This is the new home of my Rewrite Newsletter -- A teaching newsletter in search of equal parts balance and best practices
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Many of you might recall the commencements last spring where graduates booed their speakers for mentioning AI. In the pieces I read about this trend, the general thought seemed to be that the boos originated from the graduates’ anger at AI for disrupting the labor market and making their paths into the future unclear. At the time, I remember agreeing with those factors, but I also couldn’t shake…
I was asked the other day about how I was feeling about the upcoming year, and my response surprised even me, though it also captured a notion that has been growing in my mind for some time: I am the most optimistic I’ve ever felt coming into a new school year.
“There are years that ask questions and years that answer.” –Zora Neale Hurston in Their Eyes Were Watching God
I’ve been trying to start this column for weeks, but each time I do, I remember something in my yard that needs doing.
Given the recent Valentine’s Day holiday, I wanted to share a quick post on a feedback tool that I truly love: Student self-assessment
When I speak to teachers about feedback, I often open by asking my audience the following question:
Yesterday I got the question for the first time: We aren’t going to do anything today, are we?
One of the funny things about writing educational books is that, once published, each book stays a snapshot in time.
I was at the National Council of Teachers of English conference* a couple weeks ago, and as I walked through the showroom I heard the pitch from edu-AI companies, over and over and over again:
Keys to Engaging Lesson Design and a New Lesson Plan Drop!
I have a rule that I tell students on the first week: If you don’t know why we are studying something, why we are studying something in the way we are, or why I’m assessing you in a certain way, please ask.
My topic for the last few posts, Gen AI, may be the large, loud, and ostentatious elephant sitting in the corner of teachers’ rooms across the world right now, but I’ve found that many teachers’ rooms also have a second elephant these days, equally large but a bit more subtle: Student engagement, or more accurately the lack of student engagement.
During our first departmental meeting of the year, a teacher offhandedly bemoaned the new paywall for Draftback, a tool for investigating the revision histories of students suspected of using AI.
I remember sitting down to read a student paper last year and instantly feeling the beginnings of that whispered question that many teachers have come to know so well:
A few weeks back I was scrolling through photos, and I stumbled upon a photo I’d long forgotten.
Read it on the Wordpress
As a young teacher I was advised by multiple veteran teachers not to smile before Winter Break.
Like many teachers, I spent a lot of time this summer thinking about how I would handle AI in my classes.
Last week I discussed the second most impactful change I’ve made in my five year journey of revising my grading practices, which was when I opened up discussions about grades—the type that normally just happen among teachers—to students too.
Last Friday, I recounted the negatives that often come with grades.
