Gary Ackerman @garyackerman@qoto.org

Being “non political” is one of the most political stands one can make.

Always remember the principle of AAAAAAAAA (alliterative acronyms always aid adopter’s awareness and analysis abilities) when preparing your school initiatives.

Yeah, if your invite me to learn about an “exciting new program/ idea/ theory” and you use an acronym to name it, I’m going to decline the invitation.

I'm sorry, but if you study or sell "tracking" (as in digital tracking) and associate it with #education in any way... it's unlikely to be recording anything important to individuals' learning... and it is creepy.

If you cannot assess what you believe, then you have not learned the thing about critical thinking.

Reach out to HR for a time-sensitive problem... they respond 2 weeks later. Really?

“Assessment is an act of interpretation, not just measurement.” I sure wish all #educators understood that, especially those who are “data-driven.”

I’m a fan of rubrics and other scaffolds as long as they fade... if our students cannot internalize what we are teaching to the point they cannot become independent, then what are we doing?

I will sometimes be obvious when I disengage, hoping the leader of the meeting recognizes it has taken a turn to waste of time.

If educators had made a stand against the unequivocally bad education policy decisions that have marked the 21st century we would be better positioned to manage many problems.

Calling faculty and staff “rock stars” is as offensive to me as calling students “kiddos.”

Reading/ writing/ math/ arts/ recess/ physical education, etc. cannot be part of any reward/ punishment system. I found myself in schools where leaders did not understand that. I never participated in their systems and started job searches as soon as their wackiness became clear.

Listen to your intuition, except when it is wrong.

I’ve been questioning a lot lately... maybe it’s time to listen to something other than Noam Chomsky while on my afternoon walks.

Sometimes work seems like 40 hours of working and 40 hours of responding to emails seeking status reports on projects they cannot complete because we are answering emails about them.

"When people learn no tools of judgment and merely follow their hopes, the seeds of political manipulation are sown." -Stephen Jay Gould

Note to self: Don’t demonstrate how to sign out of Google accounts during a Google Meet.

Learning how to operate a new bit of technology is the easy part. Learning how it can fail is harder part of supporting new technology.

“Your video will be posted once the closed captions are edited.”

“Can’t you post it now? I don’t need the captions.”

“No.”

My former colleague (a vehement and frequent climate change denier on social media) continues to complain he can’t find a job... in a field that requires significant capacity to interpret data. Should I tell him?