For too long, we've confused rigor with difficulty. We assume a learning experience is rigorous because it's longer, more complicated, more demanding, or simply harder to complete. But difficulty and rigor are not the same thing. A task can be difficult without requiring much thinking at all. Likewise, a learning experience can require profound thinking without being unnecessarily difficult. I always come back to this same idea: Rigor is the disciplined application of intelli

I first entered the teaching profession more than thirty years ago. I mention that because my historical perspective is relevant. Back then, it was a different world—especially as far as technology is concerned. I didn't even have a cell phone. I hadn’t yet sent my first text message. I didn't even get my first email address until the summer before my first year of teaching, and I didn't use the internet much, if at all, until several years later. In my early years in the cl

Every school system in America is scrambling to develop some kind of AI policy—some legislative package intended to govern the appropriate use of the long-rumored and much-anticipated technology that's here now in a very real way. And as is par for the course, systems seek systemic responses, the kind that can be quantified and tracked so the systems can retain its executive authority. After all, systems are gonna system.... This, however, isn't primarily a time for policies

I've got a bone to pick. I’ve got a grievance to register, a concern to bring into public view. I’m pushing back against this whole negative connotation around so-called “overthinking.” In fact, I think it’s probably a contributor to some of our broader social dysfunction that we attempt to shame people for “overthinking.” What the heck does that even mean? Seriously. What do you mean by overthink? In order to define overthinking, we would first have to define thinking. There

Presented by Adeyemi Stembridge, PhD, at the ESD101 Equity Summit, June 17, 2024 I’m going to be making three points today: 1. In...