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Nate

@jessenathaniel.bsky.social

Black. Special Education administrator. Holding fast to the belief that education and restorative justice can meet the political moment. Committed to racial justice inside & outside of school.

1189 Posts378 Follower211 Folgt
Charles Hughes@charleshughes2.bsky.social · 14h ago

There is no more renewable resource in the United States than wrongheaded takes by writers who confidently use country music as a simple symbol of rurality without having a clue about the music or seemingly anything else. If only we could harness such empty pontificating as a fuel source...

Tressie McMillan Cottom@tressiemcphd.bsky.social · 15h ago

There is so much wrong with this argument that I wouldn’t know where to start. www.nytimes.com/2026/09/13/o...

National Security Counselors 🕵@nationalsecuritylaw.org · yesterday

Saoirse is in an afterschool program, and today she excitedly told me all about the SMART test for evaluating the credibility of information (source, motivation, author, review, two-sources). I can think of a lot of adults who would benefit from this class designed for 4th and 5th graders.

Marc Elias@marcelias.bsky.social · 3d ago

I am tired of people saying we can’t win in front of the Supreme Court. I’m annoyed by those who say my firm is too partisan to be effective. Today we won a huge redistricting fight before SCOTUS and a ballot access case before the Nebraska Supreme Court. The lesson: When we fight we win.

Nate@jessenathaniel.bsky.social · 6d ago

“Hate” is not too strong a word to describe my feelings about rushed curriculum implementation — how in the world do you expect kids to improve whatever nonsense outcomes you have if teachers aren’t prepped? “Wow, we need to ask teachers about this 🤔” should not be a post-implementation revelation 🤦🏾‍♂️

Philadelphia spent $25 million on a new reading curriculum. But there are already problems.

Philadelphia is beginning its third year with a new reading curriculum. A new report highlights problems with how school leaders first rolled it out.

chalkbeat.org

Nate@jessenathaniel.bsky.social · last wk.

This idea has come up for me a LOT lately and this comment was WAY too resonant: “Democracy requires a certain amount of enjoyment of arguing…rather than demonizing your opponent…the most shocking thing about public education was how undemocratic it was...It was entirely top-down dictatorship.”

Episode 40: "Changing the World Is Possible" with Deborah Meier and Matt Alexander

Podcast Episode · Street Data Pod: Imagining the Next Generation of Education · June 18 · 43m

podcasts.apple.com

Nate@jessenathaniel.bsky.social · last wk.

I’ve been a part of 2 IEP meetings recently in which district reps either insulted parents or stood up and yelled at them for asserting themselves. In reflecting on mediating those situations, I’m left considering the impact of systemic pressure for illusory compliance with policy over human need 😞

Marcus Luther@marcusluther.bsky.social · 2w ago

I'll keep it simple: I'm very grateful for LAUSD and NYC public schools for taking an intentional, clear stance around limiting AI for students, classrooms and schools. 🙏 Yes, let's keep talking and learning—but we also need leadership. To be very clear: this is what leadership looks like.

Nick Covington@covingtonedu.bsky.social · 2w ago

Exactly. If there's a threshold where the quest for perfect scientific efficiency begins to dehumanize — if teaching & learning are about more than effectiveness & efficiency — then we need tools in our toolkit to understand, navigate, and do the messy relational human stuff well, too. 🤷

Liz Wise@lizwise.bsky.social · 2w ago

All of which are interactive experiences that both student(s) and teacher(s) have a role in! Tech can’t match the way we give feedback, the way we honor the understandings our human students bring or are developing, the way we make adjustments in real time.

Nate@jessenathaniel.bsky.social · 2w ago

Something I’m fascinated by in schools is the speed of transition to new curricula … and how it’s so often entirely driven by money. (i.e. “We spent this money, so now you must implement it immediately.”) The speed of implementation alone almost encourages resistance. 🤦🏾‍♂️

Nate@jessenathaniel.bsky.social · 2w ago

Was at an IEP coordinators meeting talking about common challenges and in the end the solution to every problem was basically the same: communication. And that’s true for myriad other problems in schools. Time is scarce, of course, but improved communicating always makes things better long-term.

Marcus Luther@marcusluther.bsky.social · 3w ago

Do not forget: this vision of education—students with headphones on staring at screens—is VERY unpopular, especially right now. The vast majority of students don't want it. The vast majority of teachers don't want it. The vast majority of families don't want it. That's the story.

Aaron Rupar@atrupar.com · 3w ago

Linda McMahon on successful uses of AI in classrooms: "The first couple hours every day students really have on headphones, they're in front of their computers, they're getting their subjects fed to them...the beauty of that is the student almost has a one-on-one tutor...I have seen it work so well"

Nate@jessenathaniel.bsky.social · 3w ago

Random pet peeve about the education world right now: the belief that the existence of something new justifies its adoption and implementation without any thoughtful evaluation process. Yes, this is about AI and this bested thread makes the point so well that I recommend you peruse it:

Tressie McMillan Cottom@tressiemcphd.bsky.social · 4w ago

I once worked at a university that gutted an entire (very popular and useful) learning center and replaced it with two guys who would teach you how to host blogs. every student had to have a blog. Every single one. Our syllabus had to mention blogs. We had to teach WITH blogs.

Nate@jessenathaniel.bsky.social · 3w ago

Something really present for me in reflecting on my first week of school: I really pride myself on listening to teachers and using what they say to inform my decisions — it builds collective efficacy. I find it odd that so many school leaders pretend to listen and do nothing with what they hear.

Gil Durán@gilduran.com · 4w ago

Xavier Becerra has gone silent since winning the primary for California governor. But here he is with Peter Thiel protégé Garry Tan—Palantir’s employee #10. “Garry’s List” is an AI-generated right-wing news site. Garry is a top Network State figure & tweeted “die slow” at SF city leaders in 2024.

Photograph of Becerra with Carrie Tan at A Gary’s list event
Marcus Luther@marcusluther.bsky.social · 4w ago

This is a great example, I think, of what critical AI literacy can/should look like. Unfortunately, too often we are skipping past conversations like this and immediately into "here's how to use this tool/save time!"—and I very much worry about the consequences of this trend...

Edutopia@edutopia.org · last mo.

Did you know AI can convince students that they’ve mastered a topic? In this video, Edutopia assistant editor @andreatamayo.bsky.social breaks down the phenomenon known as the fluency illusion. To learn more, check out @youkiterada.bsky.social's article: https://edut.to/45YIB20

Steve@stephenh.bsky.social · last mo.

I’ve worked with teachers who were obsessed with producing incredibly detailed planning. Funnily enough, they had control issues with their class but couldn’t see why. It was though they thought the more detailed a plan, the better the lesson would be. Pupil engagement was not factored in

Nate@jessenathaniel.bsky.social · last mo.

After a week of annual planning meetings, something at the forefront of my mind is the number of educators who find security in control and/or rigid structure. That’s not inherently bad! But I think it’s worth acknowledging that getting people from that place to co-constructing meaning is a journey.

Christian Moore-Anderson@cmooreanderson.eurosky.social · last mo.

● The Wrong Ends of the Constructivist Stick The middle way isn't a mix of "some telling and some exploring". It's a distinct pedagogy in its own right, just one that few people are aware of. Read about it in my new post: christianmooreanderson.com/teaching-wit...

Figure 3: A representation of teaching in which learning emerges from mutual adaptation, not through gathering of facts nor independent discovery.
Nate@jessenathaniel.bsky.social · last mo.

This explains so much about political punditry right now … and even sadder is when you see people on-the-ground regurgitating their nonsense even when they sense that disjunction…

Sam Ulmschneider@samulmschneider.bsky.social · last mo.

Normally I just appreciatively read @jamellebouie.net 's columns-sharable video content just isn't my bag. But this is a very, very, very trenchant piece of commentary that captures a lot of how I increasingly understand the disjunction between the commentary environment and on-the-ground politics.