iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Marcus Luther @marcusluther.bsky.social · 4h

Absolutely love this piece—and the work of laying out a progressive vision for education? That is really really complicated. The problem, I think? What's best politically is probably not going to rhyme very well with what's best for students.

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Marcus Luther @marcusluther.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

Sometimes the lesson that you teach bounces back the other direction, and offers you the reminder that you need. This was one of those times: thebrokencopier.substack.com/p/a-simple-l...

thebrokencopier.substack.com

A Simple Lesson That Became a Good Lesson

a step-by-step walkthrough of a lesson that went fairly well this week

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Marcus Luther @marcusluther.bsky.social · 9h

"Instead of occasionally swapping book recommendations, students are carrying their recommendations with them." Okay, so this is a really, really cool thing—and now I'm starting the weekend imagining what this could look like...

excerpt from article linked in reply, quote highlighted

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Marcus Luther @marcusluther.bsky.social · 20h

Pro tip: don't leave your coffee thermos at home on the counter on the first Friday of October. (We made it, but oh boy.)

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Adrian Neibauer @mrneibauer.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

I can't wait to look at my students' peer nominations! #TeacherSky #EduSky (Modeled after @marcusluther.bsky.social's classroom ritual.) www.cultofpedagogy.com/peer-affirma...

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Laura Hollister @xenolith.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

This is very timely as my students just took a hard test and many of them did not do well. I will be using Monday to share some of these stories and help them develop strategies for perseverance.

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Marcus Luther @marcusluther.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

The playbook: ⓵ attack traditional public schools with ferocity while removing funding/resources ⓶ expand private schools with absolutely zero oversight and accountability Definitely NOT about what's best for students/learning...

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MathIsLife @damianmolinari.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

💯 The trailer includes teachers talking about not being able to "teach" math, and it just reads as giving a microphone to that teacher who struggles and blames everyone else instead of taking responsibility. Selling a story indeed.

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Marcus Luther @marcusluther.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

October is hard enough without an unhelpful narrative shift yet again. I'm already frustrated and it hasn't even launched... (Also: at some point can more people see the irony of being sold a story by something called "sold a story"?)

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Marcus Luther @marcusluther.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

"It’s a vulnerable space between giving up and pushing forward" As we move into October and the expectations rise while students might be losing that initial momentum, this was a helpful thing to read this morning for me as I think forward: I think we forget the vulnerability in all of this.

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Marcus Luther @marcusluther.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

“She makes people feel better.” "They are never afraid to voice their perspective.” "I like that he’s curious because it makes me curious too.” Cool things happen when you ask students which students are making our classroom better. (Seriously: ask them!)

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Marcus Luther @marcusluther.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

Let's just say: this octopus isn't blank anymore 😎 Reading the first round of peer nominations aloud to the class, watching students cheer for each other to sign? Definitely a very cool thing to watch happen.

octopus for wall signing with classroom values

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John Warner @biblioracle.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

Where's Waldo-style challenge. Try to find the Teach For America 35th Anniversary summit speaker who is still a teacher. (Note: Peloton instructor does not count.) www.events.teachforamerica.org/35years/page...

events.teachforamerica.org

Speakers for Teach For America's 35th Anniversary Summit

Hear from 'Insecure' actor Jay Ellis, Peloton instructor and ESPN reporter Jess Sims, Campaign Zero Executive Director Deray McKesson, and many more on education topics and beyond.

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Nate @jessenathaniel.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

All I’ll say about it (with enormous personal gratitude as well): An education org celebrating 35 years with a roster full of CEOs, charter school leaders, and entertainers doesn’t actually have much interest in that question to begin with. And I’m curious about questions they *would* answer.

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Marcus Luther @marcusluther.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

"has Teach For America made education better over the past quarter century?" 10 years ago (on a now-defunct blog) I wrote a long reflection before TFA's 25th anniversary summit in Washington DC—trying to capture how I felt. Despite a lot of personal gratitude for my own experience, I ended here:

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Adrian Neibauer @mrneibauer.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

The crow and the pitcher story was the theme of our family meeting this morning! Students brainstormed a list of “pebbles” that would help them grow. One group even suggested working together as a team of “crows” to help everyone reach their potentials! ❤️ #TeacherSky

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Jane Rosenzweig @janerosenzweig.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

Something that's surprisingly useful is asking my students to draw their research papers. They make all sorts of interesting diagrams and some always say they find it clarifying in unexpected ways (realizing a side point is the main point kind of thing). Low tech, done in class, no outsourcing.

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Marcus Luther @marcusluther.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

Had students draw their own crow/pitcher to reflect on where the water level was as they prepare for an essay—and this little guy got left behind. It’s pebble gathering week in our classroom! 🐦‍⬛🪨

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Marcus Luther @marcusluther.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

In other words, the much better version of “just tell them.” (Those who know, know 😂)

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Marcus Luther @marcusluther.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

One mistake I made early on in teaching: relying 100% on the showing and not nearly enough on the telling, especially when it came to my own perspective. So a boring answer but important, I've found: I tell them. I'm intentional in sharing w/ them how much I love teaching, the purpose I see, etc.

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Marcus Luther @marcusluther.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

Important (*checks notes*) written article by proclaiming that writing isn't as important as you think. Yup. That's what this is. www.nytimes.com/2026/09/29/o...

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Marcus Luther @marcusluther.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

To be fair, if it happens again on Thursday...as the kids these days say, I'll be cooked. 😂

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Marcus Luther @marcusluther.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

That feeling when Chromebooks don’t work district-wide all day and it doesn’t impact your classroom a bit because you never needed to have students open them 😎

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Meaghan Townsend @meaghantownsend.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

You've said it before, and it's an apt banner: we need high resources AND high teacher autonomy. Too many administrators act as if those conditions are mutually exclusive. In truth, the combination of both is what builds and sustains career teachers.

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Ben Fisher-Rodriguez @mrfishersays.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

This was a cool one! Also learned some new terms (brain spindles??)

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Marcus Luther @marcusluther.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

"I am most optimistic about projects that respond to the expressed concerns of students and teachers." 🎯 Unfortunately, the disconnect between "experts" and what is happening in schools gets wider by the day...

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Marcus Luther @marcusluther.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

Super-small change I made the other day: instead of a written reflection, I had students draw their own crow/pitcher to reflect on where they were and what they needed to do. The energy in the room: complete change (in a good way!) The little things, right?

instructions to draw a crow and a pitcher

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Derek Gottlieb @derekgottliebphd.com · 29/09/2026

The thing about SaS's breathless innuendo about the evil publishing company pushing a flawed product, the cultish devotion to a set of scholars invested in a particular way of understanding education, and widespread underdelivering is — that’s just what ed reform looks like. For decades.

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Trevor Aleo @mraleosays.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

Haven’t people spent the last 5 years melting down about how we spent billions of dollars on a dated literacy program with scant supporting evidence that was owned & operated by an EduGuru & run like a cult of personality? Is it because this one has #Science on the box? time.com/article/2026...

time.com

The Woman Winning the Reading Wars

Louisa Moats’ teacher-training program is painstaking, pricey, and decades old. It’s also the hot new thing

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Marcus Luther @marcusluther.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

Okay, well ⓵ I did way better than I thought I would and ⓶ definitely learned a few terms I had never heard of before! Anyone think they can beat 77% on this @edutopia.org quiz? www.edutopia.org/quiz/quiz-wh...

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Marcus Luther @marcusluther.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

"The goal was to destabilize U.S. educational infrastructure and carve out a large space for reactionary indoctrination within it." This is 100% part of the story—of Alpha School's momentum and education overall—and far too often gets left out. Very glad it's appropriately hammered here.

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Anna H @maestrahelzer.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

I explain neural retrieval pathways to my Spanish students like a sled going down a hill - the more times you go down the same path the faster/smoother you go, which is why repetition matters. Not perfect scientificallg but useful and makes them think cool thoughts in September

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Marcus Luther @marcusluther.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

Anyone suggesting AI for marching/feedback should have to announce that decision to an actual classroom of students. (Because this is how they react.)

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Marcus Luther @marcusluther.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

I'm admittedly a big analogy guy in the classroom: octopus = curiosity, blindfolded men and the elephant = perspective, etc. So I was wondering—what is an analogy you love for your classroom? An analogy or story you continually circle back to? #EduSky

entry wall for classroom with different analogies/core beliefs

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Marcus Luther @marcusluther.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

"Teaching, too, is an act of sustaining. It keeps something alive." Fantastic read that dropped in the inbox today from @briansztabnik.bsky.social—exactly what I needed this Sunday afternoon muchadoaboutteaching.com/teach-to-kee...

muchadoaboutteaching.com

Teach to Keep Something Alive - Much Ado About Teaching

One of my favorite mornings of the year was always the Saturday of Memorial Day weekend. When my boys were little, we would go to the national cemetery in our area with their Cub Scout pack and walk t...

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Marcus Luther @marcusluther.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

The tricky part about this, though, is that for many teachers the alternative also feels like a massive, centralized, state-sponsored automation, data collection and standardization engine. In fact, for many (*raises hand*) "AP" is where we experience the most freedom/agency in design. But...

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Marcus Luther @marcusluther.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

Nothing like Einstein telling you that he's going to make "learning effortless" to really show traditional schools how it's done...

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Marcus Luther @marcusluther.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

"How do you show students your genuine passion for what you teach?" I've loved reflecting on this @teacher2teacher.bsky.social question—along with the role of passion itself in our work—and I've also loved reading the different responses so far... Discussion here! www.edutopia.org/teacher2teac...

"How do you show students your genuine passion for what you teach?" post on Teacher2Teacher

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Marcus Luther @marcusluther.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

the actual price of college these days is genuinely a befuddling number to look at. (Like: there are many many complicated things going on with college right now and no easy solutions but I still think we somehow don't talk enough about that price tag. It's ludicrous.)

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Jeffrey Austin @jaustinedu.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

Critical discussions about LETRS, which is not backed by research, are difficult because a) it has been marketed to educators as a way to DO SOMETHING amid the "literacy crisis" and b) teachers feel more knowledgeable after LETRS. The realities are much more complicated. time.com/article/2026...

time.com

The Woman Winning the Reading Wars

Louisa Moats’ teacher-training program is painstaking, pricey, and decades old. It’s also the hot new thing

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Marcus Luther @marcusluther.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

I feel like this is the biggest problem with the "core requirements" model of students taking entry-level courses in different subject areas. Too often, they become a box to check off rather than an authentic curiosity to explore—transactional rather than purposeful.

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Marcus Luther @marcusluther.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

Listened to this on the way home from school yesterday and immediately added a drawing activity for my Monday lesson. Small things can really be big things and this episode was immediately a reminder of that! (Excited to share how it goes, too!)

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Jane Rosenzweig @janerosenzweig.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

From Serena Jampel, one of the writing tutors I worked with at Harvard on the difference between the human tutor and AI and how a writing tutor can help a student find their voice. Lots of wisdom and also this truth: "the more you use it, the more you use it" www.harvardmagazine.com/commentary/h...

And that was another remarkable feature of the Writing Center. Sometimes students would resist my feedback, insisting that their structure would make sense once they added a bit more reasoning. In doing so, they were often pushed to articulate their thinking more clearly, and to affirm their confidence in their position.

An LLM cannot do that, because it does not have its own opinions or thoughts. It is only trained to engage the user: the more you use it, the more you use it. That’s actually the antithesis of writing instruction, which aims to cultivate independent thought.

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Marcus Luther @marcusluther.bsky.social · 26/09/2026

Kinda sorta, but I also think this is a mistake I've made in the past in assuming that students "at a certain level" don't benefit from those check-in's and rapport-building during assessments.

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Marcus Luther @marcusluther.bsky.social · 26/09/2026

I think this is an important point, especially in an education landscape in which testing becomes more and more prevalent. Assessments are simultaneously an opportunity for teaching—before, during and after!—IF you step into that opportunity in the right way. Which, I'd argue, is 100% worth it.

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Marcus Luther @marcusluther.bsky.social · 26/09/2026

🎯 100% an opportunity to make notes/shifts for future assessments based on what you're observing in real time

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Marcus Luther @marcusluther.bsky.social · 26/09/2026

There is such a profound difference between a classroom assessment where a teacher is sitting silently at their desk or "proctoring" versus an assessment where a teacher is spending the entire time circling the room supporting, checking in, encouraging, etc. (Hint: the latter is the better one!)

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