The death of capital letters: why gen Z loves lowercase Young people have ditched capitalisation in favour of a writing style that reflects their values and attitudes to tradition. Will this change our language for ever?

The death of capital letters: why gen Z loves lowercase

Source: The Guardian
https://buff.ly/4hC8AR8 #langsky

If you’re a leader at any level,

This is the time to courageously stand up for dignity, respect, empathy and unity.

A global storm is gathering pace. The winds have changed.

Align yourself with the right allies on the right side of history.

183: A tall chimneypot hat Donal Ryan, Emma Smith & Greg Doran, Elizabeth O'Connor, AI & Irish education | John Warner & Marcus Luther, RIP Jennifer Johnston, and more.

Fortnightly 183: Donal Ryan | @oldfortunatus.bsky.social & Greg Doran on 'Macbeth' | AI Advisory Council on Education| @marcusluther.bsky.social and @biblioracle.bsky.social discuss writing in the AI age | @conorsmurf.bsky.social on Audiobooks | and more!

juliangirdham.substack.com/p/183-a-tall...

#Edchatie meeting this evening starts in 19 minutes from 8.30pm to 9.30pm. Organise your mug of tea / glass of wine / dinner and be ready to flex your typing fingers on the topic ‘AI in Irish education’.

Churchill's play Love and Information was broadcast on @BBCRadio3 last year and was brilliant. If you don't know what all the fuss is about, treat yourself to a great 80 minutes: www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m...
And do sign the petition: www.change.org/p/save-audio...

Talk underpins all EMC work. Take our approach to journal writing, for example. Students write more effectively if talk comes first. Scaffolding without the frame and endless PowerPoints! Here's an example from our Where the World Ends publication www.englishandmedia.co.uk/publications...

Thanks to the many contributors to the excellent discussion on teacher recruitment and retention last night for #edchatie, expertly marshalled by @humphreyjones.bsky.social.

The Irish education community is positive, thoughtful and well-informed.

Details of future sessions on next post.

The AI debate has revealed how little people understand about education, as illustrated in this thread.
Education is not about just knowing but thinking as well.
This thread goes through a couple of her points and explains the misunderstanding.
m.independent.ie/opinion/commen…

Getting frustrated with all the question begging about changing schools to improve children's mental health and attendance. It isn't at all clear schools are the problem. As people are so fond of pointing out they haven't changed that much. Stop taking the blame for stuff that isn't our fault!

There is some gorgeous apricity about this morning: (17th century: warming sun on a winter’s day).

Word of the Day, should you need it, is ‘crapulence’ (18th century): sickness or indisposition resulting from excessive drinking or eating.

May you find peace and joy in the year ahead. #happynewyear2025

Happy New Year!

You know why I love reading? These days it’s one of the few respites from being constantly advertised to.

#newyears #haiku by Seamus Heaney

Dangerous pavements
But this year I face the ice
With my father’s stick

Word of the Day is one I keep posting at the end of the year, hoping its time will come.

‘Respair’, from the 16th century, is fresh hope, and a recovery from despair.

Here’s to a few drops of respair in 2025.

Merry   It’s a word which only comes out at Christmas.   As for the rest of the year, it’s as if it has been packed away in the attic with the decorations and the tinsel, waiting for its own time to shine.   Rarely do we play hell with it. We do not let it loose for birthdays or anniversaries; only in error does it intrude on the happiness of a new year.   But at Christmas, it emerges blinking into the light, red-cheeked and perky, in a perfect state of mild inebriation, writing itself into Christmas cards,   greeting friends on doorsteps, embracing family before they take off their shoes, warming strangers on icy pavements. Merry Christmas, we say. Merry Christmas. Brian Bilston

Here’s a poem called ‘Merry’.

Happy solstice, may the longer days bring you even more time to wreak vengeance on your enemies 🧡

Tense Christmas I The Ghost of Christmas Past Perfect Progressive Midnight. Awoken by a ghost. I thought I must be raving. But then he went and showed me how badly I’D BEEN BEHAVING. II The Ghost of Christmas Present Perfect Simple The next night, a ghost again: with a much more recent scene. More evidence piling up of how unpleasant I HAVE BEEN. III The Ghost of Christmas Future Unreal Conditional A final late night ghostly vision. But this one lacked the pain and strife. I saw if I could be a kinder man, I WOULD CREATE a better life. Brian Bilston

Today’s poem is called ‘Tense Christmas’.

We can't simultaneously decry that students can't seem to do anything for themselves and then make a bunch of digital tools that do things for students. Either we're helping them develop their practices (skills, knowledge, attitudes, habits of mind) of a field, or we're not.

Walk on Air Against Your Better Judgment What Seamus Heaney gave me

just the most beautiful read. thank you @caitlinflanagan.bsky.social, and as always, Seamus Heaney.
www.theatlantic.com/magazine/arc...

Patrick Freyne: I am becoming a demotivational speaker – let’s all have an averagely productive December I keep meeting people who are extremely burned out. I meet them so often that I’m beginning to think burnout is something that exists by design

Loved this article by Patrick Freyne.

Patrick Freyne: I am becoming a demotivational speaker – let’s all have an averagely productive December

www.irishtimes.com/life-style/p...

Amazing to watch the backlash from classroom teachers in Ireland to the proposal for 40% of a student's marks to be awarded for an assignment that ChatGPT can produce in about three minutes.

Cc @drchendrick.bsky.social

179: Books of the Year, 2024 Including Sheila Heti, Richard Flanagan, Judi Dench, Claire Kilroy, Tim Parks, Carol Atherton, Victoria Kennefick, Clair Wills, James Shapiro and many more.

Fortnightly 179:

Books of the Year special -
juliangirdham.substack.com/p/179-books-...

Article headed 'AI approach is an incentive to cheat' by Breda O'Brien

In this morning’s ’Irish Times’, Breda O’Brien on the naivety of Ireland’s approach to AI in assessment.

One of the reasons @irishsciteach.bsky.social has now dissociated itself from proposed Leaving Cert AACs:
ista.ie/ista-stateme...

refs @humphreyjones.bsky.social @marcwatkins.bsky.social

Some five-word horror stories for Friday the 13th:

Running out of tea bags
Someone talking in a lift
Unexpected knock on the door
Biscuit falling into your brew
Stuck on rail replacement bus
Forgetting to take an umbrella
Missing bin day before Christmas
Say a bit about yourself

Important implications for all Leaving Certificate subjects.
#edchatie

Let’s talk about the real issues facing education in Ireland, #edchatie, as we approach #GE24:
➡️teacher retention
➡️teacher & leader wellbeing
➡️curricular changes
➡️consultation
➡️funding for supports
Go ahead and add to these if you wish to comment below…