Higher Education
Early decision and early action are not interchangeable, and the admit-rate gap between ED and regular decision is misleading. A practical guide for seniors weighing both.
The test-optional moment in American college admissions has had three phases. The first was the pre-pandemic era, when a small number of colleges (Bowdoin,…
Homeschooling has had a strange decade. The pandemic pulled hundreds of thousands of families into it who had never considered it, and a meaningful…
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.
“10 Years of Blogging: Time for a Change and a Book”
24 posts
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.
“AI in the classroom three years in: what’s working, and what isn’t”
22 posts
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.
“The UnCommon Core”
20 posts
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.
“The lesson plan structure that survives most edtech fads”
17 posts
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.
“ISTE 2010: Easy…Not Free”
16 posts
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.
“MOOCs at fifteen: what worked, what didn’t, and what’s quietly replacing them”
6 posts
We’re wondering what a “Basketball Math” curriculum might look like for our son Tucker, combining his love of the sport and his interest in math, and we’re asking for ideas on how to build a K-? curriculum around basketball that could also tap into online social learning spaces.
Yesterday, Alec Couros went “Back to School” to meet his first grade daughter’s teacher, sparking a Twitter conversation that captured the frustration many teacher-parents feel at traditional classroom expectations. We reflect on similar experiences with our own kids and share the strategies we use to navigate the gap between the schooling they get and the learning we want for them.
Many of us are calling for big changes in schools—new literacies, connected classrooms, and modern learning—but the conversations on front porches and in small-town coffee shops rarely touch any of that. Leading in education today means doing the work almost no one is asking for yet, while still meeting traditional expectations, and helping communities see why both matter for our kids’ futures.
We explore Erica McWilliam's vision of teaching as co-creating value in learning networks and Charles Leadbeater's idea of "useful ignorance," asking what it means for us, our students, and our children to unlearn traditional notions of teaching in a script-less, fluid world.
Reflections on attending ISTE 2010 primarily as a vendor, the allure and limitations of the exhibit floor, and why we value conferences that focus on authentic learning over shiny tools.
It has gotten to the point where we shudder every time we hear plans to “increase student achievement” or “improve schools,” because those phrases almost always mean one thing: raising standardized test scores. Far too little of what those assessments measure is what we care about as parents, and we need new ways to assess learning that value passion, problem solving, collaboration, and real-world impact.
Reflections on how digital tools like the iPad, Instapaper, Kindle, and interactive magazine apps are transforming reading from passive consumption into a more participatory, connected, and collaborative experience.
We keep blocking Facebook instead of teaching it, even though most of our students use it and few understand privacy, reputation, and public exposure in that space.