Mark Goodrich
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markgoodrich.bsky.social
Mark Goodrich
@markgoodrich.bsky.social
Was a lawyer, now a primary teacher. Interested in politics, chess, citizenship and education especially reading and maths. Has lived in 🇯🇵🇰🇷and now in 🇱🇦. https://open.substack.com/pub/markgoodrich
Pinned
I have finally written another Substack, many months after my last one! It's on two of my favourite topics - Japan and schools so it goes on a bit. A tl:dr summary follows.

open.substack.com/pub/markgood...
What Japan can teach us about running schools
It may not be what you think....
open.substack.com
Reposted by Mark Goodrich
I would definitely agree and have done this (I had 46k followers). "Announcing that you no longer actively posting on X and will now be posting on a new platform would be a different case. I haven’t seen a single large education account (say over 30K followers on X) that has taken this approach".
December 31, 2025 at 10:25 AM
Reposted by Mark Goodrich
Very hard to argue with this. Currently I occasionally reply/converse on X or rt things like jobs, rather than post anything new. But I might give it up entirely for 2026.
Happy New Year's Eve everyone. If you are a teacher (or indeed anyone) still posting on X, I have a suggested New Year's Resolution for you. Stop!

If you agree, please REPOST here and on X if you maintain an account there.

open.substack.com/pub/markgood...
A New Year's Resolution for Teachers: Quit X
The best time to do so was when Musk started poisoning it; the second-best time is now
open.substack.com
December 31, 2025 at 10:34 AM
Reposted by Mark Goodrich
Agreed re stopping using X. We just need more of the big edu accounts to stop posting there and switch to here. There are already many, many small voices like mine on Bluesky, I killed my x account over a year ago
December 31, 2025 at 10:33 AM
Reposted by Mark Goodrich
I would, but I don’t post on X anymore. I just can’t stomach it. I do wish more accounts would use BlueSky though. It took a little perseverance to get things going here but it was worth it. A lot of people set up profiles, then gave up without taking the time to post and interact. That’s a shame.
December 31, 2025 at 10:37 AM
Reposted by Mark Goodrich
Excellent blog.

My main take on Twitter was always: ‘If this was a pub, would I visit?’

I can put up with disagreement, rowdy evenings, occasional fights. But hard life rule: I don’t frequent hooligan pubs.
December 31, 2025 at 9:56 AM
Happy New Year's Eve everyone. If you are a teacher (or indeed anyone) still posting on X, I have a suggested New Year's Resolution for you. Stop!

If you agree, please REPOST here and on X if you maintain an account there.

open.substack.com/pub/markgood...
A New Year's Resolution for Teachers: Quit X
The best time to do so was when Musk started poisoning it; the second-best time is now
open.substack.com
December 31, 2025 at 9:33 AM
🧂 and 🔥 cocktail!
December 30, 2025 at 10:52 AM
Great to see another post from @readwritejen.bsky.social - this time on phonemic awareness. I have learned so much about effective phonics teaching from her writing.

open.substack.com/pub/readwrit...
Phonemic Awareness: Widely Accepted, But Misunderstood
What research tells us about classroom instruction
open.substack.com
December 29, 2025 at 11:30 AM
Just hoping that this time it will be different…. #TheAshes
It’s the hope that kills you every time, isn’t it? #TheAshes
December 27, 2025 at 3:05 AM
It’s the hope that kills you every time, isn’t it? #TheAshes
December 26, 2025 at 4:36 AM
Reposted by Mark Goodrich
The sheer amount of effort that goes into making Christmas special in primary is amazing!

Primary colleagues are unreal! Enjoy your break!
December 24, 2025 at 9:22 AM
Just trying this very Christmassy drink!
December 24, 2025 at 9:44 AM
Another excellent blog from @dylanpkane.bsky.social on the narrow learning of maths apps….it reminds me of the kid I taught who could ace TTRS but initially couldn’t apply his knowledge outside the app.

open.substack.com/pub/fivetwel...
Radiologists, DeltaMath, and Narrow Learning
The illusion of durable learning with education technology
open.substack.com
December 24, 2025 at 8:05 AM
I have been saying how brilliant this is for over a decade and it feels like this is a he year when the who’s world has caught up.
December 24, 2025 at 7:57 AM
I see this same phenomenon in the UK as well.
It's funny how us parochial Americans generally seem to perceive that the EV revolution is stalling or reversing when in fact it's accelerating rapidly worldwide. 25% of cars sold globally in 2025 were EVs!

It's mostly just the US that's being left behind
December 24, 2025 at 3:14 AM
My probably unique #ChristmasEve ritual - making a big vat of miso soup whilst listening to @katerusby.bsky.social!
December 24, 2025 at 1:49 AM
In the hope that there will be some #BookSky people around in the run-up to Christmas, I am seeking recommendations for the best single volume history of what is normally known as the #Vietnam War. I have read quite a lot on the Secret War in Laos but need more context. Reposts / tags welcome. 🙏
December 23, 2025 at 11:56 AM
I feel like I say this every week but it was just another great and fascinating episode. @adamboxereducation.bsky.social and @amymayforrester.bsky.social - congratulations on a great term of podcasts!

(PS - can you get Liz English on this platform. Loads I would like to ask her!)
What do you get if you cross a turnaround school with a startup school?

Yup - a whole load of problems.

But Liz English is actually doing it, and leading one of the most fascinating and successful schools in the country.

TUNE IN + SHARE

open.spotify.com/episode/3Atp...
What do you get if you cross a startup with a turnaround? With guest Liz English
open.spotify.com
December 21, 2025 at 7:31 AM
Another one of these scary fake AI citation stories. This is is clearly a nightmare for scholarship going forward but there is something I am puzzling over…
Closing out my year with a journal editor shocker 🧵

Checking new manuscripts today I reviewed a paper attributing 2 papers to me I did not write. A daft thing for an author to do of course. But intrigued I web searched up one of the titles and that's when it got real weird...
December 20, 2025 at 1:56 PM
Hi #EduSky - it's my last #Saturday3 before Christmas and first up is this fascinating blog on Basil Bernstein by @jonesedu.bsky.social. I have to confess that I had not heard of him but this explains how he anticipated a lot of cogsci and yet was quite different. bsky.app/profile/jone...
December 20, 2025 at 9:02 AM
Tough life out here in Laos.
December 19, 2025 at 10:22 AM
Why isn’t Josh Tongue bowling at the tail?! #Ashes
December 18, 2025 at 12:05 AM
This is true but one of my strongly-held opinions is that most UK voters *really* don’t get any voting systems that are not first past the post and always want to make it a 2 horse race. It’s why minor parties always did badly in first preference SV votes for London mayor.
The commentary says "People switching from Labour are heavily motivated by tactical considerations with 30% saying this is the primary reason for their switch" yet the new voting system doesn't need tactical votes to keep out Reform. If Lab can communicate this, they might get a few votes back.
Huge new poll puts Plaid ahead of Reform with Labour and the Conservatives on just 10% each. willhaywardwales.substack.com/p/bombshell-...
December 17, 2025 at 2:30 PM
Particularly good episode with lots of great thinking on assessment and how it can be effective. Also, I learnt a new Japanese word - kyozaikenkyu - meaning knowledge of instructional materials. If this whetted your appetite for Japanese words in an educational context….
PROFESSOR @dylanwiliam.bsky.social IN THE HOUSE

It was a real honour for me and @amymayforrester.bsky.social to interview Dylan and to talk all things schools, formative assessment, data, effective altruism and teacher improvement.

Not to be missed, please share!

open.spotify.com/episode/3Wcj...
What is formative assessment, and why should anybody care? With professor Dylan Wiliam
open.spotify.com
December 17, 2025 at 5:34 AM