Sally O’Brien
@sallyohbrien.bsky.social
Perpetually awaiting a rebirth of wonder. οὐ μὲν γάρ τοι ἔτ’ ἄλλος ἐλεύσεται ἐνθάδ’ ᾿Οδυσσεύς. Proud #PHLed neighborhood school teacher and parent. she/her
new poem out today in BRAWL. this one bounced around for a long time before finding a home. shoutout also to @jxzzhndz.bsky.social who helped this piece achieve its final form, when I took a workshop w/ her way back when. www.brawllit.com/2026/sally-o...
Sally O'Brien — BRAWL
brawllit.com
he said “maximum lethality” and by golly he meant it
Olga Nesterova@onestpress.onestnetwork.com · 5mo agoMake this make sense.
we talk a lot of trash about john fetterman but he's going to really come in useful when it's time to hold a big door shut in the season finale of america
Reposting with alt text because this poem is hard and I think it just about sums up what we all feel right now
John Glenday@johnglenday.bsky.social · 8mo ago‘You Who Wronged’ by Czesław Milosz. For some reason or other this poem came to mind this morning. Written in a time of tyrants: #Poetry
@lydiakiesling.bsky.social maybe you’re the wrong person to ask but after reading Mobility I’ve really got a hankering for MORE LITERARY WRITING about the petrochemical industry. I have read Ducks by Kate Beaton and loved it as well. do you have any recs?
There isn't a single problem "solved" by edtech that couldn't be fixed with smaller classes led by well-paid teachers given real academic freedom
a man wearing a headband and a pink towel says sweetie you 're wasting your gum
Alt: Gif of Nathan Lane from The Birdcage, saying “sweetie you’re wasting your gum”
media.tenor.com
Victoria De Capua@victoriadecapua.bsky.social · 9mo agoMovie you’ve watched more than six times with a gif. Hard mode: no Stars (Wars nor Trek), LOTR, or Marvel, Disney Animated or Pixar.
Today is World Aids Day. The current administration has barred federal offices from acknowledging it. In middle school I memorized Elizabeth Glaser's Address at the 1992 Democratic Convention for a forensic competition, and I've never forgotten it. awpc.cattcenter.iastate.edu/2017/03/21/a...
Address at the 1992 Democratic National Convention - July 14, 1992
[July 14, 1992 | New York, New York] I'm Elizabeth Glaser.
awpc.cattcenter.iastate.edu
I have discovered so much fantastic stuff from browsing the new fiction / new nonfiction shelf at the library. One book sent me down a years long rabbit hole of reading everything else I could get my hands on about heroic age Polar exploration.
G. Willow Wilson@gwillow.me · 9mo agoThe death of browsing is part of the reason art is the way it is now. Our opinions are largely fed to us by algorithms. Spending a spare 15 minutes wandering around a bookstore or comic shop or video rental place was how you found stuff you wouldn't ordinarily pick up and thereby expanded your taste
From Frederick Douglass's 1867 "Composite Nation" speech, a defense of Chinese migration to the United States at a time when anti-Chinese sentiment was intensifying. teachingamericanhistory.org/document/our...
“If a Negro should improperly approach a white woman his body would be hanging on the nearest tree…If the same rule were applied on the other side, and white men who insulted or debauched Negro women were treated likewise, this Convention would have to be adjourned for lack of a quorum.”
chapter infinity in the saga of "Philip Pulley is a plague on humanity"! I lived in a building owned by this notorious slumlord for about five years. I brought my son home to that apartment. Every single news item that comes out about him just makes him look worse. www.inquirer.com/news/phil-pu...
Landlord Phil Pulley transferred ownership of West Philly apartments days before suspected arson, records show
Property records show the notorious landlord signed a deed transfer two days before the June 2025 fire. The new owners are now demolishing the building.
inquirer.com
everyone should have a life of individual free inquiry/creative pursuit and participation in collective versions of that as well.
As I get ready to take the beloved veteran in my life out to lunch this Armistice Day, I am thinking again of this piece by S Brian Willson, which I often return to.
Armistice Day Has Morphed Into Veterans Day* -
veteransforpeace.org
Sally O’Brien@sallyohbrien.bsky.social · 2y agoHonorable mention goes to this sign outside the canteen. “Service You Deserve” —only between the hours of 7 am and 3 pm.
what I normally do for homework is have students read (usually a book of their choice, occasionally an assigned text) and fill out a log where they have to write a few sentences. this week I rolled out an alternate format where instead of writing every day they just write a book review at the end.
@marcusluther.bsky.social I SUCK at bulletin boards and the last two years I have fully intended to do this and it just…stayed blank thru June. but this is gonna be the year! finally got it populated! will let you know how the youth respond!
the youth of today are divided over whether John Proctor or Giles Corey has more aura. "...but just think about the way he went out in that last scene! refusing to lie on his name!" "...nah Giles Corey is peak aura. "MORE WEIGHT." as they are CRUSHING HIM to DEATH. bro WHAT."
third grade was in many ways a hot mess but my son STILL talks about reading Number the Stars, two years later. I can barely get him to tell me anything about his day at school but I can usually get a couple sentences out of him about what happened in Esperanza Rising.
Jonathan@jsench.bsky.social · 10mo agoYou know what has brought my kid alive as a reader this year? His teacher introduced POETRY. "Mom! Dad! Have you guys even heard of ROBERT FROST?"
me at 20: ugh I can’t imagine spending my life writing criticism about Homer that nobody outside the academy will read, what else can I do w/ my classics degree me at 40: yesss it’s my leisure time, can’t wait for my weekly Iliad zoom and then gonna crack open this new book of Homer criticism
“Why rush to adopt new technology that we know to make us dumber when we have old technology—books—we know to make us smarter?” bars!!!
Johanna Winant@johannawinant.bsky.social · 11mo ago. @dan-sinnamon.bsky.social and I put CLOSE READING FOR THE TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY together to help connect what undergrads do in assignments with what we do as scholars then we found ourselves talking to a lot of high school teachers slate.com/life/2025/10...
Your feel-good #phled story of the day, courtesy of @newskag.bsky.social, featuring my amazing students and my equally amazing colleagues! I thank my stars every day that when I go to work I leave with so many reasons to be hopeful.
Kristen Graham@newskag.bsky.social · 11mo agoThese #PHLed students never had a school library. They built one on their own, and now, the community has their back. Loved reporting this story: www.inquirer.com/education/ke...
…the feeling when you’re in the teacher’s lounge yapping about the recent @laborjawn.bsky.social episode about the 1981 Philly teachers strike and your amazing colleague perks up and says “I wrote my undergrad thesis about that strike!!”
Sally O’Brien@sallyohbrien.bsky.social · last yr.I did a big research project in 10th grade US history about the IWW, and it made me the person I am today (union schoolteacher & shop steward who closes out union meetings with a playlist of classic Wobbly songs)
