Nate

@jessenathaniel

Black. Special Education administrator. Holding fast to the belief that education and restorative justice can meet the political moment. Committed to racial justice inside & outside of school.

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Nate@jessenathaniel· 7d

I love this framework for understanding classroom interactions because it’s very much what I aspired for as a teacher: to co-construct a communal *language* to describe concepts. Obviously there are core ideas to teach, but meaning (and value) is based on our collective experience with the ideas.

“Everything said is said by someone
Humberto Maturana's deep truth, everything said is said by someone (1987), brings the teacher back into the foreground. Whenever we read a text, it has been written by someone.
Whenever we hear an explanation, it has been said by someone. Whenever we browse a diagram, it has been developed by someone.

Whether it be a human or a machine, content doesn't exist by itself "out there". The content is always expressed in a language or form that is particular to someone and their history of sensemaking.

Accordingly, two teachers could teach the same content but provoke different outcomes from their students despite the same standardised curriculum. One, for example, may have spent much of their career in industry and another in academia. Each will approach that content and talk about it in ways deeply influenced by their lived experiences and resulting perceptions.”

“Everything said is said to someone

Maturana's first principle, that everything said is said by someone, was later complemented by his good friend Heinz von Foerster: everything said is said to someone (Foerster 2002, 283). He was worried that Maturana's deep truth could prompt, erroneously, the kind of thinking I've described about discovery teaching.
"The decisive point", he said, "is always the being-together." (Foerster et al. 2014, 158).

Both von Foerster and Maturana were pioneers of contemporary enactive cognitive science. And with their two principles, the loop between teachers and students begins to close. It's not a case of a teacher gathering prepackaged concepts and simply transmitting them, nor a student independently constructing concepts in their minds. Instead, it's an acting-together in which both must adapt to the other's moves (Figure 3).”

Nate@jessenathaniel· 7d

This is heartbreaking…but every time I read these articles I come back to the idea of AI as an accelerant on an increasingly transactional system further undermined by a perfect storm of other factors (eg poor job market, residual pandemic effects, addictive social media, tech fetishism, etc, etc)..

“Several faculty members pointed to the absurdity of trying to teach students who don't seem to want to learn. If they re
outsourcing their reading and writing,
"they're not learning the skills I'm trying to teach them," said Paul Robichaud, a professor of English at Albertus Magnus College, including how to think about what they read and how to revise their writing through drafts. Even as his students get cleverer about hiding their use of AI, he believes a majority of them do use it — whether they're first-year students in a writing class or senior humanities majors in a seminar.

"It starts to feel like it's just kind of a game, a game of make believe," Robichaud said.

Five years ago, he thought he would retire at age 63 or 65. Now at 54, he says he can't imagine holding on for another 10 years.”

“We become academics to read and research and teach and write about the things we care about, and the students have traditionally been part of that enterprise," Robichaud said.

"It's increasingly feeling like fewer and fewer are willing to join in."

Tricia Noone, 60, a principal lecturer in sociology at Georgia Southern University's Savannah campus, said that if shed won the lottery 10 years ago, she would have kept working because she loved teaching so much.

Now, she said, Al is the primary factor pushing her to retire sooner rather than later.

About half of Noone's courses are in person, and the other half are online, where it's even harder to keep students from cheating with Al. She estimates that she reads about 3,000 pieces of student writing a year and said that it's obvious when students copy and paste from Al.“

Nate@jessenathaniel· 16d

Anyway, the comment is validating and I am hoping things will even out a bit this year as we move forward as a team with a collective vision. It’s also a good reminder of an adage bandied about quite a bit in education circles about how people remember you.

A black and white sketch of a wreath with the following quote in the middle: “People will forget what you said. People will forget what you did. But people will never forget how you made them feel.”

Nate@jessenathaniel· Jul 11

Just started reading Zaretta Hammond’s “Rebuilding Students' Learning Power” this week and this page has really stuck with me as as a persistent challenge in my building. There’s a lot of talk about the transactional nature of school, but this specific sub-problem is particularly maddening…

The highlighted portion of the text reads: “The report stated that, on average, 71 percent of students complete their assignments, meaning they complete the assigned task and hand it in to the teacher. But when those same assignments are graded against content standards, only 17 percent of those students did the work at a proficient enough level to hit percent of those students did the work at a proficient enough level to hit the assignment's learning target (Figure 1.1).”

Nate@jessenathaniel· Jun 9

Really enjoyed this framing of teaching as leading intellectual play. This goes beyond just knowing your content area or being passionate about it — it’s about a love of exploring the thing with others who are encountering it with fresh eyes. davidlabaree.com/2026/06/08/m...

“Intellectual play is less like a modern sporting event and more like those endless playground games of tag and Wiffle ball you played as a kid. It is a social mode of inquiry propelled by boundless curiosity and a healthy skepticism.
Play prevents thinkers and the institutions they inhabit from becoming rooted, fixed, and dull. As Richard Hofstadter put it long ago in Anti-Intellectualism in American Life, "Whatever the intellectual is too certain of, if he is healthily playful, he begins to find unsatisfactory. The meaning of his intellectual life lies not in the possession of truth but in the quest for new uncertainties."
An undergraduate education must facilitate this kind of slow thinking and its playfulness.
It is through play, not painful reps at the intellectual gym, that we do the crucial pedagogical work of teaching our students how to think with both creativity and rigor. It is through play that we are invited to embrace the messy, circuitous, and experimental nature of human curiosity. When professors play as intellectuals, we introduce our students to one of the most valuable gifts we have to offer: the pleasure of the life of the mind.”

Nate@jessenathaniel· Jun 2

I just stumbled upon this article after reading a blog post of the same name and it speaks to something I’ve felt deeply in my first year with a leadership title: we don’t do nearly enough to support, develop, and promote organic leaders in schools. And, of course, they’re exactly who schools need.

“More recently, Chomsky (2003) described "the basic institutional role and function of the schools" as providing "an ideological service: there's a real selection for obedience and conformity" (pp. 27-28). And it is precisely through this selection process that people ascend to positions of educational leadership, making the entire concept so comical in light of so much documented compliance.
My point here is not to discredit Miller's description of the Broad Foundation's role in educational reform. We should all be concerned. However, as Illich argued, we must "abstain from romanticism, any kind of romanticism, in order to be able to face the kind of society we live in and have created, in order to be able, but barely able, to bear the anguish of looking at it" (Cayley, 1992,
p. 142). In the end, I fear that Miller winds up inadvertently defending a status quo that he simultaneously critiques.
Beyond Leadership as a Title
We need to spend more energy moving beyond our traditional, institutionally determined definition of leadership as something measured in terms of someone's position within a hierarchy. Our thoughts on leadership must begin from the perennial question, How do I lead a life worth living? Notice how this question shifts the locus of authority. You must lead you! You must be the author of your own life's narrative, which helps us identify the ultimate source of authority.
Our approach to leadership must honor the value of auton-omy, the fundamental autonomy of the individual to lead his or her life. This is where authentic leadership begins—in leading and authoring our lives. This approach sets us at odds with the dominant institutions of our age—the institutions of capitalism. By their very nature, those institutions deny the autonomy of individuals that provides the basis of any meaningful notion of freedom and any meaningful notion of political equality.”

Nate@jessenathaniel· Jun 1

This was a good read as a reflect on my first year in an admin role … definitely captures element of my own path, especially this part…

“Solutions + Action = Leadership
Early in my career, I noticed some colleagues were "idea people." They could name every issue in the district but weren't willing to roll up their sleeves to fix them.
Administration isn't for idea people alone-it's for solution-oriented doers. If you're the kind of teacher who not only identifies a challenge but also drafts an action plan, rallies support, and collaborates with others to make it happen, that's leadership DNA.
Schools need more of that at the decisionmaking table.”

Nate@jessenathaniel· May 23

Just to fully cite sources: the reporter who originally published the I-Ready story is the one who reported that Ss with higher literacy needs would receive more I-Ready time (via the bird app)

“UPDATE: LAUSD is changing how it uses i-Ready -- the district confirmed to me that from now on, *only* students who are below grade level will have to use i-Ready's weekly personalized lessons

Previously, most LA schools required *all* kids to use it, often for up to 90 min/wk”

Nate@jessenathaniel· May 17

Wow that’s a powerful (and heartbreaking) read—I’d never quite connected those dots in that way, but it all makes sense. Related to the idea of tension between home and school identity, this point about dialect and phonological awareness is really underrated…and one reason AI & literacy don’t mix.

“Recommending phonological training for children she then states, "and the ethnicity differences turn out to be all in the phonological area and with African American differences in language." She adds that these differences can be eliminated in a year with "good phonological awareness training."
The negative implications of requiring Black children to speak Standard English (often referred to as Mainstream American English or
MAE) are multifaceted, affecting their cognitive development, academic success, and psychological well-being.
African American English (AAE) is a legitimate, rule-governed language system that is often framed as "inferior" or "unintelligent," contributing to a raciolinguistic ideology that disproportionality places Black students in remedial or special education classes. The rejection of their home language takes a heavy emotional toll and medical research documents
that a high proportion of Black students experiencing anxiety and depression.
Foorman talks of "eliminating ethnicity differences from later reading results." And in this context, she tells the Governor's Business…”

“…Council about her own experiences of phonological confusion. She says that she had never heard of "fixin' to go" when she moved to Houston.
"It took me five years," Foorman said, "and I was right there being a good Texan with my southeast Texas dialect. And Houston was an interesting place to study. There are a lot of people from Detroit and New Jersey and all over the place and native Texans, and I always have a native Texan on my research project because they need to tell me that r-e-a-l on my word list is pronounced rill r-i-l-l. I need that person to help me."
Inadvertently Foorman provides a cogent argument for why phonological reading instruction is a problematic.
"And teachers need to know these things,"
Foorman told the Texas Business Council as she continues sounding slightly incoherent. "They need to know that 'Gee, I sound different possibly to my child' or 'I can't understand what that child is saying. I need to understand that child's language. If you can't understand each other in the classroom, you have a big problem teaching reading."

Nate@jessenathaniel· May 15

This is something that I’ve prided myself on as an educator, but struggle to articulate. Far too often, “code switching” becomes a gateway to toxic respectability politics because people reject a student’s whole *identity* as inherently bad. Identity confluence is what we should be aiming for IMHO

“I strongly criticize efforts to push students into new identities based on deficit understandings of Indigenous and minoritized students. If a student portrays herself or himself as a type of gangster, a hip-hop person-alicy, or even an athlete—all student identities that were disparaged or rejected by some teachers in this study-the identities should be embraced. In fact, I argue that no Indigenous or community-based identity should prevent teachers from teaching (and humanizing) minoritized students. School leaders, though, are responsible for promoting a school context that embraces all minoritized student identities, and they must push back against teachers who demonstrate an intolerance of any students. At UAHS, Joe did not disparage student identities, nor did he allow his teachers to do so.
Rather, he pushed himself and his teachers to construct a school environment that would encourage academic behaviors along with all other student identities." CRSL behaviors that support and humanize identity confluence have several integral components:
1. Understanding your own history and epistemological bias. This is a necessary first step because otherwise you will not be able to understand how you are oppressing minoritized identities, especially if they are different from yours.
2. Centering children above yourself; preventing your fears, feelings, disagreements, and emotions (etc.) from arresting this work. This has been one of the major inhibitors to doing culturally responsive work; leaders and staff almost instinctively first tend to their own feelings, and thus end up marginalizing the treatment of minoritized students.
3. Distinguishing between identity and behaviors. Embrace all student identities, but recognize that some behaviors (such as…” (continued on next screenshot).

(Continued from previous screenshot) “…smoking) are harmful for students. Gain wide community and student support on what those behaviors are in order to discourage them. Behaviors linked to identity-—such as dress, lan-guage, mannerisms, interactions with others-should not be penalized (via policy or shaming).
4. Humanizing minoritized identities. Understand that to acp some identities (e.g., White, middle-class, docile, etc.) while rejecting others (Black, gangster, street, etc. is bigorry and is an act of violence. Minoritized student identities must be treated with the same respect, honor, belongingness, and inclusiveness as all other identities, within all school activities.
5. Learning the "funds of knowledge" from minoritized identi-ties. As school leaders shift from being schoolcentric to being community-centric, and as they center minoritized student identities in the school, they must be intentional about how this happens. Community members and students should be the only source for this recentering. Schools have to find ways to learn Indigenous and ancestral knowledge, and then (a) offer distinct cultural studies courses and (b) weave this Indigenous/ ancestral knowledge throughout all aspects of schooling, including policy making
HUMANIZING STUDENTS. Humanizing students is connected to iden-bity confluence in that they both accept the Indigenous identity of students, but identity confluence is concerned with adding positive academic behaviors to the ways that students already view them-selves, or self-identify. Dehumanization of minoritized students is connected to historical oppression that predates the establishment of US schools. In other words, it is deeply connected to histories of settler colonialism, and the exploitation of Indigenous peoples and lands. The works of scholars like Grosfoguel and Mielants and Mi-gnolo suggest that European colonization models have contributed.”

Nate@jessenathaniel· May 13

Whole article is good for anyone interested in not only adaptive assessment platforms in particular or ed tech implementation in general…and I find this part especially infuriating. This is about human learning — we have to consider qualitative learning experiences with the quantitative data

“In Anchorage, where Petersen tutors children in math, the school district agreed in 2020 to pay $6.75 million for i-Ready over seven years.
Petersen is unimpressed with the software, which doesn't allow students to show their work, and she said many students don't take it seriously, which makes the data useless.

"They push the volume all the way down, and then they just start pushing buttons until the screen will change for them," Petersen said.

"They're not learning anything."
Corey Allen Young, a spokesman for the Anchorage School District, said administrators
"observed positive trends" in students' math proficiency on standardized assessments since purchasing i-Ready. "Based on these outcomes, ASD plans to continue using i-Ready as part of its math instructional program," he said.

Nate@jessenathaniel· Apr 26

Given all the school closure talk around the state of California right now, I found this podcast ep really refreshing. But this part in particular about how ominous the word “efficiency” is has broader significance that we should be wary of / rejecting podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/t...

“Exactly, if you hear efficiency consultant, this is the time to get out the vote, right? And think about who your school board members are.
Because we've got to start recognizing these downstream factors, so that we can fight those, so we don't get to a place where we are on the eve of a closure trying to save the school.
Because honestly, like that's a really hard place to be. We'd be much more effective if we're working five years out.
lappreciate that. That's a note to myself, to pay attention early and often about the conversation that's happening around many of these schools.
Yes. He'd be very mindful of efficiency, under-enrolled, right-sizing, academic failure. All of those are code, or at least the seeds that could eventually grow into bigger closure…”

Nate@jessenathaniel· Apr 16

This article captures a lot of what I’ve been thinking about this year in terms of reducing (student AND teacher) tech use. My current position, drawing on John Wooden’s wisdom: we often mistake tech engagement for academic achievement instead of evaluating the value added. But key points here:

From the Edutopia article quoted by this post: “My concerns echo the research and arguments in Jared Cooney Horvath's new book, The Digital Delusion: How Classroom Technology Harms Our Kids' Learning-and How to Help Them Thrive Again L, one of the most affirming and influential works I've read in years. Drawing on extensive research, he shows that when students use technology to learn— especially without clear guidance— they may demonstrate progress with the tool in the moment, but engage less deeply and retain less over time, and struggle to transfer any gains to other environments.”

From the Edutopia article quoted by this post:

“‘I am not telling you it's going to be easy. I am telling you it's going to be worth it.’
That sign, which adorns my classroom wall, reflects what I'm trying to protect from the lure of increasingly convenient shortcuts. Horvath affirmed my view, especially that students should not use tools to avoid cognitive work. I tell my students that I'm not anti-technology, but that real learning demands attention, ettort, and productive struggle—a message I return to often when we discuss classroom technology.
‘Go to the gym. Working out is not fun,’ Horvath said. ‘Being done working out is a... blast. The hour you're working out is just misery.’
Neither Horvath nor I want students to feel miserable in the classroom.
Learning can be fun, even joyful, but enjoyment is not the primary goal.
The goal is growth, which requires effort.”

Nate@jessenathaniel· Apr 13

Something I’ve been grappling with this year as we’ve all been figuring out the role of AI, canned curriculum, and SoR is how to help teachers see the job as an intellectual activity vs. mere content delivery…docents vs couriers, if you will. I loved this framing and will hold on to it:

“To be fair, literary analysis is important. Close reading, as a technique and practice, is an important thinking skill to model and teach in school. Josie Barboriak, writing in The New Critic, puts is beautifully. Students need to learn how to critique.

“To criticize properly is to show the process of judgment as available to another person, to cultivate a reflective and critical attitude - to
struggle with what we like. This means we should ask more of our readers. A more Socratic model of the critic is one with faith that judgment can be taught. A good teacher can think with you, and a good critic invites you into the practice of judging with them.”

“The critic with this attitude towards the reader understands the connections between teaching good reading, good thinking, and good writing. Close-reading, allowing oneself to be affected by a text, understanding why they are affected by it, and wrestling with the text's ideas, leads (by mediation of this stilted form) to the good thinking which can become that writing which truly is good.”

Nate@jessenathaniel· Apr 12

At the intersection of Bowling Alone/Join or Die and Glaude’s work (Begin Again + the History Is US podcast) is the foundation for a really rich discussion about what a high school social studies curriculum should look like; these three questions central to Join or Die could be central that. (3/7)

Nate@jessenathaniel· Apr 12

I made a commitment to read more in 2026 and finished Begin Again by Eddie S. Glaude this week. I then coincidentally watched Join or Die on Netflix about Robert Putnam’s Bowling Alone (a classic!), which Glaude is featured in. Good food for thought about how we talk about our own history (🧵 1/x)

Image is of a description of the Netflix documentary, “JOIN or DIE”:

“In this Emmy-nominated feature documentary, follow the half-century story of America's civic unraveling through the journey of legendary social scientist Robert Putnam, whose groundbreaking "Bowling Alone" research into America's decades-long decline in community connections could hold the answers to our democracy's present crisis.

“Flanked by influential fans and scholars - from Priya Parker, Pete Buttigieg, and Surgeon General Vivek Murthy to Jane McAlevey, Hillary Clinton, and Eddie Glaude Jr. — as well as inspiring groups building community in neighborhoods across the country, join Bob as he explores three urgent civic questions: What makes democracy work? Why is American democracy in crisis? And, most importantly...What can we do about it?”

Nate@jessenathaniel· Apr 11

Although Noguera explicitly states he isn’t arguing for a moratorium on all ed tech, he really seems to be making a pretty good argument for it here … … and I’ve definitely been thinking about what some sort of “reset” for students AND teachers might look like … thehill.com/opinion/educ...

“This is not an argument against the use of education technology. During the pandemic, millions of students relied heavily on virtual learning platforms to facilitate access to education while schools and colleges were closed. This is just one of many positive examples of how technology can be used well.

“However, in its aftermath, some schools rely upon screens for most aspects of learning, even for children as young as five. One-to-one screen availability has been heralded as an achievement, but we have no awareness of how student learning and socialization may be affected by prolonged screen time.

“Schools and colleges are rapidly embracing Al as though they are in a race, with little understanding of how it will impact the quality of learning experiences. Many students are already using many of these tools and are often more adept with them than their teachers, who are also using them. Meanwhile, tech companies actively market their services and tools, and sometimes even give their products away for free, in the hope that such investments will lead to further penetration of the education market in the future.”

“Computer scientist Cal Newport has demonstrated that many ed tech tools are undermining our ability to concentrate and think deeply. We need more research and feedback from practitioners to assess the impact of ed tech tools on learning before they are widely adopted and implemented.

“The education sector helped create the social media crisis by looking the other way as kids became addicted to screens. We now have an opportunity, and an obligation, not to repeat these kinds of mistakes with artificial intelligence. Let's proceed thoughtfully, with an awareness that our future is at stake.”

“Pedro Noguera is dean of the USC Rossier School of Education.”

Nate@jessenathaniel· Apr 1

This is exactly the kind of scenario that an adolescent is particularly susceptible to … and from my vantage point working in mental health/special ed, I’m way less concerned about the incidence rate than the devastating impact on families it will affect.

“But the question this research struggles to answer is this: Do the delusions tend to originate from the person or the Al?

"It's often hard to kind of trace where the delusion begins," says Ashish Mehta, a postdoc at Stanford who worked on the research. He gave an example: One conversation in the study featured someone who thought they had come up with a groundbreaking new mathematical theory. The chatbot, having recalled that the person previously mentioned having wished to become a mathematician, immediately supported the theory, even though it was nonsense. The situation spiraled from there.

“Delusions, Mehta says, tend to be "a complex network that unfolds over a long period of time." He's conducting follow-up research aiming to find whether delusional messages from chatbots or those from people are more likely to lead to harmful outcomes.”

Nate@jessenathaniel· Mar 29

I really want to zero in on this aspect of this piece: a lot of adults cling to tech assuming that they’re meeting students where they’re at technologically, but that is increasingly not the case. More and more adolescents express sentiments like the ones here — WE need to let go.

“She is also revisiting years-old school tech decisions.

In 2016, as part of the national trend, administrators at McPherson decided to buy a $225 Chromebook for every middle schooler. Google had introduced the low-cost laptops five years earlier, with a pitch that the tech would help equalize learning opportunities and equip students with vital career skills.

"The individual use of Chromebooks is a way to empower students to maximize their full potential," the middle school's device policy explained in 2016.
School leaders were enthusiastic.
"The general idea was: Students are going to be more engaged because it's online — and how exciting for them!" Ms. Esping recalled.”

“Computer science classes promote purposeful tech use. In one recent lesson, students used Chromebooks to program sensors and LED lights.
"It's coding the physical world," said Courtney Klassen, the computing teacher.
"It's not just staring at the screen."
Some students have welcomed the changes.
Jade LeGron, 13, said curtailing
Chromebooks had been "super beneficial" because students had stopped fighting with teachers over video games and had less opportunity "to be mean to each other."
Sarah Garcia, also 13, said spending less time online had prompted students to talk more. "Since we don't have our
Chromebooks in front of our face, she said,
"most people now interact with their, like, peers and stuff"”

Nate@jessenathaniel· Mar 28

Let me preface this by acknowledging that CA gas is always more expensive than other places … and there was a place down the street from this like a dollar cheaper … … but with that said… WTF.

Picture of Chevron of gas prices at a Chevron gas station.

Regular: $6.29
Plus: $6.49
Supreme: $6.67
Diesel: $7.99

Nate@jessenathaniel· Mar 14

I’ve talked with multiple novice teachers (with varying levels of content knowledge) who really struggle with this idea. Part of the challenge: teaching is so messy that the very idea of *inviting* ambiguity into the classroom feels self-destructive. Again, so much of teaching is affective work.

Excerpt from the article: “What narrative structure will make the events memorable? History is not just a list of facts. Students need a causal story they can reconstruct: a sequence of events that makes sense, connects to prior knowledge, and remains stable in memory. The features that make such a narrative stick, such as coherence, causation or vivid particular, is a design problem quite different from definitional clarity. Engelmann does not address narrative architecture.”

Nate@jessenathaniel· Feb 28

I know nothing about Alaskan politics, but this sadly echoes what’s been going on in California, across the nation and even across professions … “You cannot have a world-class system when your leaders treat people like a disposable commodity or are actively working to destroy it.”

“We wanted to stay and help build the world-class education system
our leaders love to talk about. But you cannot have a world-class system when your leaders treat people like a disposable commodity or are actively working to destroy it.

We are the products of Alaska public schools and eagerly enrolled our kids in Anchorage public schools. All we have ever wanted, and all any of the thousands of families we have worked with over the
years have ever wanted, is a robust public school experience for our children like we had growing up — one in which they have teachers who are experienced, feel supported and want to stay their entire career in one community and retire with security; schools with electives like art and music; and extracurriculars like sports…”

Nate@jessenathaniel· Feb 24

People say all the time that budgets reflect values. When the public institutions responsible in large part for the welfare of our society’s children are facing a fiscal scenario this bleak, what does that say about our society’s values?

“Stevens, the fact finder, found that the district could not afford OEA's full wage demands and still retain its required minimum of 3% in reserves. But she found that the district's offer "will not improve OUSD's standing when compared to... neighboring districts" and won't allow teachers to keep up with rising costs of living in the Bay Area.
The fact-finding report noted that due to declining enrollment, the district's revenues have decreased from year to year. During the 2024-2025 school year, OUSD received $9 million less in state
funding than it did the previous school year. Spending exceeded revenues by more than $61 million that school year, causing the district to deplete more than half of its reserves. The report clarifies that OUSD cannot use its reserves to pay for raises.”

Nate@jessenathaniel· Feb 22

Exactly … Not only are the people pushing these ideas completely out of touch with the reality of schooling, but they’re obviously afraid that the ideas they espouse simply wouldn’t stand up to even minimal scrutiny. We shouldn’t all have to suffer from their paranoid delusions …

Nate@jessenathaniel· Feb 22

“… it forces practitioners to be data-deferent rather than data-driven.” I love this framing—puts words to something I’ve always felt. Data deference forces a narrowing of our focus in a messy human ecosystem containing TONS of data, quantitative & qualitative. We need to interpret ALL of that.

Text from the article linked in the quoted post:

“Conclusions/Recommendations:
Implementation leaders invoking research to inform practice can sometimes silence practitioners rather than foster their substantive involvement and understanding. This marginalizes certain types of knowledge that can contribute to understanding students' needs, and it forces practitioners to be data-deferent rather than data-driven. The concept of implementation fidelity also needs to be reconsidered —not as an absolute good but with the necessary flexibility afforded to practitioners who are (1) educated in the essential components of available interventions, (2) able to become fluent through practice, and (3) allowed to exercise their professional expertise and judgment as appropriate.”

Nate@jessenathaniel· Feb 20

I don’t think enough attention is being given to how and why strikes are spreading across California — yes, salaries don’t meet the cost of living, but charter schools have also just decimated public school populations to the point that districts can barely function. We can do better than this. 🤬

From an article titled, “West Contra Costa Teachers Are Set to Strike. Across the Bay Area, More Could Follow”:

“Currently, California ranks 16th in the country in terms of per-pupil education funding, but that drops to 31st when accounting for the cost of living.
"I think it's a shame that we're all stuck negotiating with our local districts for what the state gives," Meyer said. "But we do know that our district can spend its money more wisely and can prioritize and make an investment in educators."
In the spring, 32 unions, including West Contra Costa, San Francisco and Berkeley, joined a coordinated campaign by the California Teachers Association, dubbed "We Can't Wait," with the goals of increasing districts' spending on school sites and ultimately increasing state funding.”

Nate@jessenathaniel· Feb 19

Empower is one of those buzzwords that I sorta bristle at … but I love that statement otherwise!

Text from the article sloppily circled in yellow says: Education is more than the transfer of knowledge; it is an opportunity to empower all students to realize their fullest potential.”

The rest: “Encouraging students to create their own math word problems is a highly effective means to this end. This practice not only deepens their understanding of mathematical concepts but also promotes creativity, critical thinking, and the ability to apply math in real-world contexts. When students create their own problems, they engage more actively with the material, make meaningful connections to their lives, and gain confidence in their mathematical abilities.”

Nate@jessenathaniel· Feb 7

I listen to these podcasts because I really do find learning sciences research interesting… but, while I think this is super vivid framing, I have two arguments against thinking of teaching and learning in this way… (🧵 1/8) podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/c...

“He has this fantastic insight about how learning, I mean, we're talking about math, but sometimes I feel like math is just a good metaphor for all the other subjects, but when you're climbing up a mountain, the higher you go and you look back down, you make sense of the journey you've been on so far more clearly than when you were on it at the time, so you might be in a bit of a gully and like thinking, why are we here?
Well, where are we going?
What's all this for? And you see from above, you go, oh, l get it. That's where we were.”

“Now it all makes sense. And sometimes you have to support students through that period of uncertainty, trusting the fact that in your sense of the way the
curriculum progresses, they'll reach a point where it'll all land, it'll all make much more sense later, but not just yet. I think the tolerance of some ambiguity around nailing total understanding, it can sometimes be a false promise.
They're not going to fully understand it yet. Later, you'll see how things like Pythagoras and trig overlap and work together…”

Nate@jessenathaniel· Jan 19

This is an undeniable truth to me. And it’s a way better guiding principle for students should learn in schools than any bad faith censorship-driven approach conservatives have pushed. If they truly believed in the merit of your ideas about the nation, they wouldn’t fear counter-narratives so much.

“Stevenson insists that the goal of the Legacy Museum is not to present Alabama as irredeemably racist or forever entrapped by its past. Alabama is a state that he loves. It is his home. He believes it can be different in the future, but not if people turn away from the past. "I don't think slavery should define Alabama," he said. "And if we have the courage to talk about it honestly, it won't. But we can't not talk about it and have a proper understanding of who we are.”

Nate@jessenathaniel· Jan 19

I’ve long thought this is the best way forward: creating grade level lists and requiring schools choose at least one while giving teachers the freedom to supplement. But given how these debates go, I also sometimes wonder if grade level themes/essential q’s w/suggestions is the way to go.