TJ Wilson
@tjwilson.bsky.social
English teacher and writer.
Substack: https://tjwilson.substack.com
Website: https://thomasjosephwilson.com
Substack: https://tjwilson.substack.com
Website: https://thomasjosephwilson.com
Pinned
AI Exhaustion
Is adding more policing to education the way?
tjwilson.substack.com
What happens when teachers have to balance teaching, and the litany of things that come with it, with a very healthy dose of policing and espionage work? This: tjwilson.substack.com/p/ai-exhaust...
What happens when teachers have to balance teaching, and the litany of things that come with it, with a very healthy dose of policing and espionage work? This: tjwilson.substack.com/p/ai-exhaust...
AI Exhaustion
Is adding more policing to education the way?
tjwilson.substack.com
November 26, 2025 at 12:38 PM
What happens when teachers have to balance teaching, and the litany of things that come with it, with a very healthy dose of policing and espionage work? This: tjwilson.substack.com/p/ai-exhaust...
Sometimes we forget that students may be working to go against a certain future than toward one: tjwilson.substack.com/p/avoidance-...
Avoidance and Myth-Making in Education
Sometimes it's the way we position our futures that makes all the difference.
tjwilson.substack.com
November 4, 2025 at 10:15 PM
Sometimes we forget that students may be working to go against a certain future than toward one: tjwilson.substack.com/p/avoidance-...
Are we cool with companies trying to gain users by advertising shortcuts to education? Or is this the new world, and they are several layers ahead of me, a regular high school English teacher dude? tjwilson.substack.com/p/an-english...
An English Teacher Reviews a New AI Browser
Thoughts on the unreleased AI browser called Dia.
tjwilson.substack.com
October 12, 2025 at 11:33 AM
Are we cool with companies trying to gain users by advertising shortcuts to education? Or is this the new world, and they are several layers ahead of me, a regular high school English teacher dude? tjwilson.substack.com/p/an-english...
I often forget how simple classroom technology needs to be. I got this piece of tech from Sweden via IKEA instead of Silicon Valley. I use it to join groups or put it across desk my desk so students can sit while we conference. Light, mobile, the right height for discussion.
October 9, 2025 at 1:26 PM
I often forget how simple classroom technology needs to be. I got this piece of tech from Sweden via IKEA instead of Silicon Valley. I use it to join groups or put it across desk my desk so students can sit while we conference. Light, mobile, the right height for discussion.
The hardest job at any tech company is probably the user design person. Not saying that engineering is easy. Far from it. But humans are difficult to design for.
October 8, 2025 at 8:54 AM
The hardest job at any tech company is probably the user design person. Not saying that engineering is easy. Far from it. But humans are difficult to design for.
I made a character in my classroom called EVIL Wilson. I am not a strict teacher, but I want my students to have great classroom discussions. I had no idea that such a classroom tactic would create a daily analysis of the messy act of creativity: tjwilson.substack.com/p/todays-wil...
Today's Wilson
An English Teacher's Foray into DIY Art for Educational Purposes
tjwilson.substack.com
September 27, 2025 at 11:25 AM
I made a character in my classroom called EVIL Wilson. I am not a strict teacher, but I want my students to have great classroom discussions. I had no idea that such a classroom tactic would create a daily analysis of the messy act of creativity: tjwilson.substack.com/p/todays-wil...
Yes. Another post on AI. I'm sure people can make livings on hot takes on AI by now, but this one, I think, needs some more air. open.substack.com/pub/tjwilson...
Duh: AI and Reading and FREAKING WISDOM
Another AI realization whilst in the thick of it.
open.substack.com
September 21, 2025 at 12:02 PM
Yes. Another post on AI. I'm sure people can make livings on hot takes on AI by now, but this one, I think, needs some more air. open.substack.com/pub/tjwilson...
A teacher with many years experience sets out to muse on the oddness that the beginning of a school year has become and learns something that will be available at the end of the essay: open.substack.com/pub/tjwilson...
Meeting 159 People Who I Will Now Teach
The Beginning of the Year and the Teacher
open.substack.com
September 1, 2025 at 6:59 PM
A teacher with many years experience sets out to muse on the oddness that the beginning of a school year has become and learns something that will be available at the end of the essay: open.substack.com/pub/tjwilson...
We took our toddler on six flights this summer. We found some things out. One of them has to do with Costco. Here, check it out: open.substack.com/pub/tjwilson...
My Toddler Son, Airplanes, and Costco: An Allegory
Trust me: I will eventually get to something teacherly in this piece of writing.
open.substack.com
July 30, 2025 at 2:53 PM
We took our toddler on six flights this summer. We found some things out. One of them has to do with Costco. Here, check it out: open.substack.com/pub/tjwilson...
In the middle of reading Hua Hsu’s “The End of the Essay” in The New Yorker.
So far, interesting.
So far, interesting.
July 11, 2025 at 8:01 PM
In the middle of reading Hua Hsu’s “The End of the Essay” in The New Yorker.
So far, interesting.
So far, interesting.
True, it’s always good to think ahead, and, when you know something is going to be permanent or at least something you need to understand later, it’s good to be careful.
But that little bit of organization I do in my brain before I commit, that’s *the thing*.
But that little bit of organization I do in my brain before I commit, that’s *the thing*.
June 20, 2025 at 12:42 PM
True, it’s always good to think ahead, and, when you know something is going to be permanent or at least something you need to understand later, it’s good to be careful.
But that little bit of organization I do in my brain before I commit, that’s *the thing*.
But that little bit of organization I do in my brain before I commit, that’s *the thing*.
What is it to argue over analog and digital? Well, it is to argue which tool works best with the human behind the tool. Thus this essay about education and differing perspectives on how humans “work.” open.substack.com/pub/tjwilson...
The DIY Nature of Humans
An English teacher’s renegotiating of our view of the learning and the classroom.
open.substack.com
June 18, 2025 at 2:01 PM
What is it to argue over analog and digital? Well, it is to argue which tool works best with the human behind the tool. Thus this essay about education and differing perspectives on how humans “work.” open.substack.com/pub/tjwilson...
I went through high school without the knowledge of how to use a smartphone or spreadsheets or even how to type properly. I learned all of these the autodidactic way. We do not need to worry over children being left behind in terms of learning a general tool.
June 15, 2025 at 12:54 PM
I went through high school without the knowledge of how to use a smartphone or spreadsheets or even how to type properly. I learned all of these the autodidactic way. We do not need to worry over children being left behind in terms of learning a general tool.
Check this: open.substack.com/pub/incident...
It’s kind of weird that there is such a genre of influencer called something like the Process Junkie or Productivity Guru—someone who shares how they do things with various technologies, new and old, as masters of the arena.
It’s kind of weird that there is such a genre of influencer called something like the Process Junkie or Productivity Guru—someone who shares how they do things with various technologies, new and old, as masters of the arena.
What To Put in Your Notebook
A look inside my top secret sketchbook practice
open.substack.com
June 13, 2025 at 2:20 PM
Check this: open.substack.com/pub/incident...
It’s kind of weird that there is such a genre of influencer called something like the Process Junkie or Productivity Guru—someone who shares how they do things with various technologies, new and old, as masters of the arena.
It’s kind of weird that there is such a genre of influencer called something like the Process Junkie or Productivity Guru—someone who shares how they do things with various technologies, new and old, as masters of the arena.
The solution to worrying over whether students will go through the process of learning, a thing that REQUIRES friction and failure, has always been providing students and teachers with manageable class sizes. We are humans. When we don’t feel seen, it’s easier to devalue our own work.
June 13, 2025 at 11:34 AM
The solution to worrying over whether students will go through the process of learning, a thing that REQUIRES friction and failure, has always been providing students and teachers with manageable class sizes. We are humans. When we don’t feel seen, it’s easier to devalue our own work.
When I think about the current AI debate, I also think about that 2014 experiment by Mueller & Oppenheimer about how humans process more when we write by hand. Similar to Jean Twenge’s “Have Smartphones Destroyed a Generation?” in The Atlantic.
June 12, 2025 at 11:49 AM
When I think about the current AI debate, I also think about that 2014 experiment by Mueller & Oppenheimer about how humans process more when we write by hand. Similar to Jean Twenge’s “Have Smartphones Destroyed a Generation?” in The Atlantic.
One thing I realized whilst writing about cinder blocks is that, like Legos and bricks, they are full of air. Good to have air when you build things, I guess. tjwilson.substack.com/p/cinder-blo...
Cinder Blocks
This summer, in lieu of so many complications in education in the 2024-2025 school year, I’m finding myself wanting to be grateful for what I know I have.
tjwilson.substack.com
June 11, 2025 at 4:12 PM
One thing I realized whilst writing about cinder blocks is that, like Legos and bricks, they are full of air. Good to have air when you build things, I guess. tjwilson.substack.com/p/cinder-blo...
It is summer. Now for the whimsy: open.substack.com/pub/tjwilson...
Cinder Blocks
This summer, in lieu of so many complications in education in the 2024-2025 school year, I’m finding myself wanting to be grateful for what I know I have.
open.substack.com
June 10, 2025 at 4:24 PM
It is summer. Now for the whimsy: open.substack.com/pub/tjwilson...
1/2 Read Suzanne McConnell’s brilliant *Pity the Reader* and was struck by this historical perspective:
"Bill Styron pointed out one time, in a lecture I was privileged to hear, that the great Russian novels—which were more of an influence on American writers than Hawthorne or Twain..."
"Bill Styron pointed out one time, in a lecture I was privileged to hear, that the great Russian novels—which were more of an influence on American writers than Hawthorne or Twain..."
June 7, 2025 at 1:22 PM
1/2 Read Suzanne McConnell’s brilliant *Pity the Reader* and was struck by this historical perspective:
"Bill Styron pointed out one time, in a lecture I was privileged to hear, that the great Russian novels—which were more of an influence on American writers than Hawthorne or Twain..."
"Bill Styron pointed out one time, in a lecture I was privileged to hear, that the great Russian novels—which were more of an influence on American writers than Hawthorne or Twain..."
Just when you think adding a gigantor box of Goldfish to your house is the most mundane American purchase ever, you are delighted by the thought of someone actually following the serving size. Goldfish are about as easy to count as their biological counterparts, for different reasons.
May 28, 2025 at 1:05 PM
Just when you think adding a gigantor box of Goldfish to your house is the most mundane American purchase ever, you are delighted by the thought of someone actually following the serving size. Goldfish are about as easy to count as their biological counterparts, for different reasons.
The last 1.5 months of school were super involved. So, this sequel to my last post, inspired by a lens created by @dadadrummer.bsky.social 's *The New Analog*, is very late. Turned out, the universe made me aware I had more to say: open.substack.com/pub/tjwilson...
Writing Is Noise: 2nd Edition
A belated sequel. The last 1.5 months of school got me good!
open.substack.com
May 27, 2025 at 10:59 AM
The last 1.5 months of school were super involved. So, this sequel to my last post, inspired by a lens created by @dadadrummer.bsky.social 's *The New Analog*, is very late. Turned out, the universe made me aware I had more to say: open.substack.com/pub/tjwilson...
Just finished The Book Censor’s Library by Bothayna Al-Essa and am just chuffed that the right book can land in your hands as if it was an extra puzzle piece that you found in the couch, one that made you realize that the puzzle you just put together is in fact incomplete.
April 13, 2025 at 2:21 PM
Just finished The Book Censor’s Library by Bothayna Al-Essa and am just chuffed that the right book can land in your hands as if it was an extra puzzle piece that you found in the couch, one that made you realize that the puzzle you just put together is in fact incomplete.
A friend gave me back a book I lent him a long while ago: *The New Analog* by Damon Krukowski. It was written post-streaming services but pre-pandemic and pre-AI. I leafed through my annotations and wrote this: tjwilson.substack.com/p/the-noise-...
The Noise in Writing
I have attempted to get through this essay without mentioning the reason why I am writing it. I won’t have to. You’ll know.
tjwilson.substack.com
April 8, 2025 at 12:37 AM
A friend gave me back a book I lent him a long while ago: *The New Analog* by Damon Krukowski. It was written post-streaming services but pre-pandemic and pre-AI. I leafed through my annotations and wrote this: tjwilson.substack.com/p/the-noise-...
I don’t think we have gotten close to concluding the smartphone discussions in schools yet and here is the next one: www.platformer.news/openai-chatg...
How chatbots could spark the next big mental health crisis
New research from OpenAI shows that heavy chatbot usage is correlated with loneliness and reduced socialization. Will AI companies learn from social networks' mistakes?
www.platformer.news
March 25, 2025 at 10:53 AM
I don’t think we have gotten close to concluding the smartphone discussions in schools yet and here is the next one: www.platformer.news/openai-chatg...
My last essay got me thinking about what are some thoughtful ways we could work in our current limitations as teachers to avoid burnout and avoid efficiency-minded fixes that do not add value to our classroom. Here is a half-serious solution: thomasjosephwilson.com/2025/03/24/a...
A Half-Serious Solution to the Absence of Time in the ELA Classroom
What can teachers really accomplish with the class sizes of today? Efficiency-Minded It took me a long time to finish my last piece of writing (“On Teacher Exhaustion”). It was difficult to really …
thomasjosephwilson.com
March 24, 2025 at 2:13 PM
My last essay got me thinking about what are some thoughtful ways we could work in our current limitations as teachers to avoid burnout and avoid efficiency-minded fixes that do not add value to our classroom. Here is a half-serious solution: thomasjosephwilson.com/2025/03/24/a...