Nick Covington
@covingtonedu.bsky.social
Dad. Iowan. Former HS social studies teacher.
Creative Director @ Human Restoration Project 🛸 www.humanrestorationproject.org
Creative Director @ Human Restoration Project 🛸 www.humanrestorationproject.org
Finally print-and-played Galdor's Grip over the weekend and I'm kicking myself for not doing it earlier. 🤦🏼 I've already played it in the car waiting for my kids at gymnastics, in bed, on the couch. Won 1 out of about 12 games so far. Absolutely brilliant.
November 24, 2025 at 6:03 PM
Finally print-and-played Galdor's Grip over the weekend and I'm kicking myself for not doing it earlier. 🤦🏼 I've already played it in the car waiting for my kids at gymnastics, in bed, on the couch. Won 1 out of about 12 games so far. Absolutely brilliant.
A ⭐ on your sticker chart if you can guess the year:
"...we have complained that schools have abandoned academic standards, schools have undermined American economic competitiveness, schools are disorderly places that breed social disorder, schools waste massive sums of money..."
"...we have complained that schools have abandoned academic standards, schools have undermined American economic competitiveness, schools are disorderly places that breed social disorder, schools waste massive sums of money..."
November 20, 2025 at 7:17 PM
A ⭐ on your sticker chart if you can guess the year:
"...we have complained that schools have abandoned academic standards, schools have undermined American economic competitiveness, schools are disorderly places that breed social disorder, schools waste massive sums of money..."
"...we have complained that schools have abandoned academic standards, schools have undermined American economic competitiveness, schools are disorderly places that breed social disorder, schools waste massive sums of money..."
Wow, this is wild. I had no idea @mistermeyer.bsky.social! Brown's Choice Program was a go-to social studies teaching resource for conscientious educators, that it's just *gone* is a huge loss.
history.brown.edu/community/ch...
history.brown.edu/community/ch...
November 19, 2025 at 8:32 PM
Wow, this is wild. I had no idea @mistermeyer.bsky.social! Brown's Choice Program was a go-to social studies teaching resource for conscientious educators, that it's just *gone* is a huge loss.
history.brown.edu/community/ch...
history.brown.edu/community/ch...
@scottmcbride.bsky.social you did indeed put this fellow Iowan over the top! 🥳🎉
Thank you so much to everyone who helped me raise $500 in just over 24 hours for Iowa Citizens for Community Improvement!!!
www.cciaction.org
Thank you so much to everyone who helped me raise $500 in just over 24 hours for Iowa Citizens for Community Improvement!!!
www.cciaction.org
November 18, 2025 at 9:00 PM
@scottmcbride.bsky.social you did indeed put this fellow Iowan over the top! 🥳🎉
Thank you so much to everyone who helped me raise $500 in just over 24 hours for Iowa Citizens for Community Improvement!!!
www.cciaction.org
Thank you so much to everyone who helped me raise $500 in just over 24 hours for Iowa Citizens for Community Improvement!!!
www.cciaction.org
97% towards our goal! 👀👀👀👀👀👀
November 18, 2025 at 8:47 PM
97% towards our goal! 👀👀👀👀👀👀
Just $60 left to go to hit our $500 donation goal for Iowa Citizens for Community Improvement, and in the first 24 hours no less! 🙌🙌
November 18, 2025 at 8:05 PM
Just $60 left to go to hit our $500 donation goal for Iowa Citizens for Community Improvement, and in the first 24 hours no less! 🙌🙌
@eliowa.bsky.social catapulting us to $345! At this rate I'll have to add a stretch goal before lunch! 😎
November 18, 2025 at 1:08 PM
@eliowa.bsky.social catapulting us to $345! At this rate I'll have to add a stretch goal before lunch! 😎
Absolutely wild to be nearly 2/3 of the way there in less than 24 hours. Huge thank you to @lutzfernandez.bsky.social!
November 18, 2025 at 12:51 PM
Absolutely wild to be nearly 2/3 of the way there in less than 24 hours. Huge thank you to @lutzfernandez.bsky.social!
Each increment of $20 will also get you an entry to win signed copies of both of @jenniferberkshire.bsky.social's co-authored books, A Wolf at the Schoolhouse Door and The Education Wars, so a $100 donation will get you 5 entries in the drawing!
November 17, 2025 at 8:43 PM
Each increment of $20 will also get you an entry to win signed copies of both of @jenniferberkshire.bsky.social's co-authored books, A Wolf at the Schoolhouse Door and The Education Wars, so a $100 donation will get you 5 entries in the drawing!
And the foundational experience of any game is the same as any iterative experiential learning: using mechanics and tools (and becoming more proficient with them) to achieve an agentic goal.
Building a toolshed & playing Tea Witches are different expressions of the same fundamental learning ideas.
Building a toolshed & playing Tea Witches are different expressions of the same fundamental learning ideas.
November 14, 2025 at 3:57 PM
And the foundational experience of any game is the same as any iterative experiential learning: using mechanics and tools (and becoming more proficient with them) to achieve an agentic goal.
Building a toolshed & playing Tea Witches are different expressions of the same fundamental learning ideas.
Building a toolshed & playing Tea Witches are different expressions of the same fundamental learning ideas.
The rulebook only becomes important, in the literal sense of having significance, *after* acquiring the motivational velocity to interpret rules and mechanics toward an objective: beat the game, beat your opponent, experience the narrative, explore the world, etc.
November 14, 2025 at 3:57 PM
The rulebook only becomes important, in the literal sense of having significance, *after* acquiring the motivational velocity to interpret rules and mechanics toward an objective: beat the game, beat your opponent, experience the narrative, explore the world, etc.
Iterating within systems, seeing mechanics interact, and being an agentic participant in those mechanics *toward* a particular outcome, is the far more efficient AND effective way to learn to play and to play well.
No game would get played if you had to pass a rulebook test ahead of time.
No game would get played if you had to pass a rulebook test ahead of time.
November 14, 2025 at 3:38 PM
Iterating within systems, seeing mechanics interact, and being an agentic participant in those mechanics *toward* a particular outcome, is the far more efficient AND effective way to learn to play and to play well.
No game would get played if you had to pass a rulebook test ahead of time.
No game would get played if you had to pass a rulebook test ahead of time.
Tabletop gaming is a great example of the distinction: starting with the rulebook is the *worst* way to learn a new game and may even create complexity & misunderstanding when it's far easier to *learn by playing*.
November 14, 2025 at 3:38 PM
Tabletop gaming is a great example of the distinction: starting with the rulebook is the *worst* way to learn a new game and may even create complexity & misunderstanding when it's far easier to *learn by playing*.
There's several things that are wrong with this way of thinking, not the least of which is ignoring the reality of embodied cognition, that humans are *not* just brains. And while we mostly share the same brain structures & processes, we don't share the same embodied, constructed experience.
November 14, 2025 at 1:24 PM
There's several things that are wrong with this way of thinking, not the least of which is ignoring the reality of embodied cognition, that humans are *not* just brains. And while we mostly share the same brain structures & processes, we don't share the same embodied, constructed experience.
Encountered a new tarmac delay: flight out of Michigan had "too many bags in the back" so they had to redistribute them, couldn't get what they needed, and subsequently had to "300lbs to the front of the plane."
The good news is that my connecting flight to Des Moines is equally delayed.
The good news is that my connecting flight to Des Moines is equally delayed.
November 13, 2025 at 12:24 PM
Encountered a new tarmac delay: flight out of Michigan had "too many bags in the back" so they had to redistribute them, couldn't get what they needed, and subsequently had to "300lbs to the front of the plane."
The good news is that my connecting flight to Des Moines is equally delayed.
The good news is that my connecting flight to Des Moines is equally delayed.
Yeah, I wonder why COVID has had a widespread impact on the cognitive endurance of college students. It's truly a mystery.
November 12, 2025 at 10:56 PM
Yeah, I wonder why COVID has had a widespread impact on the cognitive endurance of college students. It's truly a mystery.
Here are long term NAEP trends for 13-year-old reading scores from 1971 to 2023.
Can you tell me where on the graph we stopped or started teaching phonics?
Can you tell me where on the graph we stopped or started teaching phonics?
November 12, 2025 at 10:52 PM
Here are long term NAEP trends for 13-year-old reading scores from 1971 to 2023.
Can you tell me where on the graph we stopped or started teaching phonics?
Can you tell me where on the graph we stopped or started teaching phonics?
"I will teach real history. I will celebrate diversity. I will welcome and love every student regardless of any of the labels they were made to feel bad for. I refuse to silently watch as our country descends into fascism."
www.humanrestorationproject.org/writing/ther...
www.humanrestorationproject.org/writing/ther...
November 9, 2025 at 4:40 PM
"I will teach real history. I will celebrate diversity. I will welcome and love every student regardless of any of the labels they were made to feel bad for. I refuse to silently watch as our country descends into fascism."
www.humanrestorationproject.org/writing/ther...
www.humanrestorationproject.org/writing/ther...
If you want to know where the money for school buildings comes from, @schooldaves.bsky.social has answers...none of which you're going to like.
Search & subscribe to 'Human Restoration Project' or listen on our website, humanrestorationproject.org/podcast, when the full episode drops tomorrow!
Search & subscribe to 'Human Restoration Project' or listen on our website, humanrestorationproject.org/podcast, when the full episode drops tomorrow!
November 7, 2025 at 11:36 PM
If you want to know where the money for school buildings comes from, @schooldaves.bsky.social has answers...none of which you're going to like.
Search & subscribe to 'Human Restoration Project' or listen on our website, humanrestorationproject.org/podcast, when the full episode drops tomorrow!
Search & subscribe to 'Human Restoration Project' or listen on our website, humanrestorationproject.org/podcast, when the full episode drops tomorrow!
Love that @humanrestorationproject.org got included in the sketch notes agenda today. 😁
November 7, 2025 at 8:21 PM
Love that @humanrestorationproject.org got included in the sketch notes agenda today. 😁
Huge thank you to @joshuaseigal.bsky.social for sending a signed copy of I Don't Like Poetry to my son! I can't wait to show him after school. 😊
November 6, 2025 at 4:39 PM
Huge thank you to @joshuaseigal.bsky.social for sending a signed copy of I Don't Like Poetry to my son! I can't wait to show him after school. 😊
Imagine someone coming to this country to take care of *your children* to not only be treated like this but have the "law" impose such harm on a community. Nobody was hurt by this person's immigration status, only by indiscriminate & dehumanizing enforcement, and that includes your kids.
November 5, 2025 at 4:51 PM
Imagine someone coming to this country to take care of *your children* to not only be treated like this but have the "law" impose such harm on a community. Nobody was hurt by this person's immigration status, only by indiscriminate & dehumanizing enforcement, and that includes your kids.
Teachers often get told what "Best Practice" is, but I worry they don't get enough intentional visioning time to reflect on what their classroom practice/culture looks & sounds like at its ideal and collaborate to address stressors/barriers to that vision. Here's a simple reflection for just that:
![4 square reflection form:
What does [classroom practice] look like and sound like at its best?
What are teachers doing?
What are students doing?
What are the biggest stressors/barriers to achieving this?](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:y4dkrhqph7kakgqa2ersnkif/bafkreihqadu6x5bpjipyuwsaooczonhuyi7gpegr5uqus5td7mjknd5w7u@jpeg)
November 5, 2025 at 4:15 PM
Teachers often get told what "Best Practice" is, but I worry they don't get enough intentional visioning time to reflect on what their classroom practice/culture looks & sounds like at its ideal and collaborate to address stressors/barriers to that vision. Here's a simple reflection for just that:
Proud to be a member of a truly grassroots rural/suburban/urban coalition of Iowans dedicated to revitalizing a vision for thriving public education in our state.
www.amestrib.com/story/news/l...
www.amestrib.com/story/news/l...
October 30, 2025 at 3:03 PM
Proud to be a member of a truly grassroots rural/suburban/urban coalition of Iowans dedicated to revitalizing a vision for thriving public education in our state.
www.amestrib.com/story/news/l...
www.amestrib.com/story/news/l...
October 30, 2025 at 1:09 PM