Standardized Edutainment

I design entertaining educational materials for people of all ages. Your best comments and reblogs will be posted to @ilp-wall-of-fame

[inspired-lesson-plans]

So last night I paid Tumblr to license https://inspiredlessonplans.com/

And I love it! Smooth scrolling, fast loading, and the archive is so easy to access this way! Definitely worth $12.

This inspired me to touch up the design on the blog. Still a little tacky on purpose, but it's at least more presentable. The banner is my initial concept art of the Progressive Ally flag (as sketched with my index finger using Google Keep's limited color palette).

Anyway, I suddenly decided to do all of this because

We're going to be in San Francisco in August to visit a good friend, and hopefully spend at least one day at Pokemon XP together.

Tickets are limited, so I applied for a content creator's pass.

Here is a link to apply, if you're interested.

They say that applicants will be evaluated based on:

Engagement levels on content

Reason for wanting to attend

Maintains a family-friendly tone and follows The Pokémon Company International’s brand guidelines and Creator Code of Conduct

Inclusive of different Pokémon communities, backgrounds, regions, and perspectives

Helps Pokémon reach broader or underserved communities

Current and past engagement with The Pokémon Company International and our products

I do believe that I do all of these things. Here's the brief essay I submitted in my application.

I will write entertaining, classroom-ready educational materials across all academic subjects (math, science, social studies, language arts, visual arts, foreign language, and possibly also physical education & performing arts) for all grade levels (elementary, Middle School, High School, and maybe also undergraduate). All of it will feature Pokemon in some way, and I will be sure to incorporate whatever I can from this event.

I know my audience and they love to learn. According to a recent poll, 90% of my audience have at least some undergraduate education, and there are as many PhD candidates as high school students. Some of them are teachers and parents who may put this content into real world use. But most of my 100-200 readers per day (or more for trending content) come for the edutainment value.

Re: 1

As far as engagement levels go, Tumblr posts can never match the sheer volume of other social media. My most viral post ever only got 4 digits of engagement. But Tumblr users engage much more closely with their dashboards. My audience in particular is one that stuck with me through a series of ten essays about a single flawed academic paper criticizing the literacy levels of Midwestern US college students. So I think it's fair to say that my content has a rather substantial engagement level.

Re: 2

I do also think I have a good reason for wanting to attend. Pokemon has been an inspiration for me since it first came to the US. I'm serious about writing all those activities. It sounds like a fun challenge, like when I designed that card game around confirmation bias. I can certainly write 20+ high quality standards-based, classroom-ready learning activities. It may take a little while, but one thing I know about myself is that the more I invest my mind the more creative I become.

Re: 3

I read the brand guidelines for TPCi and will maintain a family friendly tone. I am aware that I have minors in my audience. I have posted some content that is intended for high schoolers and readers of a mature mindset. And since I'm serious about this, I'm considering going back through the archive (which is much easier to access now) and removing anything objectionable.

Re: 4

The followers of this blog are very diverse and international.

Re: 5

What better way to reach broader and underserved communities than fun, free educational resources?

Re: 6

Like I said, I've always loved Pokemon. @artstardoodles and I created epic role-playing campaigns set in a Pokemon world, full of way too many details to even begin talking about. My first Python project was a Fakedex stat generator with a lot of nerdy statistical analysis and is very poorly coded do not hire me to code anything. I have used the games to practice my Spanish, too. The dialogue in Gen 1 is so easy and familiar that it really helped me get a sense of natural language, whereas Gen 9 was very challenging like reading an 8th grade novel. And I plan to keep it up for as long as they keep making new games.

So if someone from Pokemon XP 2026 is reading this, I really do hope you will consider my application seriously. I'm going to be there either way, and I'm going to make at least some content this summer, too. But if I get a Content Creator's pass, then I promise I will make 20 or more individual educational activities, all Pokémon themed and created with love, that will be free to use and disperse for everyone.

:) thank you for reading

[dinosaur-ears]

Okay it's time who's ready for my

unhinged rant on The Lorax by Dr. Seuss

*the book, from the perspective of a >9mo pregnant anticapitalist disaster who's read it to a 2yo about 23,000 times in the past 6 months

I bought The Lorax for my kiddo based on vague memories and the charming line about caring a whole awful lot. The back of the book describes it as a book "about standing up for what you believe in."

The first time I read it to jog my memory, I was pleased to remember the Lorax angrily showing the Onceler the consequences of his actions, the irony of the Onceler watching his possessions crumble (and his family leave) after the trees are gone, the emphasis on restoration at the end. The truffula seed reminded me of the pawpaw seeds I was stewarding.

In subsequent reads, I grew more frustrated at the Onceler. He tells the story in an apparent act of accountability, but he still charges for it? He still describes the Lorax as bossy and makes comments about his attitude. He puts a lot of emphasis on his own prowess at engineering.

I came to think that the Onceler is actually a better stand-in for corporate profiteers than Seuss may even have intended, since he destroyed an ecosystem for personal profit, takes the retelling of the story as an opportunity to express that he's worried about it with all of his heart, and then shoves off responsibility for restoration onto a literal child when he could have spent the intervening decades growing trees and undoing his mess. This is just a Coca-Cola recycling campaign.

And then, by engaging uncritically with the Onceler's pleas, does the book itself endorse this sort of corporate responsibility-dodging?

But of course, the comparison breaks down because a proper capitalist would either have established a truffula farm free from all those pesky creatures to keep the operation going, or packed up and left with his family when there was no more profit to be wrung from that particular piece of land.

So then, why does the Onceler stay and watch his buildings crumble, cold under the roof, and make[s] his own clothes out of miff-muffered moof? Why not go on to the next big opportunity? Maybe he really does feel bad, but it's hard to square that with his ineffectual moping and charging for the story. I'm more inclined to think that he's so invested in the story of his own genius and the tragedy of his situation that he's stayed there wallowing in self-pity instead of either moving or fixing things. He's an individualist, but not the poster boy of capitalist success. He's a victim of his own ideology.

tl;dr: the books says:

The Onceler is a loser (in both capitalist and environmentalist ideologies)

it's important for us to step up and save the environment as private citizens after the companies make puppy dog eyes about it

[inspired-lesson-plans]

ELA, High School, Litera ry Analysis

CCSS.ELA.11-12.1: Cite strong and thorough textual evidence to support analysis of what the text says explicitly as well as inferences drawn from the text, including determining where the text leaves matters uncertain.

CCSS.ELA.11-12.2: Determine two or more themes or central ideas of a text and analyze their development over the course of the text, including how they interact and build on one another to produce a complex account; provide an objective summary of the text.

Pre-Class:

Students independently read The Lorax by Theodore Geisel written under the pen name Dr. Seuss. Additionally, they may elect to watch The Lorax (2012) by Illumination Studios.

Do Now:

Individually or in small groups, students read @dinosaur-ears's brief, high level analysis of The Lorax. Afterwards, they should share their thoughts with each other and/or on paper.

Class Discussion:

Students share their thoughts about the thesis and whether they are, disagree, or have anything to add.

Direct Instruction:

Walk the class through what makes this a good critique, as well as where it falls short (due to being a rant instead of a true academic exercise presumably to distract the author from the extreme unpleasantness that is convulsions).

Higher Order Learning:

Students visit the Juvenile section of their school's library. Alternatively, instruct them to do so independently at their local libraries. If necessary, permit them to use an app or other web service to access the necessary materials, but there really is no substitute for the feel of a children's book in one's hands.

They must choose at least one book of similar complexity to The Lorax on which to perform high level analysis. It can be by any author, but it should be one with which the students are already familiar (such as from childhood), and it needs to be a work of fiction.

[inspired-lesson-plans]

Here are a bunch of pictures of the warehouse and chemical plant at my new job. Please read the alt text for context in the following pictures.

This place is fascinating. I will be posting lessons inspired by my time here.

[inspired-lesson-plans]

Happy one year anniversary to my job at the flesh melting chemical factory. I have never before had a job where I learned less.

[uncleromeo]

if you don't do anything else today,

Please have a moment of silence for the people who were killed instead of freed when news of emancipation finally reached the furthest corners of the american south.

have another moment for the ledgers, catalogs, and records that were burned and the homes that were destroyed to hide the presence of very much alive and still enslaved people on dozens of plantations and homesteads across the south for decades after emancipation.

and have a third moment for those who were hunted and killed while fleeing the south to find safety across the border, overseas, in the north and to the west.

black people. light a candle, write a note to those who have passed telling them what you have achieved in spite of the racist and intolerant conditions of this world, feel the warmth of the flame under your hand, say a prayer of rememberance if you are religious, place the note under the candle, and then blow it out.

if you have children, sit them down and tell them anything you know about the life of oldest black person you've ever met. it doesn't have to be your own family. tell them what you know about what life was like for us in the days, years, decades after emancipation. if you don't know much, look it up and learn about it together.

This is Juneteenth.

white people CAN interact with this post. share it, spread it.

[inspired-lesson-plans]

If you are in America or any other country that once kept slaves, then please find a way to include this in your plans on or around June 19th.

[a-silly-poll-side-blog-yay]

have you ever had a beef with a teacher/prof

yes

no

hard to say

results

Voting ended onJun 3

[inspired-lesson-plans]

From @das-a-kirby-blog

#STORY TIME. SIXTH GRADE

#my math teacher chewed me out in front of the whole class for not turning in an assignment EVEN THOUGH DID

#so she handed me a paper and thought I could do it in class and then turn it in fora late grade

#she called me out telling me was being defiant and threatened to call my grandmother

#time skip. she's handing back graded papers. at this point had completed the missing assignment

#AND WHAT'S THIS? SHE HANDS BACK TWO OF THE SAME PAPERS. BOTH WITH TWO DIFFERENT DATES

#ONE BEFORE THE DUE DATE. AND ONE AFTER #SO HAD COMPLETED THE PAPER. IT WASN'T A MISSING ASSIGNMENT

#ANDI GOT NO APOLOGY FOR IT

#still hold a grudge to this day. I'm sorry Im not letting that slide #reblog

#another story is with one of my elementary teachers #in language arts

#after reading an article/ story we were expected to have the page filled with notes #well we did so. but it wasnt enough

#instead of. y'know. encouraging us to analyze a little more we were constantly shamed for not doing enough

#like whole class time telling us how mad she was LIKE. TELL US HOW TO IMPROVE

I have lost a few paper assignments. But I always assumed it was my fault for being disorganized, not the student's fault for not turning it in. Like, yeah, I asked them to check everything and be sure but... I really cannot care about the piece of paper with answers written on it.

Unfortunately, The System needs a grade. And teaching can be very stressful. But what the fuck, why didn't they apologize?

What other stories do people have?

Edit: There are some incredible stories from the replies and comments on this post. I have posted them to @ilp-wall-of-fame here, here, here, here, and here.

[inspired-lesson-plans]

Can't keep doing daily posts. Gonna go back to taking my time to craft with quality.

[academicssay]

academic self-regulation explained

[inspired-lesson-plans]

Alt Text: Simple diagram captioned "Unstructured Time" with the following cycle:

"there are things I need to do" → "there are also things I want to do" → "I can't do both" → "Guess I'll do nothing" → repeat

Social Emotional Learning, grades 5 through postgraduate, Time Management

Note: this lesson is also appropriate for lower grade levels, but higher grade levels tend to have fewer responsibilities during their unstructured time. It is still recommended to teach this skill early, before it becomes a lifelong affliction.

Do Now:

Provide students with the graphic, as well as this definition of Unstructured Time.

Unstructured time is when you have enough time to do something, but not a plan for what you're gonna do.

Individually or in small groups, students should write reflections on the following questions:

Have you ever gotten stuck in this cycle?

Why do you think people get stuck in this cycle?

How do you think it feels to be stuck in a cycle?

Direct Instruction:

Both structured (like time at school or at sports practice) and unstructured (like time to yourself in the evenings and weekends) are important. You can't live your whole life doing only one or the other. Well, that is to say, you can but it's usually not as good of a life.

Sometimes celebrities and important business people have practically every minute of every day planned out for them. This usually makes them miserable, even if the things that they are doing are the things that they wanted to do not having any control over your life feels really bad.

But you can also imagine somebody on an island Paradise, with no clocks and no expectations put upon them. Endless freedom, but without regularity it starts to feel strange, even meaningless. People in this kind of situation (rare but it does happen) usually create their own daily routines (fishing in the morning, cooking in the afternoon, crafting at night).

People need both. So why do some people get trapped in the cycle? It's called Decision Paralysis. Maybe you have too many options of what to do, or maybe you can't tell what's most important. The brain gets stuck, unable to decide, and like a deer staring at the headlights of an oncoming car, it freezes, unable to act.

So what can we do?

Guided Activity:

Recently, I had an entire day of unstructured time. The first thing I did was make a list of things I Wanted to stop and things I Needed to do.

How would you go about making sure you did as many of them as possible?

Students make suggestions, but you can offer the following exemplars:

Do the Needs, then reward with Wants, then back

Set a timer for each task so you don't get lost doing only one thing all day

Figure out the most important ones and do those first

Get the shortest tasks done first so the last gets smaller faster

Higher Order Learning:

Students work individually to figure out a list of Want2s and Need2s for the upcoming weekend. Then, they write out steps of a plan that will help them make sure they don't get caught by Decision Paralysis.

Emphasize that what's most important is that your unstructured time is time well spent.

If you only do your Want2s then you'll regret it later.

If you only do your Need2s then you'll feel like it was time stolen by responsibilities.

You don't have to get everything done on the list, either. It's not a game with a high score.

HW:

Students turn in a reflection piece about how much unstructured time that had, how well their plan worked, how much they were able to get done, and how they felt about it afterwards.

[hempseeeeds]

this needs more acknowledgement of the fact that some Things, both Need and Want tasks, can only be done during a certain time of day. Children are never too young to learn THAT.

If you have animal-pets that are only active during a narrow-ish daylight time-window, then both the mandatory Basic care-tasks AND the additional playing-with-them that you may want to do for fun, need to happen in their activity-window, or in the even narrower overlap of your unstructured-time with their activity-window. You're going to regret neglecting the animals' Basic Care Tasks in favor of playing a not-time-sensitive Video Game, more than you're going to regret Not doing The dishes before playing a not-time-sensitive Video Game, and you're going to regret Missing Out on playing with the animals while they were awake more than you're going to regret Not Reading a Book that you can also read at Night.

The same is also true (mostly, except for the Guilt of making animals suffer) for situations where one of the Things you Need to do is make a Phone Call to someone (like a doctor) whose office-hours have only a smallish overlap with your unstructured-time, or If one of the Things you might Like to do is attend an Open™ Social Event (craft/board-game/religious), or go to a Shop or Restaurant during its Special-offer-Time-window (like McDonald's Weekend breakfast).

[inspired-lesson-plans]

Revisited

& Revised

Further exemplary suggestions for Guided Instruction:

If any of your tasks are time-sensitive, such as feeding animals or a Livestream, then perhaps you can schedule your unstructured time around those activities.

[inbabylontheywept]

A Short Essay on Signal Reflections

The essay nobody asked for, but I've been reading about for around a week, and now can explain very easily and intuitively.

When electricity flows from a region with low impedance to a region with high impedance, a reflection of the signal passes back up the cable towards the source. This tends to make the most intuitive sense to people - after all, the high impedance region is easy to imagine as a traffic jam, and the ripple going up the line is just all the electrons having to slam their brakes. We've seen this before.

However, you get an identical ripple when going from a region with high impedance to a region with low impedance, which kind of mangles that analogy. You don't see traffic jams in regions where the speed limit goes up, just in places where it goes down.

And so for that, we're going to have to break the signal into two parts.

V=IR is bread and butter, but nobody accounts for those in time. Everyone does DC steady state analysis, and this is slightly weirder. So in a line with low impedance to high, you just look at how much V (voltage) you need to push the same amount of current (I). Since R is getting bigger, you now run out of voltage before you run out of current. So all the voltage gets used up, some of the current gets used up, and the current that no longer has enough voltage to get pushed forward can't enter the new material and thus bounces backwards up the line. The reverse happens with high to low. You now run out of current (I) before you run out of voltage (V) because R got smaller and energy must be conserved, so you get a voltage wave that bounces up the line. So any time R changes you have too much of either current or voltage and the extra gets sent back.

There are some weird implications to this! For example, a zero impedance ground would actually be hella noisy because it would accept 100% of the current into it, but reflect the entire voltage signal back. And an infinite impedance ground would eat the entire voltage field, but reflect 100% of the current back. An ideal ground for low noise needs to have the same impedance as the node its attached to.

[inspired-lesson-plans]

This is 300 level physics. I never left the 100 level, and even then I got a C. All of which is to say that this reads like an excellent, succinct, and very useful explanation for a concept that is beyond the scope of my understanding.

So I will reblog it here but I cannot add anything of value. May it be of value to some physics or engineering undergrad.

[engineering]

Where's that comment?

Hello Tumblr! 

@jubs here, today, to tell you about a feature we're building: Comments by author!

Comments (or replies) have been around for a while, but they have always been tucked away from your regular feed, and so we're working on a few ways to integrate them into the rest of our experience.

Soon, blogs will have a Comments tab alongside Posts, Likes, and Following. There, you will be able to see posts other people have been commenting on, and, more importantly, find your own comments! This was not possible before, except through notifications if someone engaged with your comment.

We're also working on a way to surface posts commented on by people you follow in your feeds. You will be able to find those in the For You tab, and later, alongside chronological posts in the Following tab.

So, how do you identify those posts in the feeds? 

Replied posts will show a small preview right there in your dashboard, before you click anything. 

This is not out yet, but soon! In the meantime, tell us what you think and expect from this! ☺︎

[inspired-lesson-plans]

I'm in favor of this! I leave quite a few Replies to posts using this account, and I would like an easier way to find them.

[whatsupbeanie]

I was reading one of my childhood diaries the other day and there was a whole paragraph saying how hopeful I was that my writing will help the archeologists in the far future. Then it proceeded to describe my lunch that day and how my dog was probably secretly able to talk. 

[thecottageinthedark]

#it IS of historical value#children's experiences are underrepresented in historical sources#it doesn't need well written or profound to be of historical value#comic#funny#art

[charlesoberonn]

[bemusedlybespectacled]

there is a fucking statue of a kid who lived sometime in the 1200s, around 800 fucking years ago, because we have pieces of his homework that he doodled on while learning how to write. this is one of his drawings:

when I was googling him (because I couldn't remember his name), I stumbled across this twitter thread about him, which includes a different doodle by an italian boy in the 1400s of knights besieging a castle:

It's at the back of one of his schoolbooks for learning Latin.

ALL WE KNOW OF THESE KIDS IS STUFF THEY DREW WHILE THEY WERE BORED AND IT'S STILL HISTORICALLY IMPORTANT.

[inspired-lesson-plans]

Social Studies, grades K-2, Connecting with History

Do Now:

Turn and talk.

What do you think it was like to be a kid 500 years ago? How would it be different than being a kid today?

Class Discussion:

Discuss their thoughts from the Do Now, then transition into showing the doodles provided by @bemusedlybespectacled without providing any context. Ask them when they think those drawings were done and how they can tell. In the former, note that the drawing is done with a stylus instead of a pencil, and in the latter have the students observe that there are castles, horses, and bows and arrows.

Direct Instruction:

Explain to students that historians only know about what happened in the past because of what people in the past left behind. Old books and scrolls tell us what they used to believe, or about the lives of important people. Old weapons and tools show us how good their technology was. For example, show the stone age spears vs the 18th century pole arms.

Drawings of plants and animals show us what animals used to live there and what they looked like. For example, the Lascaux cave paintings in France

Or the painting of watermelons from 17th century Europe

Guided Learning:

Ask students to turn and talk to discuss the following question.

What will people in the far-off future know about us from what we are leaving behind right now?

Regroup and hold another class discussion about what current humans are going to leave behind for people in the future to know about how we live.

Then, ask one last question.

What do you want people in the far-off future to know about your life?

Higher Order Learning:

Give students a doodle book to fill out. On every page, they should draw something about their lives or the world around them so that historians in the far-off future can study it and learn about the world of 2025. You may give a few examples as well as model a doodle in your own notebook. And, just like the Italian boy from the 1400s, they are encouraged to doodle in this book during school (unless they need to pay attention).

[inspired-lesson-plans]

Appraised

& Approved

Relevant standards for this lesson:

[inspired-lesson-plans]

So last night I paid Tumblr to license https://inspiredlessonplans.com/

And I love it! Smooth scrolling, fast loading, and the archive is so easy to access this way! Definitely worth $12.

This inspired me to touch up the design on the blog. Still a little tacky on purpose, but it's at least more presentable. The banner is my initial concept art of the Progressive Ally flag (as sketched with my index finger using Google Keep's limited color palette).

Anyway, I suddenly decided to do all of this because

We're going to be in San Francisco in August to visit a good friend, and hopefully spend at least one day at Pokemon XP together.

Tickets are limited, so I applied for a content creator's pass.

Here is a link to apply, if you're interested.

They say that applicants will be evaluated based on:

Engagement levels on content

Reason for wanting to attend

Maintains a family-friendly tone and follows The Pokémon Company International’s brand guidelines and Creator Code of Conduct

Inclusive of different Pokémon communities, backgrounds, regions, and perspectives

Helps Pokémon reach broader or underserved communities

Current and past engagement with The Pokémon Company International and our products

I do believe that I do all of these things. Here's the brief essay I submitted in my application.

I will write entertaining, classroom-ready educational materials across all academic subjects (math, science, social studies, language arts, visual arts, foreign language, and possibly also physical education & performing arts) for all grade levels (elementary, Middle School, High School, and maybe also undergraduate). All of it will feature Pokemon in some way, and I will be sure to incorporate whatever I can from this event.

I know my audience and they love to learn. According to a recent poll, 90% of my audience have at least some undergraduate education, and there are as many PhD candidates as high school students. Some of them are teachers and parents who may put this content into real world use. But most of my 100-200 readers per day (or more for trending content) come for the edutainment value.

Re: 1

As far as engagement levels go, Tumblr posts can never match the sheer volume of other social media. My most viral post ever only got 4 digits of engagement. But Tumblr users engage much more closely with their dashboards. My audience in particular is one that stuck with me through a series of ten essays about a single flawed academic paper criticizing the literacy levels of Midwestern US college students. So I think it's fair to say that my content has a rather substantial engagement level.

Re: 2

I do also think I have a good reason for wanting to attend. Pokemon has been an inspiration for me since it first came to the US. I'm serious about writing all those activities. It sounds like a fun challenge, like when I designed that card game around confirmation bias. I can certainly write 20+ high quality standards-based, classroom-ready learning activities. It may take a little while, but one thing I know about myself is that the more I invest my mind the more creative I become.

Re: 3

I read the brand guidelines for TPCi and will maintain a family friendly tone. I am aware that I have minors in my audience. I have posted some content that is intended for high schoolers and readers of a mature mindset. And since I'm serious about this, I'm considering going back through the archive (which is much easier to access now) and removing anything objectionable.

Re: 4

The followers of this blog are very diverse and international.

Re: 5

What better way to reach broader and underserved communities than fun, free educational resources?

Re: 6

Like I said, I've always loved Pokemon. @artstardoodles and I created epic role-playing campaigns set in a Pokemon world, full of way too many details to even begin talking about. My first Python project was a Fakedex stat generator with a lot of nerdy statistical analysis and is very poorly coded do not hire me to code anything. I have used the games to practice my Spanish, too. The dialogue in Gen 1 is so easy and familiar that it really helped me get a sense of natural language, whereas Gen 9 was very challenging like reading an 8th grade novel. And I plan to keep it up for as long as they keep making new games.

So if someone from Pokemon XP 2026 is reading this, I really do hope you will consider my application seriously. I'm going to be there either way, and I'm going to make at least some content this summer, too. But if I get a Content Creator's pass, then I promise I will make 20 or more individual educational activities, all Pokémon themed and created with love, that will be free to use and disperse for everyone.

:) thank you for reading

[onion-souls]

OH So this guy’s purpose in life is to hang out in a Pokémon Center on Poni Island and tutor one move that only one Pokémon can learn, a Legendary postgame Pokémon from a Hoenn one/four generations ago. And that Pokémon naturally knows that move anyway.

Fuck me, I’m getting a new job. I’ll be standing in a Dunkin Donuts on Staten Island tutoring Spanish. But only if you’re early 19th Venezuelan military leader Simón Bolívar.

[inspired-lesson-plans]

Black History Month Activity

Follows the Black History Month Cinematic Universe project.

Do Now:

Come up with your own version of this joke using a member of the BHMCU.

Example: I’m getting a new job. I’ll be standing in a Quonset hut on the Appalachian Trail teaching seminars in girlbossing. But only if you’re turn-of-the-century cosmetics magnate Madame C.J. Walker.

[inspired-lesson-plans]

It just occurred to me that Simón Bolívar works absolutely love to take lessons in 21st century New York dialect of Spanish. He was practically royalty in colonial Venezuela, received an Enlightenment era education in Spain, then went on to literally revolutionize half of South America.

I can't imagine anyone better to share a Dunkaccino and a lesson in the creeping influence of Internet slang.

[academicssay]

academic self-regulation explained

[inspired-lesson-plans]

Alt Text: Simple diagram captioned "Unstructured Time" with the following cycle:

"there are things I need to do" → "there are also things I want to do" → "I can't do both" → "Guess I'll do nothing" → repeat

Social Emotional Learning, grades 5 through postgraduate, Time Management

Note: this lesson is also appropriate for lower grade levels, but higher grade levels tend to have fewer responsibilities during their unstructured time. It is still recommended to teach this skill early, before it becomes a lifelong affliction.

Do Now:

Provide students with the graphic, as well as this definition of Unstructured Time.

Unstructured time is when you have enough time to do something, but not a plan for what you're gonna do.

Individually or in small groups, students should write reflections on the following questions:

Have you ever gotten stuck in this cycle?

Why do you think people get stuck in this cycle?

How do you think it feels to be stuck in a cycle?

Direct Instruction:

Both structured (like time at school or at sports practice) and unstructured (like time to yourself in the evenings and weekends) are important. You can't live your whole life doing only one or the other. Well, that is to say, you can but it's usually not as good of a life.

Sometimes celebrities and important business people have practically every minute of every day planned out for them. This usually makes them miserable, even if the things that they are doing are the things that they wanted to do not having any control over your life feels really bad.

But you can also imagine somebody on an island Paradise, with no clocks and no expectations put upon them. Endless freedom, but without regularity it starts to feel strange, even meaningless. People in this kind of situation (rare but it does happen) usually create their own daily routines (fishing in the morning, cooking in the afternoon, crafting at night).

People need both. So why do some people get trapped in the cycle? It's called Decision Paralysis. Maybe you have too many options of what to do, or maybe you can't tell what's most important. The brain gets stuck, unable to decide, and like a deer staring at the headlights of an oncoming car, it freezes, unable to act.

So what can we do?

Guided Activity:

Recently, I had an entire day of unstructured time. The first thing I did was make a list of things I Wanted to stop and things I Needed to do.

How would you go about making sure you did as many of them as possible?

Students make suggestions, but you can offer the following exemplars:

Do the Needs, then reward with Wants, then back

Set a timer for each task so you don't get lost doing only one thing all day

Figure out the most important ones and do those first

Get the shortest tasks done first so the last gets smaller faster

Higher Order Learning:

Students work individually to figure out a list of Want2s and Need2s for the upcoming weekend. Then, they write out steps of a plan that will help them make sure they don't get caught by Decision Paralysis.

Emphasize that what's most important is that your unstructured time is time well spent.

If you only do your Want2s then you'll regret it later.

If you only do your Need2s then you'll feel like it was time stolen by responsibilities.

You don't have to get everything done on the list, either. It's not a game with a high score.

HW:

Students turn in a reflection piece about how much unstructured time that had, how well their plan worked, how much they were able to get done, and how they felt about it afterwards.

[sarahmackattack]

Wanna help out your neighborhood raccoons and possums? Supporting ecosystems starts at the base. Adding native plants to your backyard, roof deck, sidewalk, or window box provides habitat for insects and other little creatures that philly’s wildlife relies on.

(If you live outside of Philly, this applies to your town too)

[inspired-lesson-plans]

My lawn (such as it is).

After our dog (below) destroyed every blade of grass in order to act out the trauma of a past life as a World War I soldier who died in the trenches (my going theory), we covered the whole thing with bricks, leaving enough of a gap for native plants (what my mom calls "weeds", but she's English) to grow into this beautiful garden.

The roses were intentional (again, my mom is English), and the big tree in the center is a native persimmon.

I'm pretty sure that raccoons and opossums come in the night to forage, because our hyper-vigilant dog alerts us to any disturbance.

Morrigan is now only allowed to dig in the way back of the yard where I failed to grow a three sisters garden.

[gethogwashed]

Local Hero

[inspired-lesson-plans]

Social Students, high school, reflection activity

Essay Topic:

Pick a historical period that you have studied this year. From that period, choose at least one complex issue that could not be easily solved (i.e. religious tensions of the English civil war; The Great Depression; everything happening right now).

Then, choose one superhero. Identify them and describe what superhuman abilities they have. Explain what they could have done in order to combat the problems of that era. Go into as much detail as necessary – demonstrate just how well you understand the conflicts of that time period and the capabilities of your chosen fictional character. Ultimately, you will need to decide whether even they would have been able to alter history for the better in any meaningful way.

Note: You must write about a hero, not a villain, because making the world a better place is more challenging than making things worse (hence why we strive to educate our children and ourselves).

[dark-magician-girl-meets-world]

One of the machines broke down at the hyperbole factory. The situation is frustrating, but ultimately manageable.

[dark-magician-girl-meets-world]

It just started working again! This is the best day ever!

[inspired-lesson-plans]

ELA, grade 4-5, Figurative Language

CCSS.ELA.5.5: Demonstrate understanding of figurative language, word relationships, and nuances in word meanings.

Activity Idea:

Students construct similar jokes for each of the following figurative language devices (add or remove items according to what they have been taught)

Simile

Metaphor

Analogy

Acronym

Personification

Onomatopoeia

Alliteration

Oxymoron

Synecdoche

Palindrome

Students are encouraged to get creative, using multiple devices in a single joke if they are able to, such as simile and metaphor getting mixed up.

[creekfiend]

overall though, I'm definitely rotating the fact that a lot of US public education emphasizes a method of learning to read that relies heavily on the context of "what it is likely that the text says" rather than looking at what the text does say and then understanding/interpreting it. like.

1. explains so much about written communication especially online, truly, as many have observed, but also

2. LARGE LANGUAGE MODELS. I BET THIS IS WHY PEOPLE THINK LARGE LANGUAGE MODELS ARE NORMAL. I BET THIS IS WHY PEOPLE THINK "MACHINE THAT ANALYZES WHAT IS STATISTICALLY LIKELY TO BE SAID IN THIS SPECIFIC CONTEXT AND THEN SAYS THAT" IS A NORMAL AND NOT SCARY THING. OH MY GOD I FEEL LIKE I UNDERSTAND EVERYTHING NOW

[ellasinnombre]

@inspired-lesson-plans

[inspired-lesson-plans]

I agree with point 1, but not with point 2, though I do think it's an interesting observation.

Background:

Whole language learning is a mode of literacy education that started in the '90s and gained serious traction in the 2000s, which basically worked on the theory that you could skip the "B says buh, now you try" phase of phonics and jump straight to sight words. This idea resonated with a lot of educators. In the '90s, there was very little research that could definitively say how we actually learn. Neuroscience was still nowhere near being able to enlighten this process, and it's a very difficult thing to study in the lab. So why not try a more forward-thinking approach?

And I can attest to the fact that context is very good for learning new vocabulary! Watch this short and see if you can learn some Spanish from it.

For a minority of students, it did actually work! That's because they were smart enough to figure out how to sound words out on their own, and dedicated enough to get lots of independent reading practice.

For another minority of students, their families supplemented the classroom education with more traditional phonics instruction.

The majority of students became adequate readers, able to mostly understand what they were reading, but unprepared to engage with the kind of complex texts that universities require for the liberal arts and sciences.

And of course a significant minority of students barely learned to read at all.

It was a huge mistake and you can learn all about it in the fantastic audio journalism of Emily Hanford.

Emily Hanford is the creator, lead reporter and host of Sold a Story, a podcast that has changed the way millions of kids are taught to read

Additionally, I am actually fairly knowledgeable about generative AI thanks to a month of dedicating myself to completing a 5 Day Generative AI Course on Kaggle. The first day took me a week, the second took 2 weeks, and I'm pretty sure the third one would have taken me 4 weeks. If it had continued at this rate, I would have dedicated 31 weeks to properly learning the ins and outs of how to write code that integrates Gemini. But despite the fact that I never finished the project, all of the time that I spent learning the fundamentals of how LLMs actually work was very valuable to me.

Imagine if the Dewey decimal system went out to 30 decimal places, except that at that level of precision you are no longer cataloging books, you are cataloging words or pieces of words. Ask @your-dewey-decimal-number-is about why some animals can fly and they will interpret your question as a series of numbers in a catalogue, then find books keyed to those numbers for you to read. Ask Perplexity.ai the same question and it will, in a sense do the same thing.

I honestly do not know how to explain the way that it turns inputs into outputs unless you already understand linear algebra. Just in case you do, you need to conceptualize that every single word can be found semantically mapped within a freakishly enormous matrix, and by doing a bit of matrix math, it can return a series of words that mathematically correlate with the most probable answers.

I have no idea how much money went into the computer science research, the energy requirements, the training, all of it. Empires rise and fall for less. The fact that people use this technology in order to create deep fake porn or social media ads for puzzle-match games? It's like using the space shuttle to roast marshmallows.

As to your first point:

You're probably right.

As to your second point:

Whenever I encounter this kind of "this thing looks like this other thing" argument it immediately brings to mind this other thing.

Just because This Thing looks like This Other Thing does not mean they are in any way related.

Granted, I am also making a "this thing looks like this other thing" argument between what you said and Internet disinformation. Please know that when I caught myself doing that, I realized I would need to slow down and think about this for a while longer. So instead of writing a response, I did the dishes, had a lovely afternoon out with my wife, took a nap, and then spent 15 minutes figuring out how to clip Spanish Yu-Gi-Oh into something that would support my argument.

Here's one that I just made for fun.

Why did he decide to do it like that?

Anyway, I can see where you're coming from and frankly I'm not sure whether it's really possible to disagree. People are so complicated that hardly anyone even knows the reason why they do the things they do. And there's so much diversity that people can be stupid for a stupidly large number of reasons.

I think it would just be a really cool experiment to see whether LLMs process text by using the same kind of mechanisms behind Whole Language or Three Queuing. I don't think they do, but I'm not the kind of person who is placated by assumptions when science can find a better answer.

I do assume (in spite of what I just said because I am also stupid in my own way) that People believe what generative AI tells them due to something much more like the Labcoat Effect. If a man looks like a TV doctor and is dressed like a TV doctor, and he tells you something about your health, some part of you is just going to believe him. Some part of you believes that this information is coming from a doctor. Even if you know it isn't, you can't shake the cognitive illusion of authority.

To a lot of people, AI was made by People who are smarter than them and that means it's also smarter than them and if you play around with it, you find that it is actually very good at answering questions. I have spent a lot of time playing around with it professionally. It is very good, and it's only getting better. I was once getting paid in order to trigger hallucinations and report them, and these days it's getting harder to do that. Now that I am a truck driver, if I ever have a question about regulations or maintenance or whatever, I usually ask Perplexity (because I don't have a real human mentor), and it is honestly very good.

No, I don't think the scary thing is that people believe whatever the LLM tells them, I think it's that they don't know how to critically engage with what the llm tells them. They don't know how to dig deeper into the sources that it references (I think that most models do this now). They don't know how to ask follow-up questions. Or maybe their reading comprehension and overall common sense is piss poor.

That, and the fact that the Labcoat Effect is not being granted to humans who are experts in their fields. Why would you believe the machine when you won't believe vaccine researchers like come the fuck on.