Drew Alexander

A mood…#Evangatees

@JustAFamilyMan_ Loathe that term. One of the ways Black American discourse and issues was co opted.

The term “people of color” (a term I have always disliked) has really taken a hit these last few years. And it wasn’t due to black folk, but from the anti-blackness that emanates from the groups that fall under this amorphous term.

Nobody wants to read AI-generated posts. Nobody wants to read AI-generated emails. Nobody wants to read AI-generated newsletters. Nobody wants to read AI-generated reports. Nobody wants to read AI-generated articles. Nobody wants to read AI-generated anything.

100% agree that this is terrible in all the ways listed. What matters most, though, is understanding why a teacher would feel compelled to do something like this. It’s systemic. This is the effect of the “make it fun and relevant” at all costs cause. I used to be this teacher. Teachers in the U.S. are constantly bombarded with messages about making learning “student-centered”—that it must feel relevant to students’ lives, be fun, and revolve around engaging, activity-based experiences. These messages aren’t subtle; they’re pervasive. They show up in professional development, teacher education programs, staff meetings, and books, all circling the same questions: How do we make this fun? How do we hook students? How do we “gamify” this so some kind of magic spell is cast and students suddenly want to learn it? The problem is that this thinking ignores reality. Students are not automatically more interested just because something is dressed up as a game or made to feel superficially engaging. In many cases, it does the opposite. It’s distracts from the content and decreases the likelihood that students actually learn the concept you’re trying to teach. Students also recognize how forced and inauthentic these approaches can feel. They often come across as cringe, not compelling. Most students don’t need, or want, school to mimic their entertainment or digital lives. They want clarity. They want teachers to get to the point and help them understand something they didn’t know before. School can, and should, look different from how they spend their free time. Trying to replicate that world in the classroom is cliché and ultimately reflects a shallow understanding of how learning actually works.

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I’ve been wanting to get to this one for a while. This line from @Doug_Lemov foreword summarizes with remarkable precision why I read books like this: “In many ways the greatest form of equity lies in whether students get access to teaching that applies the science of learning as well as it can be by teachers who understand it well enough to make decisions to adapt and adjust their lessons for maximum benefit.”

"Lord i thank you i am not like this tax collec-"

Many teachers are already doing this. The issue why we can’t only do pencil and paper…. state testing.

High text; low tech. In reading, that's the first step.

New students walking into your quiet classroom experiencing scaffolded direct instruction, routines, and clear expectations for the first time:

Important article. I always made my kids go to the teacher & ask for a hard copy of the textbook. Teachers usually surprised but could usually find a dusty copy to hand to my kids. Hard copy matters. A lot.

I don’t give money to the church with the conviction that my money will be multiplied. I give because I love God and I want to support the work of the church in furthering the gospel - that’s it.

A few sample paragraphs. ✅Explicit instruction ✅Knowledge-rich content ✅Sentence-level instruction ✅Single paragraph outline ✅Worked examples ✅Faded guidance based on skill level

The Writing Revolution. That's it. That's the tweet.

As I pore over a list of tier 2 and 3 vocabulary terms, deciding the degree to which I will explicitly teach each of them for our next case study, I’m reminded of the only thing of value I took from my pre-service training. A professor said: “Being an average teacher is the easiest job in the world. Being a great teacher is the hardest.” After this past year and a half, I’ve learned just how true that is in more ways than I can count. But the hard work is worth it—and our students deserve it.

"If you're not modelling, you're not teaching." Making expert thinking visible is an essential part of teaching. Modelling does this but ever more frequently I see modelling being pedagogy's poor relation.

Thinking about literacy programs and schools.

Young man, 15, just said, "What motivated me to read? The due date on my assignment." We, adults tend to romanticize or demonize things - but never underestimate the power of expectations.

When students can’t find the "main idea", the problem is almost never a missing strategy.

“The one who conquers will be clothed thus in white garments, and I will never blot his name out of the book of life. I will confess his name before my Father and before his angels.” Revelation 3:5 ESV

At an event in SE DC focusing on black fathers. Good discussion on the benefits of present dads & challenges many face. I asked a Q on how to reconnect the vocations of husband & father. All agreed that we must, but one said he was criticized for saying the same online years ago.