Such a difficult balance. Forever balancing.
Such a difficult balance. Forever balancing.
The most dangerous story we tell in schools is that joy is seasonal that “serious work” requires emotional coldness once the decorations come down. We treat this energy as a Christmas novelty that can’t survive a grey Tuesday in February.
That story is a lie. The students who sang their hearts out in December haven’t changed by March. Their need for connection didn’t expire on New Year’s Day. Enthusiasm isn’t a reaction to a good day; it’s the tool you use to build one. If we want to bottle that energy for the bleakest months of the year, we have to treat it as a deliberate professional skill.
Hot Mess Soup - by Adrian Neibauer - Adrian’s Newsletter
Teaching has always been a both/and. Teaching is both an inspiring profession and a challenging career. Teaching is both a calling and a job. Teaching is both an impossible struggle and inherently joyful. Teaching is both rewarding and exasperating. And so the challenge becomes how can I move into the space between hot mess soup and the best school year ever? Instead of burying my head in the sand until June, how can I embrace my responsibilities while navigating the absurdity of this school year?
I’ve kept unreading this in my feed reader so that I can read it properly. Finally got it down with a coffee in McDonalds at 6am. I need to read it again though.
Is there a shortcut for getting the categories to appear in the Micro.blog app?
It’s a little too much friction to click ‘view > categories’ is all. Just me?
Not your typical James Hoffman coffee but really well done!
What is formative assessment, and why should anybody care? With professor Dylan Wiliam. .
Listened to this this morning on my walk. Probably should now listen to it again with my notebook to record things I wanted to record.
Assault bike
50 calories 3:10
40 calories 2:50
30 calories 2:00
20 calories 1:19
10 calories 0:29
Rest 1:1 between sets. As the work needed to be done got smaller so did the rest, but fatigue accumulated. Interesting to see the workout in my heart rate. Shorter periods of a very high heart rate and less recovery between them.
Just as children ask why, why, why, you can repeat the question “why do I think/feel/believe this?” a few times. What plops onto the page may surprise you. So too will the headspace that clears from pouring out the canned spaghetti of unconnected thoughts.
52 things I learned in 2025. | by Tom Whitwell | Dec, 2025 | Medium
SO many interesting things. Definitely worth a scroll.
Today, I often think about what could be arbitraged, what could be brokered, and how we could regain our attention from the black mirrors in our hands.
The Average child – by Mike Buscemi
I don’t cause teachers’ trouble;
My grades have been okay.
I listen in my classes.
I’m in school every day.
My teachers think I’m average;
My parents think so too.
I wish I didn’t know that, though;
There’s lots I’d like to do.
’Cause, since I found I’m average,
I’m smart enough you see
To know there’s nothing special
I should expect of me.
I’m part of that majority,
That hump part of the bell,
Who spends his life unnoticed
In an average kind of hell.
The unsettling truth is that these points of friction, these mundane things, are actually what give us purpose.
Add Friction Back Into Your Life | Steve’s Bear Blog ʕ º ᴥ ºʔ
Predator or Host? - by Jessica Hagy - This Week’s Top Ten
Every holiday party, get-together, meet-up, and sit-down holds the potential to be either a scene from a horror film or a feel-good Hallmark movie meet-cute. The difference lies in how you host your guests. They can be afraid, VERY AFRAID, or they can feel comfortably at home. Up to you. Entirely up to you. A few examples:
In the first minute row 1 calorie.
In the second minute row 2 calories.
In the 3rd minute 3.
And so on until you are unable to complete the calories in 1 minute.
Such an interesting workout. The early roads are almost boring but then it suddenly it starts to pick up and you’re getting less time to rest each time. Obviously it’s cumulative so each round quickly adds up.
Really happy to beat my previous score of completing the round of 20. At the end your rest is 0 and you’re just going pretty hard. This time I got 18 calories into the round of 21. So am obviously annoyed I couldn’t finish 21. Next time!
all that worry past
leaving only a hole, and
no life to fill it
Novelty chalk bags for the kids since we’ve been getting into bouldering recently. I think I did not realise how big the red panda would be.
No Sir I replied:
I am feeling too good
to report to work today,
Telephone Booth (number 905 1/2) by Pedro Pietri • Read A Little Poetry
Whiskey and guns
Do we want young people to think critically and speak their minds, or do we mainly want them to think like us?
Had this stuck in my head today.
Why do coffeeshops, book covers, office buildings, and YouTube thumbnails all look the same? “People are less weird than they used to be. We’re in a recession of mischief, a crisis of conventionality, and an epidemic of the mundane. Deviance is on the decline. Creativity is just deviance put to good use. It, too, seems to be decreasing.”
The real deadline isn’t when AI outsmarts us — it’s when we stop using our own minds.
Wordle 1,576 6/6
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Trevor chats with the audience after the show
Enjoyed this a lot, so much that after sending it to a friend I’m currently watching it again. Made me laugh and think too.
Saudi Comedy Festival, Charlie Kirk - Between the Scenes - YouTube
I’m not sure how I’m as invested as I am in this series, but here we are. It’s taken me a while to get through this one but now I have a decision. To wait for the next book or sign up to the Patreon to read the book as the author writes it…
Finished reading: This Inevitable Ruin by Matt Dinniman 📚