iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

I choose to spend this time speculating about the exact moment in the lions game when I will feel the sting of having my hopes and expectations dashed. Right now, i think the odds are on a Jameson Williams 70 yard touchdown halfway through the first.

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Teucrian @teucrian.bsky.social · 08/09/2026

So, in practice, it’s possible that what’s happening here is students are googling around, finding superficial summaries about how the Song dynasty and Abbasid caliphate existed, and then finding the literal questions they’re being tested on, with sample answers. Nice education you got there!

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Teucrian @teucrian.bsky.social · 08/09/2026

This is because it is impossible to maintain question security on them, since they are being used in thousands of classrooms.

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Teucrian @teucrian.bsky.social · 08/09/2026

That is probably the product of a student over interpreting what a teacher said, but who knows. In any case, if they are using the provided CB progress check for unit 1 it’s worth saying that using those for a graded assignment is more or less against CB rules.

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Teucrian @teucrian.bsky.social · 08/09/2026

Who knows whether Alpha School is creating its own bespoke Unit 1 FRQs or utilizing released CB materials. It should at least be obvious that students cannot get a “5” on a single set of questions, it’s not really a coherent goal in the context of the larger test.

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Teucrian @teucrian.bsky.social · 08/09/2026

I, as a generally salty and persnickety person have many issues with those resources, but even at their best they are wildly inappropriate for actually learning content. Heimler’s videos are ten minutes long and he more or less just reads the CED and adds jokes (this is incredibly popular).

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Teucrian @teucrian.bsky.social · 08/09/2026

What this “strategy” will encourage students to do is intake things that are designed as review materials, the mentioned Heimler, who runs a successful YouTube channel on a number of different social studies AP exams, or the AMSCO book.

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Teucrian @teucrian.bsky.social · 08/09/2026

Instead, because the course is conceived of as a skills based course in primary source analysis*, teachers are expected to use the early portions of the year focusing almost exclusively on building those skills. *A reasonable person should question how successful the CB is at achieving this goal.

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Teucrian @teucrian.bsky.social · 08/09/2026

Unit 1: “The Global Tapestry” is designed almost exclusively as context and concept, the amount of actual content in it is miniscule. A typical phrasing from it is “Chinese cultural traditions continued, and they influenced neighboring regions.” Not a lot of content meat on that bone!

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Teucrian @teucrian.bsky.social · 08/09/2026

This is so ridiculous on any number of levels, but as someone who teaches the course let me zero in on the AP World History of it all.

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Teucrian @teucrian.bsky.social · 05/09/2026

Adjusting my APUSH slides as new, critical information comes in.

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Teucrian @teucrian.bsky.social · 04/09/2026

*I turn around my chair and sit on it backwards at the front of the class* “Well kids, I guess now it’s time for me to teach you about the original ‘horse girl’- Khutulun, Queen of the Mongols.”

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Teucrian @teucrian.bsky.social · 04/09/2026

I don’t want to get too invested in the “hype cycle”, but I am now certain this game is the second coming of Christ, coming to redeem us all.

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Teucrian @teucrian.bsky.social · 03/09/2026

The combination of complimenting Frank in the intro for his cooperation with the revelation 15 pages later that he took notes on these illicit meetings and that Wachtell Lipton has the notes. . . Immaculate.

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Teucrian @teucrian.bsky.social · 02/09/2026

It turns out that contrary to popular belief, rich men in America are able to face consequences, at least as long as they happen to also own the Los Angeles Clippers.

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Teucrian @teucrian.bsky.social · 30/08/2026

I think the Nintendo worlds of power books were the greatest thing I could even imagine existing when I was 9. That was the peak of culture and sophistication.

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Teucrian @teucrian.bsky.social · 30/08/2026

I think you could more easily scientifically justify belief in phlogiston or luminiferous ether than in the kinds of racial hierarchies these dudes posit.

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Teucrian @teucrian.bsky.social · 30/08/2026

I think I could be the guy who presses the button that sends a subtle electric shock to any on-air talent that accidentally says something interesting or thought provoking. Probably a pretty nice gig.

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Teucrian @teucrian.bsky.social · 29/08/2026

Universal, free, public education has done more for egalitarianism than maybe any other single thing. I hope we are able to preserve it in a meaningful way for a long time into the future.

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Teucrian @teucrian.bsky.social · 29/08/2026

Where we are heading as an education system is a deeply two track system- endless drill and kill on canned prewritten digital curricula delivered by prison guards for the majority of kids, and an elite set of academies open only for the wealthy where they do classical conservative education.

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Teucrian @teucrian.bsky.social · 28/08/2026

Look maybe he doesn’t have the right mentality for this (or for the nba in general) but I’d love to see him finishing a few plays that Jokic started. And it’s not like that team couldn’t get benefit from wagering on some talent.

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Teucrian @teucrian.bsky.social · 27/08/2026

I’ve found it shockingly difficult to convince students, even ones who like sports, that the history of sports is a serious academic venture for reasons I’ve never quite been able to figure out.

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Teucrian @teucrian.bsky.social · 26/08/2026

I played the shit out of Zelda II and loved every second of it. I think the inscrutability was perfect for a kid who was willing to bang their head against the wall indefinitely. Finding the hammer was a truly momentous occasion.

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Teucrian @teucrian.bsky.social · 20/08/2026

In this vein, I’ve appreciated the coverage of AISD by the Austin Current, the relatively new local non-profit branch of the Texas Trbune.

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Teucrian @teucrian.bsky.social · 20/08/2026

If I’m honest, I think blade dance is better than geometric perspective. Cloak and dagger is more important to me than chiaroscuro.

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Teucrian @teucrian.bsky.social · 17/08/2026

I rewatched this recently also! The economy of exposition in the first couple of scenes is so impressive, especially since the source material really drags throughout its first half. (I think Cuaron didn’t even read it.)

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Teucrian @teucrian.bsky.social · 15/08/2026

Funny how experiencing having to craft your communication for a large, diverse audience with poor reading comprehension that is barely paying attention has not seemed to make people more sympathetic towards politicians at all.

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Teucrian @teucrian.bsky.social · 15/08/2026

The ideal classroom for most American commentators on education. The content is illegible but the presentation reminds them of an inspiring teacher they saw in a movie. Most importantly, student voices are unheard and student bodies are invisible.

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Teucrian @teucrian.bsky.social · 07/08/2026

Incredibly clutch when you came up with Jarrett Allen.

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Teucrian @teucrian.bsky.social · 06/08/2026

Students are nothing but tools for these people to achieve an esoteric and meaningless set of numbers they have the gall to call data and accountability.

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Teucrian @teucrian.bsky.social · 05/08/2026

The Leveller-Digger flame wars will continue until we figure our shit out.

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Teucrian @teucrian.bsky.social · 05/08/2026

Great reporting by the observer. Many of the most pernicious things in education stem from using data indicators as an end to themselves, rather than a means to serve students. It cannot be clearer that for the people running HISD, the students are nothing more than numbers on a spreadsheet.

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Teucrian @teucrian.bsky.social · 29/07/2026

This is a conversation in history education I think too- while aiming kids towards feeling historical empathy has value, but is not sufficient on its own.

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Teucrian @teucrian.bsky.social · 28/07/2026

If you’re not totally burnt out on roguelike deck builders another one worth trying that just came out is worlds upon the wind. Completely gorgeous and has reinvigorated the genre for me.

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Teucrian @teucrian.bsky.social · 25/07/2026

Bluesky has got to be the number one Coach McGuirk fansite in the world because most of the posts are some version of this:

youtube.com

McGuirk - New York Times

YouTube video by projectmayhem325

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Teucrian @teucrian.bsky.social · 21/07/2026

Crassus: Well, well, well, not so easy to run a Persian campaign that doesn’t suck shit, huh?

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Teucrian @teucrian.bsky.social · 21/07/2026

As a fan I just hope the vibes around this team aren’t rancid again. I think last year something about the combination of expectations, the KD stuff, and a few very prominent late game collapses made a lot of the fan culture around the team more toxic than usual.

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Teucrian @teucrian.bsky.social · 20/07/2026

What conclusions would people reach about Japanese culture as a whole in the future if their primary sources were almost entirely stuff from America from the second half of the 20th century?

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Teucrian @teucrian.bsky.social · 20/07/2026

Sparta is, in some ways, serving the same role for them as it was for the Athenian conservatives like Xenophon who created the Spartan legend as we understand it- a contrast designed to emphasize the weakness and unmanliness of our contemporary democratic society.

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Teucrian @teucrian.bsky.social · 19/07/2026

It’s worth interrogating both that perhaps the most generally popular artist of our age is sometimes quite shaky in the execution, and is now working exclusively in an eschatological mode.

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Teucrian @teucrian.bsky.social · 19/07/2026

But every time they used the word “civilization” I absolutely cringed. Also not a fan of the line “our Bronze Age is collapsing” or whatever.

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