and business practices, growing inequality and wage stagnation are deliberately framed as educational problems with educational solutions. Yet as I will show, these claims are not born out by the evidence." 👀

"...neoliberalism had deliberately assigned the education system the impossible task of providing economic opportunity for all. But because education cannot create jobs for graduates or set wage rates, public opposition or indifference to education was easy to mobilize."

Economic elites are FAR more comfortable turning the policy conversation against the "failures" of the education system than criticizing an economic system that allowed them to succeed amidst widespread inequality, & in that way the fantasy economy is rooted in the myth of meritocracy.

This whole "learn to code" attitude still ingrained in the managerial class of goobers drafting the Iowa DOGE report misses the entire occupational & economic context in which STEM *happens*.