The F.Y.I. Newsletter
Every couple weeks or so, Tom shares updates on his professional and personal projects. He calls it his F.Y.I. newsletter. Sign up below for the easiest way to stay abreast.
Top Posts
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Civics
You Can Geolocate Which Indigenous Peoples’ Land You Are Standing On Right Now.
One cannot change the past, but one can become more conscious of it. Eight years ago, I was invited to…
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Arts + Letters
Dickens’ Mr. Gradgrind in Hard Times
Thomas Gradgrind, sir. A man of realities. A man of facts and calculations. A man who proceeds upon the principle…
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Arts + Letters
The Etymology of ‘Pedagogy’ Might Surprise You
If you love education and love etymology, you’ll dig this. I love looking to the histories of words to better…
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Arts + Letters
Teaching Poetry in the Instagram Era
You’ve likely seen poet Rupi Kaur’s bestseller Milk & Honey on the shelf. What it means for teaching poetry to…
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Arts + Letters
Robert Frost’s “To a Thinker”
The last step taken found your heft Decidedly upon the left. One more would throw you on the right Another…
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Civics
What We Can Learn About Teaching from Dangerous Minds
How real are portrayals of teachers in film? In this clip from Dangerous Minds, we see a white female teacher…
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Arts + Letters
The Mary Oliver Poem I Read Each Year to My Graduating Seniors
News of poet Mary Oliver’s death hit me hard. I’ve read her work for decades after being exposed to her…
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Civics
How Did That Race to the Top End?
Race to the Top is the Obama Administration’s education reform initiative. It overlapped with former President Bush’s No Child Left…
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Curriculum
Let Monty Python Help You Teach Argumentative Writing
I first saw reference to this clip in the book They Say/I Say by Gerald Graff and Cathy Birkenstein. The…
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Project: States of Education
Unlike any other country to which the United States is compared, we do not define the right to public education at a national level. It’s not in the federal Constitution, nor the Bill of Rights. Instead, public education was a bit of an afterthought, inserted into state constitutions beginning well after the birth of the country. The result? We have 50 different definitions for the purpose of and right to public education. No wonder it’s so challenging to effect change. How does YOUR state define the right to public education? Tom made an interactive map to help you find out.
