Online Learning
How to evaluate an online course before you pay for it
The number of online courses has grown faster than the language for evaluating them. A working framework for picking ones that deliver and avoiding ones that don't.
Online Learning
Private student loans: what students should know before signing
Private student loans differ from federal loans in ways that compound over a 20-year repayment. The structural picture, the cosigner trap, and when private loans actually make sense.
Conferences worth your district’s PD budget for 2026-2027
Some education conferences continue to earn their costs. Others have grown thin. An honest read for districts allocating professional development budgets.
Topics
EdTech & Classroom Tools
Honest reviews of the apps, platforms, AI tools, and devices teachers are asked to adopt. We assess what genuinely helps students think, what just keeps them busy, and what's heavily marketed without earning its place.
“Free alternatives to expensive grade-book and assessment software”
27 posts
Digital Literacy & Media
Reading, writing, and thinking in a media environment that wasn't built in students' interest. We cover information literacy, source evaluation, attention, and what it means to be a careful reader and a credible writer online.
“Teaching media literacy in an algorithm-shaped attention environment”
25 posts
Schools & Policy
What happens to teaching when policy meets practice. We write about school systems, assessment regimes, district decisions, and the quiet politics that shape what's possible inside the classroom.
“Chronic absenteeism, three years on: what the data actually shows”
21 posts
Teaching & Pedagogy
How real classrooms work, lesson by lesson. We write about instructional design, classroom practice, and the small craft decisions that shape what students actually learn, separating durable pedagogy from passing fashion.
“Differentiation that doesn’t double your prep time”
19 posts
Professional Development
Notes on how teachers actually grow. We cover conferences worth attending, PD that doesn't waste a Saturday, and the case for treating educators as career-long learners rather than topped-off skill sets.
“Conferences worth your district’s PD budget for 2026-2027”
17 posts
Online Learning
MOOCs, course platforms, bootcamps, and the rest of the open-web learning economy. We cover where online courses deliver, where they don't, and how adults are actually picking up new skills outside traditional classrooms.
“How to evaluate an online course before you pay for it”
12 posts
Recent writing
Homeschooling
A state-by-state guide to homeschool reporting requirements
Homeschool reporting varies more than people realize. The four broad categories states fall into and what each one typically requires of families.
EdTech & Classroom Tools
Free alternatives to expensive grade-book and assessment software
Several free or near-free gradebook tools work for individual teachers, homeschool families, and microschools. The trade-offs vs paid enterprise platforms, in plain terms.
Online Learning
Using YouTube as a serious learning platform: how to filter the signal
YouTube is the largest open educational resource on the internet. The skill of using it seriously is the skill of resisting the platform's defaults.
Higher Education
The senior-year admissions timeline: a month-by-month playbook
Senior year compresses the college admissions process into one academic year. A working month-by-month plan, from late summer through May 1 decision day.
Teaching & Pedagogy
Differentiation that doesn’t double your prep time
Most differentiation advice fails the prep-time test. The teachers who do it sustainably differentiate at narrow points and accept the middle of the lesson is the same for everyone.
Homeschooling
Building a homeschool day for a kid with ADHD
Homeschooling a kid with ADHD requires a different daily structure than typical homeschool. The shorter blocks, movement breaks, and outsourced co-op time that actually work.
EdTech & Classroom Tools
The case against more screens in elementary classrooms
The 1:1 elementary device push was an overcorrection. The case for fewer screens in younger classrooms is stronger than the device-vendor materials suggest.
Online Learning
Cohort-based courses (Maven and others): are they worth the price?
Cohort-based courses charge much more than self-paced alternatives. The format works for some learners and subjects and not others. A practical evaluation framework.