A short but packed issue this week.
Over the past several months, I have been in conversation with dozens of school leaders about their upcoming teaching & learning priorities. At the head of most lists are 1) managing artificial intelligence in teaching and learning and 2) supporting civil discourse. I’ll write more about the former in the weeks ahead, but will highlight the latter here.
Most schools are expecting that next week’s inauguration will be followed by a series of executive orders that will prompt questions and strong reactions from students and faculty alike — and are exploring either how these moments might become learning experiences or how they might be acknowledged and moved on from.
If you’re looking for approaches to acknowledge current events and move on from them, you might visit a growing body of resources for teachers we are aggregating at the Current Events topic on Athena Lab. This includes approaches from dozens of teachers ranging from simple acknowledgement to more involved collaborative engagement with the news.
If you’re looking to explore more deeply the historical context and significance of executive orders (from the Emancipation Proclamation to the Japanese Concentration Camps during World War II), you might find useful the short list of resources we have gathered at the US Presidential Executive Orders topic on Athena Lab. This topic is new, and we would welcome recommendations for other resources or approaches you may be taking, too.
Further, teachers of humanities subjects and teaching & learning leaders at their schools have started forming groups on Athena Lab in order to build networks of teachers across schools to reduce isolation and support growth and collaboration. If you are interested in learning more about this growing group, just reply to me, and I will send further information.
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To this week’s articles:
Find a feature on how to effectively use work periods in class and another on the growing understanding of the harm of certain social media behavior.
Also this week: a rich section on character, on humanities, on reading and writing, and more, including several visual explorations of the LA wildfires. See also two different approaches to classroom observations. I find particularly interesting the reading list from Stanford on productive disagreement (in Curriculum) and the provocative piece against institutional neutrality (in Humanities).
These and much more, enjoy!
Peter
Browse and search over 14,000 curated articles from past issues online:
“As one internal report put it: “Compulsive usage correlates with a slew of negative mental health effects like loss of analytical skills, memory formation, contextual thinking, conversational depth, empathy, and increased anxiety,” in addition to “interfer[ing] with essential personal responsibilities like sufficient sleep, work/school responsibilities, and connecting with loved ones.” Although these harms are known, the company often chooses not to act.”
“Having students working independently or collaboratively for extended periods of time allows us to see what our students are capable of and allows us to intervene if they’re off track. In the flipped classroom model, productive work periods are at the center—where students work on practicing skills and completing labs, tests, and assignments during scheduled class time.”
“Adam Grant’s essay highlights the importance of accountability but goes too far in dismissing effort. While effort doesn’t guarantee success, it’s the foundation for becoming the best student or colleague we can be. Effort is the one thing we can control. Instead of panning it, let’s revere it as the key to growth and resilience.”
“After Djokovic said he was quitting, Vajda asked, “Why did you start playing this sport?” Vajda immediately sensed what the problem was: Djokovic was focusing too much on rankings, records, titles, and external expectations… As Djokovic thought about Vajda’s question, he thought about how many of his earliest childhood memories include his “most beloved toy”—a mini tennis racket and a soft foam ball. He started playing tennis, answering Vajda’s question, “because I just really loved holding that racket in my hand.” “Do you still love holding a racket in your hand?” Vajda asked. Djokovic thought about it for a few seconds, got excited, and said: “I do.”
“Their findings? Games like The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild… and Minecraft can significantly enhance cognitive escapism (offering a mental break from everyday life), promote relaxation, and improve overall mental well-being.”
“The Tulsa Race Massacre of 1921, in which a prosperous Black neighborhood in Oklahoma was destroyed and up to 300 people were killed, was not committed by an uncontrolled mob but was the result of “a coordinated, military-style attack” by white citizens, the Justice Department said in a report released Friday.”
“We must make a distinction between a policy of institutional neutrality and a policy concerning when and whether public statements are issued. Princeton’s president, Christopher L. Eisgruber, has wisely rejected institutional neutrality but articulated a policy of “institutional restraint” in issuing public statements. An institution may embrace and articulate key values, but it need not comment on every significant global issue.”
“The harder we strive to give kids what we think they need (more practices and games! more rehearsals! more tutoring! more fun!), the less we’re giving kids what they actually need—more unstructured play time, more solitude, more sleep, more in-person time with family and close friends, more leisurely afternoons to read a book or hang out on park swings.”
“6. Secondary-school pedagogy, part 1: It was only in the 1960s that the first guides to “close reading” for secondary school teachers began to appear. A 1968 study of high school classrooms worried that the “‘bloodless’ exercises in the close reading of a work . . . were completely removed from literature, life, or anything of meaning to students.” The authors of the study attributed “the inadequate attention devoted to close reading in our nation’s schools” to “heavy teaching load[s]”—in fact, they concluded that “one of the most important findings” was “the discovery that sustained attention to close reading may be possible only when teaching loads are reduced to permit adequate preparation.””
“She was a novice cartographer who landed a dream assignment: to create an atlas of the setting of “The Hobbit” and “The Lord of the Rings.””
In this week’s short AI Update, find two excellent features: First, for an overview of the big stories in AI from 2024, peruse Claire Zau’s lengthy (but segmented) round up of stories from across the AI/Education sector: from technological developments to moments that spread across the public consciousness and more.
For a more practical view, explore the AI Edu Pathways post for first hand reports on how professors have used AI transcripts as objects for evidence of learning. What questions do students ask to generate strong outcomes? How do they critically assess and follow up on the work produced by AI? And crucially: how do the instructors manage the process of assigning and reviewing this kind of work?
Elsewhere, find a few posts on emerging legal questions, new use cases for AI, and one instructional designer’s experience using generative AI as practice students, so she can try out some of her work on simulated students before engaging with actual students in class.
These and more, enjoy!
Peter
“It’s evident that AI is not just advancing technology – it’s prompting fundamental questions about society and humanity. The questions we face aren't just technical but deeply human: how do we harness AI's potential while preserving what makes us uniquely human? How do we ensure this technology creates equal access to the future for ALL?”
“One promising solution is evaluating student interactions with AI. This concept has faced some skepticism due to workload and feasibility concerns. Transcripts can, after all, be quite long. But those concerns represent a misconception regarding the approach itself.”
Copyright
Every week I send out articles I encounter from around the web. Subject matter ranges from hard knowledge about teaching to research about creativity and cognitive science to stories from other industries that, by analogy, inform what we do as educators. This breadth helps us see our work in new ways.
Readers include teachers, school leaders, university overseers, conference organizers, think tank workers, startup founders, nonprofit leaders, and people who are simply interested in what’s happening in education. They say it helps them keep tabs on what matters most in the conversation surrounding schools, teaching, learning, and more.
– Peter Nilsson