iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Andrew Simmons @adlsimmons.bsky.social · 9h

I'm working on an article about teachers who bring guests into the classroom to serve as visiting experts, judges, audiences, and more. I'd love to chat with any public or private school educators who make this practice part of their pedagogy. Please feel free to message me here.

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Andrew Simmons @adlsimmons.bsky.social · 10/06/2026

Yesterday, I heard a sports podcaster disdainfully characterize him as "performative". It speaks to the current notion that all documented public acts = curated for image. Would it be less performative if, instead of sketching Hamlet, he prayed at a local church or did business meetings for a brand?

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Andrew Simmons @adlsimmons.bsky.social · 30/05/2026

My eloquent students are featured in a NYT video this morning. Justin, Daniella, and Cherise are heroes of Lit 12 and Journalism. They have magnificent aurae and participate in class discussions without trying to intellectually mog anyone. Young people to watch, for sure.

nytimes.com

Video: Can California Convince Teens to Work in Construction?

Facing an uncertain job market and the looming threat of A.I., graduating high school seniors in America’s tech capital are increasingly rethinking their career plans. Job demand in fields like constr...

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Andrew Simmons @adlsimmons.bsky.social · 02/05/2026

For volume 50 of my under-optimized newsletter on teaching in dark days, I write about how teen AI adoption hinges on loneliness and that a bot is the worst buddy a kid could have.

open.substack.com

50. More Human Than Human (Sycophantic, Overconfident, and Nosy)

A bot is a kid's worst friend...

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Andrew Simmons @adlsimmons.bsky.social · 23/03/2026

For profit-averse newsletter #49, my sloppy conversation-with-myself about teaching English in grim times, I discuss my favorite 2025 film The Secret Agent and the idea of modeling "small-h heroism" in class.

open.substack.com

49. Let’s All Go to the Lobby

History, small-h heroism, memory, The Secret Agent, Judy Hopps, a box of Whoppers, and a keg-sized soda cup filled with ice and everything carbonated…

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Andrew Simmons @adlsimmons.bsky.social · 05/03/2026

Hello! I am reporting an article for a national publication about the challenge and value of teaching writing conventions and proofreading. I’d like to interview high school English teachers at both public and private institutions! Shoot me a message if you're interested.

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Andrew Simmons @adlsimmons.bsky.social · 11/02/2026

Last week, I wrote for @edutopia.org about teachers coping with too many software licenses for products that feel inconsistently useful, weaving my own experiences into a reported piece.

edutopia.org

Have Teachers Reached App Overload?

Educators are overwhelmed by an avalanche of tools. The solution isn’t zero tech, but the question of balance is critical.

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Andrew Simmons @adlsimmons.bsky.social · 06/02/2026

Five years ago, I wrote about several students adding the image of an ape to a presentation about Black history (related to a unit on Kindred). The kids characterized it as a subversive "joke" and claimed, ironically, given the context, not to get why it was perceived as racist.

andrewsimmons.substack.com

6. Race to the Top

Updating the flow chart...

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Andrew Simmons @adlsimmons.bsky.social · 26/01/2026

In #48 of my newsletter about teaching high school in a depraved newsletter, with reflection on Minnesota and a trip down memory lane, I consider the allure of apathy for teens and express some optimism. Solidarity is the only path for the grievously disaffected!

open.substack.com

48. You Can Get With This, or You Can Get With That

The weekend crystallizes for teens a binary choice: bridge distance and take up the mantle of all-American solidarity or join the goons…

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Andrew Simmons @adlsimmons.bsky.social · 17/01/2026

I used #47 of my poorly optimized newsletter to reflect on a country trying to edit itself and its history as my students edit their writing and selves. From Minneapolis to national parks to 1984 to the writing process…

open.substack.com

47. Processin'

Revising the country, its history, one's self, and an essay...

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Andrew Simmons @adlsimmons.bsky.social · 08/12/2025

For #46 of my boutique newsletter dedicated to teaching English to teens in dark times, I share a medication-scrambled thought-vomit from Thanksgiving vacation: the next book for educators I just might write.

open.substack.com

46. From Kyoto, On Drugs: A Maybe-Book Stirs

How any class can make better communicators, planners, problem-solvers, and community members through journalism…

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Andrew Simmons @adlsimmons.bsky.social · 26/09/2025

Nothing is more fun (as a journalist) than (as a teacher) getting to speak with bright, reflective, serious educators about their work. I find journalistic curiosity and teaching practice satiated, two birds, one stone, and so forth.

edutopia.org

Tackling the Question of Character Development in the Classroom

Using texts, projects, and classroom policies, some English teachers encourage self-reflection and teach social responsibility.

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Andrew Simmons @adlsimmons.bsky.social · 12/09/2025

Have heard majoring in lit and theory doesn't prep one for conventional adult triumph but it helps when motivation for political violence can come from a closed loop of endlessly self-referential and ultimately post-ideological signs steps removed from meaning anyone not surfing said loop can infer.

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Andrew Simmons @adlsimmons.bsky.social · 25/07/2025

As Gatsby turns 100, a reported story I wrote for @edutopia.org in April concerns how high school English teachers are approaching the all-American American Dream unit.

edutopia.org

Reimagining the Classic American Dream Unit

How high school teachers across America are updating this foundational unit, 100 years after ‘Gatsby.’

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Andrew Simmons @adlsimmons.bsky.social · 13/07/2025

For #42, I write about why a classroom community rooted in love and care, at this point, should be teaching students of conscience to be lifelong haters.

open.substack.com

42. Come Down On the Side of Dissonance

With love, teach kids how to "hate."

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Andrew Simmons @adlsimmons.bsky.social · 14/04/2025

In #40, I see the cost of Very Cruel Times: an emotional devolution for teens in English class. Add this to increased AI-and-testing-driven skepticism about the value of learning to communicate with language and actually reading texts, and… open.substack.com/pub/andrewsi...

open.substack.com

40. Teens Tapdancing in the Tidepools of Moral Degeneracy

My students’ test scores go up! I’m more concerned about the holes in their souls. Somebody call David Brooks! I write about 4th grade, The Nickel Boys, Forrest Gump (again!), and MLK...

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Andrew Simmons @adlsimmons.bsky.social · 02/04/2025

Can’t tell you how many times I’ve said “I’m your huckleberry” when someone has offered a beer or a spot on a pickup basketball team or asked for a volunteer for some mundane task.

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Andrew Simmons @adlsimmons.bsky.social · 22/03/2025

Was just discussing with colleagues in my department, some of whom now only assign in-class writing using pencil and paper. I prefer doing digital publications, discussion forums, etc in my class but I also spend too much time being paranoid and determining authenticity instead of building skills.

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Andrew Simmons @adlsimmons.bsky.social · 25/02/2025

In teacher-vomit-diary #39, I liken the DOGE-ing of America to what happens when the most evolved versions of the high school boys who think reading is pointless get a giant hammer and free reign to use it on government.

andrewsimmons.substack.com

39. Hey, You Wanna Smash Some Fruit?

The schoolhouse is not far from what is happening with DOGE...

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Andrew Simmons @adlsimmons.bsky.social · 24/02/2025

I haven't put on a Bill Fay record in a bit but songs like "Pictures of Adolf Again" and "Be Not So Fearful" spin in my head every week. I tried to interview Fay once but he politely demurred, so I wrote this instead. Sad he's gone. His music suits this time. www.thebeliever.net/the-never-en...

thebeliever.net

The Never Ending Happening - Believer Magazine

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Andrew Simmons @adlsimmons.bsky.social · 15/02/2025

HS teacher take: dismantling of academic institutions’ power to innovate not only leaves a crater to be filled by tech (as it sees fit) but validates students’ sense that academics = frivolous and disconnected from real life and willingness to view AI as extension of the self not cheap avoidance.

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Andrew Simmons @adlsimmons.bsky.social · 05/02/2025

I’m writing a story for publication about the enduring life (or death) of the “American Dream” lit class unit. I want to know it looks like in high school classrooms in 2025. I’m looking to connect with high school teachers from every part of the country. Message me here, please!

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Andrew Simmons @adlsimmons.bsky.social · 28/01/2025

For the 38th installment of my criminally under-enjoyed newsletter on teaching in grim times, I finish an essay I started eight years ago. It’s about ejections, culture, community, and the oddest little charter school in Los Angeles.

open.substack.com

38. The World is Your Oyster (and Vampire)

...Sent to drain/Secret destroyers/Hold you up to the flames…A historical remembrance on elections, disruption, governance, and the weirdest little charter school in America...

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Andrew Simmons @adlsimmons.bsky.social · 21/12/2024

Child, 9: are you going to get more tattoos? Me: maybe Child, 9: what about a hippogriff from Harry Potter? Me: as you know I’m not really a fan, I mean… Child, 9 (rolling her eyes): fine, well, why not a Killers of the Flower Moon tattoo or whatever…”

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Andrew Simmons @adlsimmons.bsky.social · 18/11/2024

Teen hustle culture, AI, social media, and pandemic lessons have created a legion of current and future young voters who dismiss expertise, make choices without consideration of consequences, and valorize scams! That’s bad! We gotta help them fix their brains! This is my attempt to sort through it.

andrewsimmons.substack.com

36. All Occasions Indeed Inform Against Them

The pandemic, AI, social media, teen hustle culture, the allure of inexpertise, dang interestin' country ya got there be a real shame if something awful and unsurprising happened to it...

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Andrew Simmons @adlsimmons.bsky.social · 09/11/2024

Many former students are very angry at other former students for political choices. The lines are divided: those who did the reading in my class 2015-2023 and those who didn’t. Everyone grabbing at threads re why it turned out the way it did and this would be a great metric, lol.

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Andrew Simmons @adlsimmons.bsky.social · 28/09/2024

My 34th newsletter about teaching high school in doom times. For this issue, I consider the sudden and surprising loss of an old friend as I teach students literature about loss and renewal. andrewsimmons.substack.com/p/34-goodnig...

andrewsimmons.substack.com

34. Goodnight, Sweet Prince

Goon Squad, sentimentalism, eulogies, teaching the literature of loss in a state of grief...

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Andrew Simmons @adlsimmons.bsky.social · 18/06/2024

I wrote a SF Chron opinion piece about why the graduating class of 2024 is so odd. Plucky, reflective, emboldened, distracted, helpless, detached, cynical, scared, apathetic, brave…. www.sfchronicle.com/opinion/open...

sfchronicle.com

COVID made this year’s graduating high school class different. Here’s how

The Class of 2024 understands how it feels to face the stormy eye of history, to be shaped by uncontrollable forces.

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Andrew Simmons @adlsimmons.bsky.social · 21/05/2024

open.substack.com/pub/andrewsi... I wrote my 31st Substack about why Grammarly is a diabolical Trojan horse of a “learning tool” and why students using it as a “cheat code” will erode their selves…

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Andrew Simmons @adlsimmons.bsky.social · 20/11/2023

I wrote the 26th edition of my ongoing newsletter experiment about teaching in This Time. “Only a disingenuous person actually wants to section off pieces of a history like the most desirable portions of an unevenly frosted birthday cake.”

andrewsimmons.substack.com

26. Precision Bombing in the Citadel of Ideas

Pull my finger...

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Andrew Simmons @adlsimmons.bsky.social · 05/11/2023

I'm somewhat afraid to pose the question, but have edible things that are not jam been too often called "jammy," an issue also prevalent in discussions of non-Widespread-y bands that enjoy improvisation? Feel like there's data behind it, like people more often click on recipes with the word "jammy."

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