Gary Ackerman @garyackerman@qoto.org

“It’s an opportunity, not a problem.”

When you hear yourself about to say this. Stop.

“That OER book is OK, but they need to fix….”

Let me explain how this works.

“It’s obvious that…” is a sure sign someone is about to say something no one agrees… and nature objects too.

When I no longer cared about grades, I became a straight A student. Unfortunately, it was my in the last half of my undergraduate studies.

Punishment isn’t pedagogy.

The fact that as many people need to learn this as I near the end of my career as needed to learn it at the beginning shows how little educators care about research-based methods.

Folks have asked me if I’d consider returning to teaching… I tell them my conditions… and how I will be treated... they tell me I’m unreasonable.

“Averages can be misleading.” Truer sentences are rarely written.

Don’t say, “it wasn’t me” to the person who knows how to get into the logs.

So much data just tells us the stories we tell ourselves.

“Data” generally assumes you have a large dataset and seek to describe patterns and correlations… “data” (as applied in education) was never meant to characterize an individual.

If people are constantly challenging you because of what you think, get better ideas.

One thing I learned during 35 years in education: there are plenty of educators, and a vast majority of curriculum leaders, standards writers, etc. who vastly underestimate students’ interest in and capacity to learn about and potentially solve complex problems.

Adults have been bullying adults in schools for decades. Too often then, those who are bullied do nothing. Yes, I was bullied.

I had the benefit of being able to push back on it when it happened. Late in my career, I contributed to 1 bully being terminated and 1 pressured to resign.

One thing I learned during 35 years in education: there are some folks who really do believe “passing the test” and “knowing the material” are the same thing.

Quotes are great, but often when we go to the original source and find the context and meaning, the author was making the opposite point.

Giving access to information is a silly role for teachers today. Students need help selecting it, interpreting it, evaluating it, applying it, integrating it….

I write to understand the topic and clarify my thinking. That others consume the words, sentences, and paragraphs and find meaning in them too is a delightful side effect.

It never ceases to amaze me that folks look to me (yes, I work in IT) and ask "What's my password?"

One thing I learned during 35 years in education: when things get chaotic (in the school or outside it), focusing on interesting problems and strengthening relationships with students and colleagues is the best strategy.

“The course is free, but the certificate is not.”

This ploy seems to validate the suggestion that the “piece of paper” really does matter… of course today it’s snippet of code.