Jan
oldenglishteacher.bsky.social
Jan
@oldenglishteacher.bsky.social
High school teacher: AP Psychology, English
Reposted by Jan
New: Texas lawmakers have sent legislation replacing STAAR, the state’s widely unpopular state standardized test, to Gov. Greg Abbott’s desk.

Here's what schools’ new standardized tests would look like.
Texas is poised to replace STAAR. Here is what schools’ new standardized tests would look like.
A bill scrapping the state’s standardized test heads over to Gov. Greg Abbott’s desk. It would replace STAAR with three shorter tests at the beginning, middle and end of the year.
www.texastribune.org
September 4, 2025 at 2:07 AM
Reposted by Jan
Then, say we want to teach three new books in each of four grade levels for a school with 2,000 students. You just spent 60k on books. Schools don’t have that kind of money, so changing which books are taught is a very slow process.
July 26, 2025 at 2:04 AM
Reposted by Jan
syllabus time, teaming up for the herculean efforts of reinventing writing assignments. here, some prompts for required weekly low stakes 250-500 word reflections/ process pieces that have proven relatively conducive to real writing in lit class. please share any similar suggestions in thread.
July 21, 2025 at 12:14 PM
Reposted by Jan
There’s a nonzero chance you will die from a cancer that could have been curable because people who couldn’t pass 7th grade biology and are scared of things like “mRNA” and “riboflavin” and “walkable cities” decided to make their ignorance everybody else’s problem
Over 120 mRNA cancer trials are now at risk as the Trump admin cuts funding & tells researchers to scrub “mRNA” from grant proposals.

What started as COVID fearmongering is now derailing life-saving cancer research.

Hope remains - but scientists say time is running out.

zurl.co/YBGNy
‘Tremendous uncertainty’ for cancer research as US officials target mRNA vaccines
Amid Trump cuts and state-level backlash, experts worry that progress in messenger RNA vaccines could stall
zurl.co
July 14, 2025 at 11:08 PM
Reposted by Jan
July 9, 2025 at 11:12 AM
Reposted by Jan
June 30, 2025 at 2:18 AM
Reposted by Jan
It is never helpful to remind one grieving of what they have not lost or of the fact that it could have been worse. We do not grieve what we have but what we do not have. We compare our loss to the good we had, not to the bad that never happened. The empty space is that — empty.
June 27, 2025 at 12:03 PM
Reposted by Jan
I got this from Cedric Bond’s LinkedIn page - I’m not quite sure he’s here (please @ him if he is).
June 18, 2025 at 1:39 AM
Reposted by Jan
Some teachers and parents warn that bills advocating for parents’ rights will further fan the flames of culture wars in schools, strain the trust between parents and teachers, and make it more difficult to navigate classroom instruction.
Texas parents and teachers worry bills to root out liberal sway from public schools pave the way for conservative bias
Advocates say the bills will give parents more power over their children’s schools. Critics say they don’t give parents anything they didn’t already have and will only strain their relationship with t...
www.texastribune.org
June 12, 2025 at 2:02 PM
Reposted by Jan
what doesn’t kill you makes you use up all your energy constantly alert and tensed up in case it could
June 12, 2025 at 3:48 AM
Reposted by Jan
This is totally ridiculous. Best catch in the history of Sacramento baseball.
CATCH OF THE YEAR - Denzel Clarke goes wayyyyy over the fence to rob a HR from the Angels' Nolan Shanuel
June 10, 2025 at 2:02 AM
Reposted by Jan
The Tarantula Nebula has a radius of nearly 1k light years and sits in the Large Magellanic Cloud, a dwarf satellite galaxy of the Milky Way, about 160k light years away. We are cosmic gnats. Data from a CDK20 in Chile and processed by me in gnat-sized #crozetva. #astrophotography #photography
June 2, 2025 at 5:39 PM
Reposted by Jan
Can brain injury cause the loss of visual imagination?

We studied #aphantasia due to brain injury. Lesions were in many different regions but 100% were connected to the fusiform imagery node - a region active during visual mental imagery @braincircuits.bsky.social

www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1...
May 23, 2025 at 10:02 PM
Reposted by Jan
WATCH: Chris Murphy gives a masterclass in how to dismantle the cosplay queen, AKA Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem.
When a government is out of control it’s time to say so
Chris Murphy gives a masterclass in how to dismantle the cosplay queen, AKA Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem.
open.substack.com
May 9, 2025 at 11:31 AM
Reposted by Jan
for no particular reason, fyi - any US citizen can request a passport card, which serves as proof of US citizenship and is small enough to carry in a wallet or tuck away in your bag

travel.state.gov/content/trav...
Get a Passport Card
Compare the U.S. passport card and passport book so you can decide if you want to apply for one or both documents.
travel.state.gov
April 8, 2025 at 1:38 AM
My 10th grade English students and I are reading Dr. King’s “Letter from Birmingham Jail.” My students asked me why I read it every year. I told them that Dr. King’s sacrifice reminds me to be a better person every day and to always fight for fairness and kindness in any form. Thank you, Dr. King. 🙏
January 20, 2025 at 6:25 PM
I am so grateful I saw Mr. Kennerly’s post.
January 20, 2025 at 6:14 PM
As a Texas high school teacher, I am grateful for posts like this.
There are thousands of special needs kids on waiting list for assistance from
the State of Texas and there are ZERO trans athletes in College sports. You tell me Texas Legislators who needs more help this session? Thousands of families and children vs fake outrage! #txlege
January 17, 2025 at 5:13 PM
Reposted by Jan
It’s amazing to me that politicians don’t commit to post first on @bsky.app and to engage with constituents here

THIS is more powerful than CNN , MSNBC, The Post will ever be.

You can broadcast for 9 mins on a declining medium, or engage here and start a real discussion.

Which is more powerful?
January 17, 2025 at 2:00 PM
Reposted by Jan
Did your child lose their book collection in the Los Angeles fires? Are you a teacher at a school that lost its library or your classroom library? Whether you need one book or a whole library, we can replace your books. 📚

Everyone else, please boost this post so we can connect with those in need. 🙏
January 16, 2025 at 3:35 PM
When you wrote "I cannot be alone in thinking that the bald eagle already was our national bird . . . .", you used the word "already," meaning presently. So you should have written "I cannot be alone in thinking that the bald eagle already *is* our national bird . . . ." 🤓
December 17, 2024 at 9:13 PM
If you're going to post such a stupid opinion, at least try to use proper verb tense.
December 17, 2024 at 1:05 PM