iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Jess Lifshitz @jess5th.bsky.social · 05/09/2026

This week, on top of the absolute exhaustion, there’s the heavy sadness of what teaching has become. When I started, it felt like teaching was an art.

3103

Jess Lifshitz @jess5th.bsky.social · 14/08/2026

How I’m heading into this new school year.

Anchor chart that says welcome to fourth grade. This year we will work to create a community of care. We will do this by caring for: ourselves, our community and our space.

1132

Jess Lifshitz @jess5th.bsky.social · 14/05/2026

I am so sick of articles about plummeting test scores. When the tools we use to measure our children do not match the world they are living in, it’s like attempting to assess American’s ability to drive by insisting we only test our driving using stick shift cars as test vehicles.

3161

Jess Lifshitz @jess5th.bsky.social · 09/05/2026

The world of education loves an acronym & a set of initials. Especially when it comes to a child’s social-emotional learning (SEL). I’d like to suggest we throw them all away. Get rid of PBIS & CHAMPS & STOIC & all the rest. And instead let us just focus on CARE. It doesn’t stand for anything.

1245

Jess Lifshitz @jess5th.bsky.social · 26/04/2026

Like so many other teachers, this year has forced me to teach a prepackaged, scripted literacy program. It’s been soul sucking to say the least. One thing I’m trying hard to do is to help my students learn to read these texts critically. Weaving critical thinking into a program that is devoid of it.

1110

Jess Lifshitz @jess5th.bsky.social · 20/03/2026

Tonight, I spoke with dozens of educators and librarians about the ways in which we can keep working to create inclusive spaces for our LGBTQ+ young people within our classrooms and libraries even in this unsafe political moment. At the same time…

A post it note with the words, “Just stay quiet” written on it.

230

Jess Lifshitz @jess5th.bsky.social · 21/02/2026

Often, in education, we make decisions by asking, “Will this meet the needs of our students?” I think we also have to start being more clear about the answer to the question, “Which needs are we most concerned about meeting?” Are we trying to best meet their test taking needs or their human needs?

190

Jess Lifshitz @jess5th.bsky.social · 05/02/2026

One of the things that makes me most sad about these new packaged reading curriculum (and so so much makes me sad) is the way it feels as if we have switched from teaching children to training children. And we can do that, we can make it work, but it is costing us (and our students) so very much.

070

Jess Lifshitz @jess5th.bsky.social · 04/01/2026

I’ve been feeling so sad at the loss of freedom to craft curriculum in a way that allows us to cover standards while also guiding students towards compassion, critical thinking & justice. So I’m trying to find other ways to do that work. With that, I’m committing to a focus on care this new year.

160

Jess Lifshitz @jess5th.bsky.social · 31/12/2025

Every year, on New Year’s Eve, I pick a poem to carry with me into the new year. It’s a way for me to set some intention on what I want this new year to be. This year, my poem for the new year is Joy Harjo’s “For Calling the Spirit Back from Wandering the Earth in Its Human Feet.” Here’s to 2026.

Put down that bag of potato chips, that white bread, that bottle of pop.

Turn off that cellphone, computer, and remote control.

Open the door, then close it behind you.

Take a breath offered by friendly winds. They travel the earth gathering essences of plants to clean.

Give it back with gratitude.

If you sing it will give your spirit lift to fly to the stars’ ears and back.

Acknowledge this earth who has cared for you since you were a dream planting itself precisely within your parents’ desire.

Let your moccasin feet take you to the encampment of the guardians who have known you before time, who will be there after time. They sit before the fire that has been there without time.

Let the earth stabilize your postcolonial insecure jitters.

Be respectful of the small insects, birds and animal people who accompany you.

Ask their forgiveness for the harm we humans have brought down upon them.

Don’t worry.

The heart knows the way though there may be high-rises, interstates, checkpoints, armed soldiers, massacres, wars, and those who will despise you because they despise themselves.

The journey might take you a few hours, a day, a year, a few years, a hundred, a thousand or even more.

Watch your mind. Without training it might run away and leave your heart for the immense human feast set by the thieves of time.

Do not hold regrets.

When you find your way to the circle, to the fire kept burning by the keepers of your soul, you will be welcomed.

You must clean yourself with cedar, sage, or other healing plant.

Cut the ties you have to failure and shame.

Let go the pain you are holding in your mind, your shoulders, your heart, all the way to your feet. Let go the pain of your ancestors to make way for those who are heading in our direction.

Ask for forgiveness.

Call upon the help of those who love you. These helpers take many forms: animal, element, bird, angel, saint, stone, or ancestor.

Call your spirit back. It may be caught in corners and creases of shame, judgment, and human abuse.

You must call in a way that your spirit will want to return.

Speak to it as you would to a beloved child.

3299

Jess Lifshitz @jess5th.bsky.social · 08/12/2025

Holding on to justice and liberation in the classroom right now feels like trying to light a candle outside on a really windy day. And the lighter, it’s running low on fuel, y’all. And I guess we just keep on going. Trying to light the fire in whatever ways we can. That’s all.

190

Jess Lifshitz @jess5th.bsky.social · 25/11/2025

Today I filled my shelves with workbooks. And my heart is just so sad at what teaching and learning have become.

3100

Jess Lifshitz @jess5th.bsky.social · 16/11/2025

I’d be curious to know how many people at the large national teacher conferences are classroom teachers. It just seems like such a far away world to what’s happening in our classrooms these days.

280

Jess Lifshitz @jess5th.bsky.social · 07/11/2025

I think about what we, as educators, will say in years from now when we are asked, “How did you help kids through the crisis when human beings were being dragged off the streets by masked folks with guns?” For some of us the answer is sadly going to be, “Oh. We doubled down on phonics instruction.”

071

Jess Lifshitz @jess5th.bsky.social · 27/10/2025

This year the letter home about Halloween costumes and ways to help us ensure they are not harmful, feels particularly important. Teachers, please feel free to use in whatever ways feel helpful! docs.google.com/document/d/1...

docs.google.com

Halloween Letter Home

Dear Families and Caretakers, Halloween is quickly approaching! While dressing up and celebrating the holiday provide opportunities for fun and community building, they can also create situations w...

195

Jess Lifshitz @jess5th.bsky.social · 23/10/2025

Teachers: DO NOT DEBATE ICE IN YOUR CLASSROOM! To ask students to witness their own humanity and safety being debated by their classmates is harmful. This is a reality that is causing harm and fear and pain to so many young people.

1163

Jess Lifshitz @jess5th.bsky.social · 04/10/2025

What they are asking us to do is not teaching. It is moving through curriculum. And I fear for what that means for our students.

090

Jess Lifshitz @jess5th.bsky.social · 21/09/2025

Yes, there is good reason to be deeply concerned about what is happening in our schools. But no, it is not because of our test scores.

1352

Reposted by Jess Lifshitz

Dr. Sonja Cherry-Paul @sonjacherrypaul.bsky.social · 05/09/2025

We hope you’ll join us in the work of building toolkits that help us create LGBTQ-affirming schools. Register today to secure your spot! 2/2 #IREL25

042

Reposted by Jess Lifshitz

Dr. Sonja Cherry-Paul @sonjacherrypaul.bsky.social · 05/09/2025

We can’t imagine moving through the world of education without the light that Jess consistently provides for children, families, and communities. Now more than ever we need this light and each other. 1/2

195

Jess Lifshitz @jess5th.bsky.social · 31/08/2025

The school year has started and I find myself already in desperate need of the kind of community rooted in justice and liberation. I am so grateful that @sonjacherrypaul.bsky.social and @triciaebarvia.bsky.social are bringing us back together again for another Teaching Towards Freedom.

Saturday, September 27th Teaching Towards Freedom. Register at theirel.org.

Presenters: Dr. Sonja Cherry Paul and Tricia Ebarvia.

182

Jess Lifshitz @jess5th.bsky.social · 09/08/2025

Y’all. I’m trying something new this year. I am going to completely ignore the start of the school year. Until it arrives. I’m going to hold on to summer until it is gone. I’m going to welcome my students with a big open heart and a lot of love and whatever I can plan in the time I’m given.

160

Jess Lifshitz @jess5th.bsky.social · 31/07/2025

How you know back to school time is right around the corner…

Dining room table filled with random household objects in small plastic bags.

130

Jess Lifshitz @jess5th.bsky.social · 18/07/2025

I’m running a PD in a few weeks where we are using Dr. Barbara J Love’s framework for developing a liberatory consciousness as we center the stories of young people talking about their school experiences and how those experiences were impacting by various facets of identity.

150

Jess Lifshitz @jess5th.bsky.social · 15/07/2025

For two decades now, I have worked with my fifth grade colleagues to build a literacy curriculum that weaves together reading and writing instruction with the kind of work that helps kids understand the ways in which we can use reading and writing to create positive change in the world.

1102

Jess Lifshitz @jess5th.bsky.social · 01/07/2025

There’s still time to register: TheIREL.org

Flyer advertising the workshops and facilitators of IREL and the special guest author, Jaqueline Woodson. Event is July 9th and 10th and is completely virtual.

153

Reposted by Jess Lifshitz

Chanea Bond @heymrsbond.com · 28/06/2025

These three women are writing dissents like our lives depend on it. I’m grateful for their work documenting the severity of the crises of this moment.

Sonia Sotomayor, Ketanji Brown Jackson, and Elena Kagan prior to the investiture ceremony of Associate Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson September 30, 2022.

739585

Jess Lifshitz @jess5th.bsky.social · 27/06/2025

Today, the anger came first. In response to a myriad of Supreme Court decisions released today, and in particular on the case involving LGBTQ+ related books in public schools, I feel the anger really strongly. Clearly. And that anger is justified.

120

Jess Lifshitz @jess5th.bsky.social · 25/06/2025

Small bits of hope, friends. Small bits of hope.

020

Jess Lifshitz @jess5th.bsky.social · 05/06/2025

Help needed! I’m running a workshop focusing on helping a group of mostly straight, cisgender, white educators better understand the impact school has on marginalized young people. I’m looking for voices of marginalized young people sharing school experiences in writing, video, podcast, etc.

341

Jess Lifshitz @jess5th.bsky.social · 04/06/2025

Don’t show me you are an educator who supports LGBTQ+ students by posting a statement on social media. Show me by reading books with your students with LGBTQ+ people and by interrupting homophobic hate speech every single time you hear it and by weaving LGBTQ+ people into your instruction.

030

Jess Lifshitz @jess5th.bsky.social · 03/05/2025

This year, for teacher appreciation week, maybe we can have less coffee mugs and candles and instead have more speaking up. Speak up to defend public education…

38317

Jess Lifshitz @jess5th.bsky.social · 11/04/2025

A beautiful response in the face of hate.

050

Jess Lifshitz @jess5th.bsky.social · 09/04/2025

Does anyone else feel like our schools are becoming places with less and less joy? Places that are just harder and sadder to exist in? Is it testing season? Or is it something more?

22796

Jess Lifshitz @jess5th.bsky.social · 20/03/2025

Oh, this day. Dismantling of the Department of Education. And. The district I teach in is about to adopt a packaged literacy curriculum that is known for lacking cultural responsiveness. I am so worried about what happens next in our schools and for our students and for our teachers.

Results of a study showing Into Reading is culturally destructive in most areas.

260

Jess Lifshitz @jess5th.bsky.social · 20/03/2025

This week, my district made the decision of which scripted, packaged literacy program we will be purchasing for next year. After spending 20 years building a literacy curriculum I am so proud of, next year I’ll be reading out of a workbook. I don’t know how we keep doing this, friends.

7883

Reposted by Jess Lifshitz

Tammy Duckworth @duckworth.senate.gov · 14/03/2025

I voted against more chaos. I voted against more cuts. I voted against giving a wannabe king and an unelected billionaire even more power to hurt middle-class Americans. I serve Illinoisans. Republicans made it clear they serve Donald Trump.

16894888

Jess Lifshitz @jess5th.bsky.social · 14/03/2025

Grateful for @duckworth.senate.gov and so angry and disappointed with Duck Durbin.

030

Jess Lifshitz @jess5th.bsky.social · 06/03/2025

Grateful for our teacher unions. Grateful for AFT and the work they are doing on behalf of all teachers and students. There are good people, doing good work to help calm the absolute chaos. They are who I keep looking for and looking toward. www.aft.org/press-releas...

aft.org

AFT’s Weingarten on Trump’s Order to Dismantle the Education Department

WASHINGTON—AFT President Randi Weingarten issued the following statement responding to media reports revealing the draft of Donald Trump’s executive order attempting to eliminate the U.S. Department o...

061

Jess Lifshitz @jess5th.bsky.social · 05/03/2025

As we make calls to senators & reps, I think we also need to write to our local school boards to demand a continued commitment to DEI work. I know that will look different in different states, but here is what I sent to my daughter’s school board here in IL: docs.google.com/document/d/1...

docs.google.com

Template Letter to School Board in Support of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion

Dear Members of the School Board, I am writing to affirm my support for practices within our school system that honor and celebrate diversity, equity and inclusion. Our schools have a responsibili...

12411

Jess Lifshitz @jess5th.bsky.social · 12/02/2025

Oh, teacher friends. It’s a whole new level of conversation that is needed with our young people. Today while trying to navigate a really harmful conversation between two kids, I had one student say, “But I heard the president say it!” And my heart just broke.

1100

Jess Lifshitz @jess5th.bsky.social · 09/02/2025

“Ordinary people, all the time, are engaging in pretty heroic activities that are actually changing the world – and those deserve some notice and celebration as well.” This is an article from 2019, but, oh, what an important time it is right now to read it. www.bbc.com/future/artic...

bbc.com

The '3.5% rule': How a small minority can change the world

Nonviolent protests are twice as likely to succeed as armed conflicts – and those engaging a threshold of 3.5% of the population have never failed to bring about change.

030

Jess Lifshitz @jess5th.bsky.social · 08/02/2025

Everything is so bad. And it all hurts my heart. And I feel like I can’t breathe a lot of the moments of the day. And. Today, we had kids cheering for books. And theycheered for a book that celebrates diversity and love. And I have to hold on to that, too.

0251

Jess Lifshitz @jess5th.bsky.social · 30/01/2025

Well, it’s been nearly four years. But today has brought my back to the blog. I think it’s an attempt to find community. I think it’s an attempt not to drown. Friends, we are going to need each other. This is my reminder that I am still here. crawlingoutoftheclassroom.wordpress.com/2025/01/30/t...

crawlingoutoftheclassroom.wordpress.com

Today, it feels like drowning

Well, goodness. Apparently, it’s been almost four years since I last wrote on this thing. I could go on and on about all the reasons why I have stayed away. But, instead, I feel the need to t…

161

Jess Lifshitz @jess5th.bsky.social · 30/01/2025

Today makes me want to gather all the educators I know who are deeply and truly committed to social justice and put us all together in a room so that we can just feel that community and be strengthened by it.

121689

Jess Lifshitz @jess5th.bsky.social · 30/01/2025

This one. It just feels like such a gut punch. It makes it feel kind of hard to breathe. I’m trying to remember that an executive order is not law. And that we cannot “comply in advance.” But, my goodness, does this one make it all just feel impossible. www.whitehouse.gov/presidential...

whitehouse.gov

Ending Radical Indoctrination in K-12 Schooling – The White House

By the authority vested in me as President by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America, it is hereby ordered: Section 1. Purpose and

6211

Reposted by Jess Lifshitz

Erin Reed @erininthemorning.com · 29/01/2025

1. Breaking News: Donald Trump has signed an executive order targeting trans youth and teachers in schools who teach for them. It goes after "social transition" and threatens arrests. I will go through line by line, as I have the last 3 nights. Find the EO here: www.whitehouse.gov/presidential...

whitehouse.gov

Ending Radical Indoctrination in K-12 Schooling – The White House

By the authority vested in me as President by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America, it is hereby ordered: Section 1. Purpose and

21651322243

Jess Lifshitz @jess5th.bsky.social · 22/01/2025

When they make our anger the problem and not the injustice that causes it, it’s a convenient excuse for a system not to have to examine its own role in perpetuating that injustice. Stay angry, folks.

Quote. “Stay angry, little Meg,” Mrs. Whatsit whispered. “You will need all your anger now.” Madeline L’Engle in A Wrinkle in Time. Quote written in black text over a night sky.

070