alterin

Reflections around the Class of 2026

Fri, 01 May 2026 16:38:54 GMT

Today is the senior grad walk at our school. Seniors are going to go through a rehearsal graduation, and then they’re going to walk through the halls of all of the buildings. All of our classes are going to be in the hallways cheering them on.

Couple of days ago, graduating students who were in my freshmen class started looking for their “freshmen letter” which I kind of did, but not really. It was optional, but this was also the last year we did blogs and then was an introduction post, so there are those words of wisdom.

All around it’s just a heightened sense of nostalgia, looking back, and reflection.

Typically around this time of year my emotions are in overdrive. I’m so very angry all of the time. I don’t think I take it out on anyone, but my showers are longer and I’m seething with fake conversations in my head with people who have wronged me or people I care about or ideas I care about.

( Four things that are pissing me off right now. Read more? )

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Focus of Public Education

Fri, 10 Apr 2026 14:43:06 GMT

I’m noticing that my titles are a bit vague and nonspecific when it comes to what I’m going to be talking about. Partly because, the nature of these are very much unplanned, very much stream of thought. I’m not aiming for a well-researched essay. I’m just trying to put the thoughts I’m having about the state of education into mini-essays that are just a little more specific than a tweet. And partly because, these topics are very metonymic (okay, maybe I’m stretching that) towards what I’m thinking about. They’re very much small portions of much larger ideas, and I’d like to think they’re well-suited for a blog.

We’ve had one good big “brand new” idea in education this millennium, and it wasn’t even new. It was just a wide expansion of existing pedagogical arenas. Ever since, we’ve mostly lost the plot about the purpose of public education. Anything that strays from making students “college and career ready” is a distraction, and the only way to make a student “college and career” ready is to focus on the foundational skills that will get them there.

It all started with the Bush era “No Child Left Behind” which is a mix of well-intentioned and dastardly ideas towards the destruction of public education. It’s always been hard to argue against, and so we’ve seen it strengthened in some cases and moved into a more positive direction in others. Ultimately, the idea is way too flawed. One of its key tenets is the idea that all children regardless of socioeconomic status can be successful, and that it is the job of a school to make all students successful.

( Mini rant before getting back to my point incoming, but I also feel like it's time for a cut! Read more! )

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Reading Test Focused

Fri, 27 Mar 2026 19:46:17 GMT

There’s a huge focus on reading and math (but, I’ll stick to my speciality, thank you very much). But the methods, rationale, and the assessment don’t mix. The people in charge of education policy at the school district are very much removed from the classroom, and the research that they use to make their decisions is shaky at best. There’s also a continuous tendency for school districts to always be chasing the next big thing. What’s the next big program that will help us achieve our results?

And of course if you wanted to make a guess, you would probably say they’re going to use some form of AI to inform the data and the instruction. And of course, you’d definitely be correct.

I haven’t heard it directly from any sources because news reaches the people on the frontlines last, and there’s a possibility that as a high school educator, I won’t be hit by this. BUT, it looks like the next big thing in CCSD for reading intervention is going to be I-Ready. Now, I-Ready is not a new program, but the direction it’s going like, most other programs, is going to heavily use AI to make decisions about what is most appropriate for students of a given need for intervention.

( I should probably cut this before it gets long. Read more! )

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Who Is the Union, Actually?

Wed, 25 Mar 2026 17:04:59 GMT

One thing that I see that the public doesn’t understand-- and worst yet and more importantly, a lot of teachers don’t understand either-- is that the Teachers union is teachers. Most people want to separate the two as if there are teachers and then there are teachers unions. It’s especially prevalent on the political right, but like most things that are just known, what the political right knows as true is shouted from all of the rooftops of our stupid little algorithmic bubbles that are most definitely generated based on getting people as riled up as possible.

And it makes sense, teachers as a group are overwhelming popular. Sure, there are people who are very vocally anti-teacher, but for the most part, it’s fairly overwhelming popular. It’s in that public servant group that includes doctors, nurses, firefighters, and police officers (although, the last is maybe not the most in the group.) So if you’re anti-public education, you can’t necessarily attack the teachers. Instead, you need to create some kind of boogeyman that you can put all of the blame on. So, teachers =/= teachers union. But that can’t be farther from the case.

( I should probably use cuts, right? Read more )

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Student Teaching Programs are Too Expensive

Tue, 24 Mar 2026 15:32:55 GMT

I have a student teacher this semester, and this post certainly isn’t about how great she is. She’s great. And that’s my last student teacher was great. I was great as a student teacher, and then every now and then, we get a Karen who is not so great. All of these points are not at all the point.

Out of the classes that a teacher-in-training takes in their three and a half years of traditional classes, the only ones that are actually really useful are the classes that they take for their subject matter. Okay, maybe, I’m exaggerating. The first class you take in the field of education is definitely valuable. Notice, I didn’t specify which class that is? Because it doesn’t matter. The other 6-10 classes are generally rehashes of whichever class you take first. But there is one “class” that does matter, and it’s the bane and the jewel of the program.

I mean once your in a classroom. It actually does kind of make sense because when we have in-service days of training, the key is: can you find one thing of value to keep? And if you can find one thing of value in the six to seven hour training day, it wasn’t a waste. So as long as we apply that rule to the entirety of the teacher training curriculum, it’s all good! Right? Right. Kinda. Not really.

( I should probably use cuts, right? Read more )

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Just a big section break.

Mon, 23 Mar 2026 15:25:53 GMT

WARNING WHINEY LATE TEEN TO TWENTY SOMETHING BELOW

I've imported my old LJ for posterity sake, and it's interesting in a historical artifact way. But holy crap, you probably really do not want to read it. I'm going to hide a bunch of the most recent ones behind a cut. Just to kinda give a little bit more of a buffer than the giant red text that is this post.

WARNING WHINEY LATE TEEN TO TWENTY SOMETHING BELOW

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Musings on Grit

Mon, 23 Mar 2026 15:21:33 GMT

About 10 years ago, the big word in education was Grit. Grit was roughly described as the ability to overcome challenges.

I've never had a lot of grit. I've been able to get where I am and to float by and to sometimes succeed by a combination of beginner's luck, intelligence, and just an ability to pick up things and understand basic concepts. It kinda works out for me sometimes.

Where I've failed has been because of a lack of grit. I would start a new skill or hobby, and I would be fairly quickly pretty good for a beginner. When it comes to small roadstops or small challenges, my journey would either end or get sidetracked. Over the years, I've gotten better at this, but I'm a flighty pick up something and move on type of person, and I've shown a big resistance to working on my lack of grit. I don't have enough grit to get more grit?

Anyways, back to education. Ten years ago the word was Grit. Today, education has completely abandoned grit, and I'm trying to build up enough grit to put into words how dangerous and how horrendous this is.

( I should probably use cuts, right? Read more... )

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This is so weird

Mon, 23 Mar 2026 14:47:13 GMT

I got an email from Livejournal about 25 years since the creation of my LJ which is absolutely insane, but it's not quite as insane as the things that I've posted. Especially as a teacher of high school kids, I was basically these kids well into my late 20's! Wow!

But, it did spark a little bit of nostalgia. I've been trying to write more lately, and even though, the majority of what I wrote in here was sappy, crappy, unparagraphed junk, it at least fairly accurately shows my voice in a way that I did not quite expect.

Livejournal, itself, has gone through some crazy upheaval, and while it's so nice that they were able to actually recover all of my old journals, it's certainly not something that I want to support in any way shape or form.

So thus, here's dreamwidth! (is it stylized with lower case? the d has that dreamcatcher vibe, but it's definitely lower case)

I'm importing all of my old LJ entries. I'm still friends with some of the people that I talked about in the past, and most are still in the general orbit of acquaintances that I haven't talked to in years or decades. But it's still history, and it's part of my past and it's part of who I am now.

I'm torn on whether I want to make them private or not. I don't plan on advertising this to my general orbit in any way, but I think there's an outlet here that I could use right now. I imagine I'll have some thoughts on the state of education that I've been mulling over and considering turning into more in depth-- and real -- pieces. But I imagine this would be a good sounding board for that type of thing.

So, we'll see. Day 1 of dreamwidth.

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