Andrew Simmons
@adlsimmons.bsky.social
public school teacher + articles/essays/newsletters/book(s) sometimes
bay area via kentucky
adlsimmons.com
bay area via kentucky
adlsimmons.com
For #46 of my boutique newsletter dedicated to teaching English to teens in dark times, I share a medication-scrambled thought-vomit from Thanksgiving vacation: the next book for educators I just might write.
46. From Kyoto, On Drugs: A Maybe-Book Stirs
How any class can make better communicators, planners, problem-solvers, and community members through journalism…
open.substack.com
December 8, 2025 at 8:30 PM
For #46 of my boutique newsletter dedicated to teaching English to teens in dark times, I share a medication-scrambled thought-vomit from Thanksgiving vacation: the next book for educators I just might write.
For #45, I wrote about good learning, iffy teaching, and my high school chem teacher...
45. This Ain't No Golf Course, This Ain't No Boardroom
My high school chemistry teacher, a whistle-blower's portrayal in Michael Mann's classic film The Insider, and one science class lesson I haven't sort of forgotten...
open.substack.com
November 3, 2025 at 6:31 PM
For #45, I wrote about good learning, iffy teaching, and my high school chem teacher...
“Young people are exposed to matters of honesty, compassion, and justice in their lives anyway,” says professor Andrew Peterson. “By enforcing norms around various values or virtues, every teacher is already involved in character education.”
#EduSky #ELATeacher
#EduSky #ELATeacher
Tackling the Question of Character Development in the Classroom
Using texts, projects, and classroom policies, some English teachers encourage self-reflection and teach social responsibility.
edut.to
September 26, 2025 at 5:14 PM
Nothing is more fun (as a journalist) than (as a teacher) getting to speak with bright, reflective, serious educators about their work. I find journalistic curiosity and teaching practice satiated, two birds, one stone, and so forth.
Tackling the Question of Character Development in the Classroom
Using texts, projects, and classroom policies, some English teachers encourage self-reflection and teach social responsibility.
www.edutopia.org
September 26, 2025 at 5:13 PM
Nothing is more fun (as a journalist) than (as a teacher) getting to speak with bright, reflective, serious educators about their work. I find journalistic curiosity and teaching practice satiated, two birds, one stone, and so forth.
For #44, a lit teacher angle on last week… what a month to start The Stranger…
44. Look, It's a Fascist! No, It's an Antifascist! Wait, I Think It's the Abyss!
Hi, we’re called False Witness, and we came to play some jams for you. Bear with us! This next song is called…
open.substack.com
September 16, 2025 at 11:32 PM
For #44, a lit teacher angle on last week… what a month to start The Stranger…
Have heard majoring in lit and theory doesn't prep one for conventional adult triumph but it helps when motivation for political violence can come from a closed loop of endlessly self-referential and ultimately post-ideological signs steps removed from meaning anyone not surfing said loop can infer.
September 12, 2025 at 4:42 PM
Have heard majoring in lit and theory doesn't prep one for conventional adult triumph but it helps when motivation for political violence can come from a closed loop of endlessly self-referential and ultimately post-ideological signs steps removed from meaning anyone not surfing said loop can infer.
As Gatsby turns 100, a reported story I wrote for @edutopia.org in April concerns how high school English teachers are approaching the all-American American Dream unit.
Reimagining the Classic American Dream Unit
How high school teachers across America are updating this foundational unit, 100 years after ‘Gatsby.’
www.edutopia.org
July 25, 2025 at 2:09 PM
As Gatsby turns 100, a reported story I wrote for @edutopia.org in April concerns how high school English teachers are approaching the all-American American Dream unit.
For #42, I write about why a classroom community rooted in love and care, at this point, should be teaching students of conscience to be lifelong haters.
42. Come Down On the Side of Dissonance
With love, teach kids how to "hate."
open.substack.com
July 13, 2025 at 8:39 PM
For #42, I write about why a classroom community rooted in love and care, at this point, should be teaching students of conscience to be lifelong haters.
In #40, I see the cost of Very Cruel Times: an emotional devolution for teens in English class. Add this to increased AI-and-testing-driven skepticism about the value of learning to communicate with language and actually reading texts, and…
open.substack.com/pub/andrewsi...
open.substack.com/pub/andrewsi...
40. Teens Tapdancing in the Tidepools of Moral Degeneracy
My students’ test scores go up! I’m more concerned about the holes in their souls. Somebody call David Brooks! I write about 4th grade, The Nickel Boys, Forrest Gump (again!), and MLK...
open.substack.com
April 14, 2025 at 2:39 PM
In #40, I see the cost of Very Cruel Times: an emotional devolution for teens in English class. Add this to increased AI-and-testing-driven skepticism about the value of learning to communicate with language and actually reading texts, and…
open.substack.com/pub/andrewsi...
open.substack.com/pub/andrewsi...
Can’t tell you how many times I’ve said “I’m your huckleberry” when someone has offered a beer or a spot on a pickup basketball team or asked for a volunteer for some mundane task.
April 2, 2025 at 2:55 PM
Can’t tell you how many times I’ve said “I’m your huckleberry” when someone has offered a beer or a spot on a pickup basketball team or asked for a volunteer for some mundane task.
Was just discussing with colleagues in my department, some of whom now only assign in-class writing using pencil and paper. I prefer doing digital publications, discussion forums, etc in my class but I also spend too much time being paranoid and determining authenticity instead of building skills.
The promise of AI in education is it will save educators time. That's rubbish. It's sapping all our time already in working groups, committees, workshops, and marking anxiety. It's the most time-sapping, exhausting and frankly boring thing I've ever encountered in HE - and it's in my research area.
March 22, 2025 at 4:44 PM
Was just discussing with colleagues in my department, some of whom now only assign in-class writing using pencil and paper. I prefer doing digital publications, discussion forums, etc in my class but I also spend too much time being paranoid and determining authenticity instead of building skills.
In teacher-vomit-diary #39, I liken the DOGE-ing of America to what happens when the most evolved versions of the high school boys who think reading is pointless get a giant hammer and free reign to use it on government.
39. Hey, You Wanna Smash Some Fruit?
The schoolhouse is not far from what is happening with DOGE...
andrewsimmons.substack.com
February 25, 2025 at 2:00 AM
In teacher-vomit-diary #39, I liken the DOGE-ing of America to what happens when the most evolved versions of the high school boys who think reading is pointless get a giant hammer and free reign to use it on government.
I haven't put on a Bill Fay record in a bit but songs like "Pictures of Adolf Again" and "Be Not So Fearful" spin in my head every week. I tried to interview Fay once but he politely demurred, so I wrote this instead. Sad he's gone. His music suits this time.
www.thebeliever.net/the-never-en...
www.thebeliever.net/the-never-en...
The Never Ending Happening - Believer Magazine
www.thebeliever.net
February 24, 2025 at 5:25 AM
I haven't put on a Bill Fay record in a bit but songs like "Pictures of Adolf Again" and "Be Not So Fearful" spin in my head every week. I tried to interview Fay once but he politely demurred, so I wrote this instead. Sad he's gone. His music suits this time.
www.thebeliever.net/the-never-en...
www.thebeliever.net/the-never-en...
HS teacher take: dismantling of academic institutions’ power to innovate not only leaves a crater to be filled by tech (as it sees fit) but validates students’ sense that academics = frivolous and disconnected from real life and willingness to view AI as extension of the self not cheap avoidance.
What these nihilistic vandals are doing to dismantle science & medicine—generations of expertise & public service & life improving benefits—is cultural revolution level national self harm. No foreign foe could inflict such brutal damage & senseless suffering on US so fast & effectively & unresisted.
February 15, 2025 at 8:14 PM
HS teacher take: dismantling of academic institutions’ power to innovate not only leaves a crater to be filled by tech (as it sees fit) but validates students’ sense that academics = frivolous and disconnected from real life and willingness to view AI as extension of the self not cheap avoidance.
I’m writing a story for publication about the enduring life (or death) of the “American Dream” lit class unit. I want to know it looks like in high school classrooms in 2025. I’m looking to connect with high school teachers from every part of the country. Message me here, please!
February 5, 2025 at 3:43 PM
I’m writing a story for publication about the enduring life (or death) of the “American Dream” lit class unit. I want to know it looks like in high school classrooms in 2025. I’m looking to connect with high school teachers from every part of the country. Message me here, please!
For the 38th installment of my criminally under-enjoyed newsletter on teaching in grim times, I finish an essay I started eight years ago. It’s about ejections, culture, community, and the oddest little charter school in Los Angeles.
38. The World is Your Oyster (and Vampire)
...Sent to drain/Secret destroyers/Hold you up to the flames…A historical remembrance on elections, disruption, governance, and the weirdest little charter school in America...
open.substack.com
January 28, 2025 at 7:08 PM
For the 38th installment of my criminally under-enjoyed newsletter on teaching in grim times, I finish an essay I started eight years ago. It’s about ejections, culture, community, and the oddest little charter school in Los Angeles.
Child, 9: are you going to get more tattoos?
Me: maybe
Child, 9: what about a hippogriff from Harry Potter?
Me: as you know I’m not really a fan, I mean…
Child, 9 (rolling her eyes): fine, well, why not a Killers of the Flower Moon tattoo or whatever…”
Me: maybe
Child, 9: what about a hippogriff from Harry Potter?
Me: as you know I’m not really a fan, I mean…
Child, 9 (rolling her eyes): fine, well, why not a Killers of the Flower Moon tattoo or whatever…”
December 21, 2024 at 3:30 AM
Child, 9: are you going to get more tattoos?
Me: maybe
Child, 9: what about a hippogriff from Harry Potter?
Me: as you know I’m not really a fan, I mean…
Child, 9 (rolling her eyes): fine, well, why not a Killers of the Flower Moon tattoo or whatever…”
Me: maybe
Child, 9: what about a hippogriff from Harry Potter?
Me: as you know I’m not really a fan, I mean…
Child, 9 (rolling her eyes): fine, well, why not a Killers of the Flower Moon tattoo or whatever…”
Teen hustle culture, AI, social media, and pandemic lessons have created a legion of current and future young voters who dismiss expertise, make choices without consideration of consequences, and valorize scams! That’s bad! We gotta help them fix their brains! This is my attempt to sort through it.
36. All Occasions Indeed Inform Against Them
The pandemic, AI, social media, teen hustle culture, the allure of inexpertise, dang interestin' country ya got there be a real shame if something awful and unsurprising happened to it...
andrewsimmons.substack.com
November 18, 2024 at 3:53 PM
Teen hustle culture, AI, social media, and pandemic lessons have created a legion of current and future young voters who dismiss expertise, make choices without consideration of consequences, and valorize scams! That’s bad! We gotta help them fix their brains! This is my attempt to sort through it.
Many former students are very angry at other former students for political choices. The lines are divided: those who did the reading in my class 2015-2023 and those who didn’t. Everyone grabbing at threads re why it turned out the way it did and this would be a great metric, lol.
November 9, 2024 at 6:37 PM
Many former students are very angry at other former students for political choices. The lines are divided: those who did the reading in my class 2015-2023 and those who didn’t. Everyone grabbing at threads re why it turned out the way it did and this would be a great metric, lol.
My 34th newsletter about teaching high school in doom times. For this issue, I consider the sudden and surprising loss of an old friend as I teach students literature about loss and renewal.
andrewsimmons.substack.com/p/34-goodnig...
andrewsimmons.substack.com/p/34-goodnig...
34. Goodnight, Sweet Prince
Goon Squad, sentimentalism, eulogies, teaching the literature of loss in a state of grief...
andrewsimmons.substack.com
September 28, 2024 at 6:46 PM
My 34th newsletter about teaching high school in doom times. For this issue, I consider the sudden and surprising loss of an old friend as I teach students literature about loss and renewal.
andrewsimmons.substack.com/p/34-goodnig...
andrewsimmons.substack.com/p/34-goodnig...
I wrote a SF Chron opinion piece about why the graduating class of 2024 is so odd. Plucky, reflective, emboldened, distracted, helpless, detached, cynical, scared, apathetic, brave….
www.sfchronicle.com/opinion/open...
www.sfchronicle.com/opinion/open...
COVID made this year’s graduating high school class different. Here’s how
The Class of 2024 understands how it feels to face the stormy eye of history, to be shaped by uncontrollable forces.
www.sfchronicle.com
June 18, 2024 at 3:35 PM
I wrote a SF Chron opinion piece about why the graduating class of 2024 is so odd. Plucky, reflective, emboldened, distracted, helpless, detached, cynical, scared, apathetic, brave….
www.sfchronicle.com/opinion/open...
www.sfchronicle.com/opinion/open...
open.substack.com/pub/andrewsi...
I wrote my 31st Substack about why Grammarly is a diabolical Trojan horse of a “learning tool” and why students using it as a “cheat code” will erode their selves…
I wrote my 31st Substack about why Grammarly is a diabolical Trojan horse of a “learning tool” and why students using it as a “cheat code” will erode their selves…
May 21, 2024 at 5:36 PM
open.substack.com/pub/andrewsi...
I wrote my 31st Substack about why Grammarly is a diabolical Trojan horse of a “learning tool” and why students using it as a “cheat code” will erode their selves…
I wrote my 31st Substack about why Grammarly is a diabolical Trojan horse of a “learning tool” and why students using it as a “cheat code” will erode their selves…
I wrote the 26th edition of my ongoing newsletter experiment about teaching in This Time.
“Only a disingenuous person actually wants to section off pieces of a history like the most desirable portions of an unevenly frosted birthday cake.”
“Only a disingenuous person actually wants to section off pieces of a history like the most desirable portions of an unevenly frosted birthday cake.”
26. Precision Bombing in the Citadel of Ideas
Pull my finger...
andrewsimmons.substack.com
November 20, 2023 at 5:06 PM
I wrote the 26th edition of my ongoing newsletter experiment about teaching in This Time.
“Only a disingenuous person actually wants to section off pieces of a history like the most desirable portions of an unevenly frosted birthday cake.”
“Only a disingenuous person actually wants to section off pieces of a history like the most desirable portions of an unevenly frosted birthday cake.”
I'm somewhat afraid to pose the question, but have edible things that are not jam been too often called "jammy," an issue also prevalent in discussions of non-Widespread-y bands that enjoy improvisation? Feel like there's data behind it, like people more often click on recipes with the word "jammy."
November 5, 2023 at 4:21 PM
I'm somewhat afraid to pose the question, but have edible things that are not jam been too often called "jammy," an issue also prevalent in discussions of non-Widespread-y bands that enjoy improvisation? Feel like there's data behind it, like people more often click on recipes with the word "jammy."