Jim Thompson retweeted
“Who in the room doesn’t matter enough that we should not check for their understanding?” Great talk from @teacherhead at @ResearchEd_CL
Jim Thompson retweeted
When will the Ed. system stop being driven by untested theories?
Yup, I can tell you these digital exams are terrible for elementary school-age children.
After a yearslong transition to digital exams, New York is considering whether to let NYC schools go back to paper-and-pencil state tests. chalkbeat.org/newyork/2026/1…
Jim Thompson retweeted
Interesting article.
“If someone is taking notes, it’s a simple way of saying what is happening right now is important enough for me to capture it. It also sends us a message that this is what we do — we pay attention and we try to get smarter and more thoughtful.”
nytimes.com/athletic/7672297…
Jim Thompson retweeted
A recent NYT op-ed argued that writing doesn't advance thinking.
That argument is misleading, contrary to the evidence--and to the extent it implies that it's OK for students to let AI write for them, dangerous.
More in my new post on Minding the Gap:
nataliewexler.substack.com/p…
It’s going to be our November/December book talk at @Monroe2BOCES ! @MrZachG !
Folks can register now at M2 Boces ! Thanks for the well deserved promo @Doug_Lemov !
Jim Thompson retweeted
Look what came in the mail today 👀
Can't wait to get into it (after my daughter's wedding next week)!
Congratulations to @nsachdeva2019 and @New_Old_Paul
See you in Toronto for @researchEDCan on the 24th
Terrific news ! @Doug_Lemov
Jim Thompson retweeted
Every year I take a picture of the spine of each book read in my class. I usually clumped the books together in a classroom chart. This year students are putting the books that they have read on their individual lockers. It also serves as an easy visual to see at a quick glance what each student is reading.
Jim Thompson retweeted
This, from @j_amesmarriott on @EconTalker is an argument for why we have to fight hard(er) to re-center English classes around whole books.
“There is a kind of truth about life which is only accessible through prose fiction, with its capacity to show us the inside of other minds. This recreation of human consciousness through words is one of our species' most remarkable inventions. The strange empathetic hallucination induced by the novel, the feeling we have that we might know what it is to be Elizabeth Bennet or David Copperfield is perhaps the closest we can ever come the experience of being a person other than ourselves.”
Jim Thompson retweeted
Many schools have such tunnel vision when it come to literacy and state testing. Districts purchase reading programs with a heavy emphasis on passage reading because the passages/questions mirror the state test. I guess to some this might seem logical in that this is the way to produce better state test results. The issue is that it generally doesn't. You can still read full length class novels while also focusing on things that will be on the state test.
Today my class began the modern classic, Number the Stars. It is a perfect book for 5th graders when introducing students to WW2 and the Holocaust. I use the novel unit from the Reading Reconsidered curriculum. Lois Lowry is a superb writer. In Number the Stars she is known for changing the mood in the story on a dime. This happens throughout the book. We analyzed the mood of the story within the first two pages of this novel. All seemed cheery for the first few paragraphs until the word Halte! Annemarie, Ellen, and Kirsti encoutered two rifles, two sets of cold eyes, four shiny boots, and two helmits. If you have read the book you know exactly what I'm talking about. Students learned about mood and how authors create this with the specific words they use.
There is no need to practice "state test questions" on mood by reading passages that don't really connect with anything. Teach mood within a great novel.
The added benefit (this is inevitable) is that many students will want to read a bunch more novels from the WW2 time period. Students favorites are The War That Saved My Life, The Boy on the Wooden Box, Snow Treasure, Echo, and anything written by Alan Gratz like Allies and Projekt 1065. I have to say The War That Saved My Life is one of my absolute favorites. I haven't had a student not fall in love with this story.
Applause @teacherhead ! The emperor isn’t wearing any clothes when it comes to the decades upon decades of the “Get Em” process of teacher evaluation: “Get em in, Get em to smile, Get em to sign & Get Em to leave”..There is a better way ! Coaching Done Well ! @leaningshane
One conclusion from my travels - UK, US, Canada, Australia - is that our global profession remains deeply scarred by decades of poor accountability-driven scrutiny dominated by delusional 'teacher evaluation' processes. The default teacher position is to be sceptical and resistant to observation processes and often PD itself. 'Just leave me alone' is a common starting point.
It's requires a massive effort to build momentum around sustained PD and feedback cycles that people trust, opening themselves up enough to explore habit change.. Where it's happening it's magnificent; it feels like a triumph - but it also feels precarious; it doesn't take much to knock people off course. We're paying the price for all those years training up leaders to adopt the role of compliance checkers and 'quality assurers' rather than being true leaders of learning and teacher development. Takes real focus and changes in attitude to create the cultures of PD teachers crave.
Will need follow up “coaching done well” with video reflection of implementing the practice and modeling and rehearsal with the coachee.
Totally agree @Doug_Lemov ! We have thrown buckets of $ into Chrome Books & Smart Boards..the result—lowest reading & math scores in decades. Hmm..why don’t we try engaging all students with great literature & stretching their inquiry, cognitive breadth, & critical thinking
Posted a video of a teacher reading a novel aloud with her kiddos in beautiful fashion a few days ago. Lots of positive feedback and one teacher asked: “love it but is there a way to have them annotate without writing in the book. Books for each kid get expensive.”
1) love to hear any solutions to pass along
2) just want to say that if it’s up to me every kid gets a cheap copy of six novels per year and you can keep your smart board and your Chromebook.
Jim Thompson retweeted
🚨 Waterloo is often described as the MIT of Canada. On CBC, Waterloo math instructor Dan Wolczuk describes first-year students arriving with inflated grades, missing foundational math skills, and unprepared for university math. The problem has worsened over time.
He makes several important points:
- High school math classes have been weakened so students can get better grades.
- Less testing in high school and fewer standardized tests both hurt student learning and lead to grade inflation.
- Grade inflation doesn't help students in the long run. It's demoralizing to get 99% in high school and fail your first calculus test b/c prerequisite knowledge isn't secure.
- Some memorization is necessary in math. Math builds on itself and students need to be able to easily retrieve foundational knowledge.
- The testing effect matters. More testing helps students retain information long term.
- More low stakes testing also helps curb test anxiety.
Dan thinks we need a national standardized test in Canada. I wholeheardedly agree.
Link below (Excellent job by @KrissyHolmes CBC, Newfoundland & Labrador, Sept 9) @CBCNL 👇
A powerful piece ! What are the implications for K-12 school ? How do we give teachers the extra time needed to confront this with their students ?
MIT published a brutally honest report on what AI is doing to students.
A committee of professors and students spent five months studying how AI changed learning on campus, and the findings read like a warning to every university on the planet.
Study groups are disappearing. Office hours are emptying out. Problem sets and take-home exams no longer prove anything, because AI can produce credible solutions to almost any written assignment in the undergraduate curriculum. Students who lean on chatbots lose mastery and confidence, and some slip into what the report calls cognitive surrender, reaching for AI at the first hint of struggle.
The numbers are rough. 46 percent of surveyed MIT undergrads use LLMs daily. 90 percent worry about their own overreliance. Undergrads who feel AI makes them replaceable now outnumber those who feel it makes them capable.
The committee's answer surprised me. They refused to fight AI with surveillance. The report calls AI detectors unreliable, says lockdown browsers feel like spying, and warns that policing students builds a classroom atmosphere of mutual distrust.
Instead, MIT wants to rebuild education around the things AI can't replace. That means oral exams, semester portfolios, in-person project work, and a required social component in every subject. The report even floats the idea of rethinking grades entirely, since without a GPA to optimize, much of the incentive to cheat with AI evaporates.
The committee warns professors against replacing undergrad research assistants with AI agents just because they're cheaper, because a university exists to grow people, not output.
The most famous tech school on earth admitted the machines broke its way of teaching. Its answer is more humans, not more software.
“Yes, I think technology erodes the cognitive persistence necessary to deep comprehension”. Powerful thought @Doug_Lemov ! And thank you @C_Hendrick for this most thoughtful post. Shouldn’t all those interested with advancing student success book Doug and Carl on their shows ?
Jim Thompson retweeted
Cold Call- a great illustration and a great example on video:
teachlikeachampion.org/blog/…
Jim Thompson retweeted
🚨WOW!!!
A Bronx pizzeria owner saw a woman eating out of his GARBAGE.
He walked outside, took her by the hand, led her in, and pulled a hot slice straight from the oven for her.
She sat down and cried. He said: "Don't cry. Eat. I don't want you eating out of a garbage." ❤️
His name is Daniel Romano.
He owns D'Romano's Pizza in the Throggs Neck section of the Bronx.
He didn't shoo her away.
"I grabbed her by the hand and I led her to the pizzeria and I went in the oven and I got her a fresh slice and gave it to her. Sat down and she started crying. I said, 'don't cry, eat. This is not a problem.'"
In that moment, he decided he'd never let it happen to anyone again.
So he grabbed a marker, wrote a sign by hand, and taped it in his window for the whole neighborhood to see:
"To the people eating out of my garbage, I have more love for you than you think. Please come in and tell me you're hungry. I will forever give you a slice and fresh water to drink."
When they asked him why, his answer was simple.
"Right now, I think this world is shot. There's too much hate. Too much negativity. Why not put a smile on someone's face?"
And it turns out this runs deep for Daniel.
It goes all the way back to his mother, Carmella.
"She had a saying in Italian. She used to say, 'a desperate person will always make a better decision on a full stomach than on an empty.'
"It always stuck with me. So I feed people."
A desperate person makes a better decision on a full stomach.
That handwritten sign has traveled way past the Bronx now.
Daniel says people are calling him from Texas, Arkansas, Hawaii, even Alaska, all wanting to chip in and buy slices for hungry strangers they'll NEVER MEET.
"Don't ask me, I didn't even know Alaska had a phone."
It all started with one slice.
One woman.
One man who did something kind.
GOD BLESS Daniel Romano. 🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸