This Is a Hard Time to Start a Career. These Two Words Can Help.

@jodikantor.bsky.social new book speaks to us all about the need for work that gives us a sense of meaning and purpose. www.nytimes.com/2026/04/19/b...

TJ Wilson on Substack A friend gave me back a book I lent him a long while ago: The New Analog by @Damon Krukowski. (You should read it.) It was written post-streaming services but pre-pandemic and pre-AI. I leafed through...

A great new discovery today: a new English teacher writing from the classroom and his own experience.
substack.com/@tjwilson/no...

Oh I love that, Gary! Thanks so much!

I always wanted to write a book about little things that make a big difference. Best of luck on this, Jennifer. So helpful to teachers!

I just registered for this workshop with @escribescribe.bsky.social. You might want to check it out or share this along to others. cvent.me/aEe32e?sms=7...

Thomas Newkirk's 'The Art of Slow Reading' — Julian Girdham A revisiting of Thomas Newkirk’s book The Art of Slow Reading in the new AI world.

Tom Newkirk—always worth your time to read and consider. Thanks to Julian Grisham for this www.juliangirdham.com/blog/thomas-...

The Men-Women Split in Reading is Real—and Persists Amid Historical Rate Declines What does the data tell us about reading rates by gender?

www.arts.gov/stories/blog...

Casper’s article of the day!

Can I Ban Books From My Front-Yard Little Free Library? (Gift Article) The magazine’s Ethicist columnist on the curation of a book collection.

I have been working on an article about censorship lately and saw this in the NYT. It raises so many interesting questions--which is probably why it appeared in The Ethicist. www.nytimes.com/2025/01/10/m...

A.J. Brown on why he was reading a book on the sideline against the Packers YouTube video by CBS Sports

Gotta love this. youtu.be/QqAnpEWOse8?...

Octavia E. Butler, the late-pioneering Black science fiction novelist who wrote about a wildfire from climate change starting on February 1, 2025, in her novel "Parable of the Sower," is buried in an Altadena cemetery. The cemetery caught fire, the LA Times reports.

Oh...

www.axios.com/2025/01/13/w...

www.oed.com/information/...

I’ve had coffee with three former students this week: 20, 28, and 32. Such conversations provide a fascinating window on life, generations, and teaching. (I have 25, 30, and 32 year old “kids” but the conversations are always different when they’re your own!)

Opinion | Chris Hayes: I Want Your Attention. I Need Your Attention. Here Is How I Mastered My Own. (Gift Article) The problem we face is existential and spiritual, not situational.

www.nytimes.com/2025/01/03/o...

Opinion | Chris Hayes: I Want Your Attention. I Need Your Attention. Here Is How I Mastered My Own. (Gift Article) The problem we face is existential and spiritual, not situational.

Best thing I’ll read today about attention, living, and learning: www.nytimes.com/2025/01/03/o...

Interesting new resource(s) re: close reading. John Guillory’s “Close Reading” press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/bo... and this archive of close reading resources: www.closereadingarchive.org?utm_source=s...

Opinion | No, You Don’t Get an A for Effort (Gift Article) High marks reward excellence, not grit.

www.nytimes.com/2024/12/26/o...

Annual Reviews Each year, I write my Annual Review. This page offers a complete list of the Annual Reviews I have written and explains my process.

Consider doing what I call a two-way reflection in Teaching Better Day by Day: reflect on the year ending and the think about the year to come. Or you could use these EOY questions from @jamesclear.bsky.social : jamesclear.com/annual-review

Sketchplanations - Simplifying complex ideas in sketches The Three Bricklayers’ story illustrates the power of purpose. What is the 3 Bricklayers Story? A simple version goes that a person walked past a building project and asked three workers the same ques...

Think about this next time someone asks you what you do as a teacher: sketchplanations.com/the-three-br...

Overheard while shopping in Green Apple Books in SF this morning: “OH I thought that was the fiction section but it is the nonfiction section. I WISH more of what is on those displays was fiction!”

Excited to read this new book by Jeff Wilhelm, Michael Smith et al. Such smart guys and grateful for the years of presenting with them at NCTE:

PRES_Teaching in Troubled Times (NCTE 2024)_JB Shared You can access my slides for this presentation at bit.ly/JBTroubledTimes

I’ll be working on an article the next few days based on this presentation from NCTE this year titled “Teaching in Troubled Times. Not everything will make sense without my explanation but most of it should be understandable. bit.ly/JBTroubledTi...

I rewatched “The Godfather” last night and was reminded of this activity I adapted from Coppolla’s “Godfather Notebooks” where he talks about how he creates scenes from a book he reads: www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/g9ahr...

Teaching Better Day by Day Can old-fashioned paper-and-pencil planning be cutting-edge? Yes, when it is a planner designed by master teacher Jim Burke, with space to dream big a...

As teachers approach half-time in their school year, now is the time to reflect, review, and renew. My Teaching Better Day by Day offers a many ways to help teachers to this important work. www.corwin.com/books/teachi...

Why Public School Curriculum Is Resistant to Political Pressure (Gift Article) Politicians on both the left and the right have sought to change or limit what teachers can do inside classrooms. Teachers often ignore them.

Recommended Read: www.nytimes.com/2024/12/20/u...

A ‘Radical’ Approach to Reclaiming Your Attention It’s not just about putting your phone away.

Attention has my full attention these days. From The Atlantic: Many people believe that smartphones have ruined their ability to pay attention to what really matters in life, @kait_tiffany writes. Could a "School of Radical Attention" turn things around? www.theatlantic.com/technology/a...

✨ This is a generous share. ✨

As you wrap up the school year, we want to leave you with some writing instruction considerations from @candersonwriting.bsky.social and @mattgloverwriting.bsky.social for the new year.

She graduated without learning to read. Now she’s suing her school. Aleysha Ortiz sued her Connecticut school district for allegedly failing to address her learning disabilities. She was illiterate when she graduated, she said.

Here’s the link: www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2024/...

This story and her experience raise so many important and interesting questions: She graduated without learning to read. Now she’s suing her school.