Hi - Tom Liam Lynch, Ed.D.

Is Captain America a Woman? No. This Data Viz of 34,000 Comic Book Characters Shows Us Why That’s a Problem

How Students in Flint, Michigan Do Prom

Harry Potter’s Battle for Real-World Learning

Try Not to Stare at this Typewriter with Voice Recognition. Just Try.

I Can’t Put Down this Book on Why We Should Sue Schools into Teaching Civics Education. Seriously.

The Latest

Advice

Street Corner Coaching: An Overview of How To Approach Assessment in Teaching

Assessment can intimidate even the most seasoned educators. Teachers often express to me that they…
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Straight Advice for New Teachers Starting Their Careers
Did Bob Dylan Really Ruin English Class Forever? Some Say Yes (But They Are Wrong)
Baby and Jesus Are the Top Two Names Used in Popular Music? Go On….
No One Really Cared About Shakespeare’s Work When He Died, So His Friends Did THIS
I Have Learned that Smartphones Are Kind of Like Brain Candy
What Incredibles Math
Words that End with “-uck”? This Kid Handled the Obvious One with Aplomb
Is Financial Literacy the Key to Math Success? This Non-Profit Thinks So. And They Have a Free Curriculum to Convince You.
Moving from Fiction to Non-Fiction

Listen & Watch

Humanities

How Do We Help Students “Identify with Stories” Like This? Tell Us, Black Thought.

If you read Gradgrind’s, you know I love Black Thought’s work. He does it again with his insights in this…
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Charter Schools

How One Researcher Sums Up the Difference between Charter and Public Schools

Few topics in education stoke debate like charter schools. Whether in the form of longform comedy bits like this one…
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Arts + Letters

If School Music Instruments Can Play Metallica, There’s Hope for Public Education

You might not think much of classroom music instruments, but give them to the Roots and Metallica and watch what…
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Arts + Letters

Words like Water: How a Baby Learned to Speak

You take a techy who becomes a dad and has a fascination with language. Then add videocameras all throughout the…
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Computer Science Education

Stop Teaching Computer Science. Start “Embedding” It.

I’ve said it before: if we are serious about teaching computer science in K-12 schools, we have to reimagine how…
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Arts + Letters

Is Texting the Future or Downfall of Writing in Schools?

Leave it to a linguist like Columbia University’s John McWhorter to challenge popular fears that texting marks the end of language…
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Watch

Key and Peele and the Substitute Teacher Sketch

What’s in a name? Well, any teacher can tell you how important it is to get children’s names right. And…
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Arts + Letters

Teachers, Your Students Are Your Greatest Resources. Watch this Powerful Talk…by a Kid.

Too often, we position teachers in ways that divide them from their students. Teachers are the adults; students are the…
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Elementary Education

Stephen King Breaks Down Childhood, Not as Horrifying as You’d Think

It’s one thing to step back and listen to a researcher talk about the uniqueness of the adolescent brain. It’s…
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Everyone Teaches Writing

Why Computer Science?

Humanities

The Great Gatsby: A Mixed Literary Analysis

I’m a firm believer that readers can use computational methods to uncover new insights into…
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You Probably Haven’t Heard of Distant Reading, So Let’s Fix That
Some or All of the Above: College Board’s Timely Lesson on Education Reform
Here’s that Map of Computer Science You Were Looking For
Just Blaze: Music Icon and Coding Nerd?
Behold, the Power and Beauty of Buttons!
Brave, Not Perfect: A Message to Girls Around the World
If Coding is Writing, What’s Feedback Look Like?
Science and Poetry, Both are Celebrations
Room7: the Consortium of Refugee Coding Schools I’m Helping Establish

To Your Health

Assessment

Howard Gardner On the Limits of Assessments

I loved hearing Howard Gardner describe the limits of assessments, a kind warning to parents and the public to let…
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Health + Nutrition

WTF? Croissants Will Not Give NYC Students “Energy”

I was astonished to see this advertisement in the subway the other day. While riding the 2 train to a…
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Gender + Sexuality

When Disney Made a Film About Menstruation

An estimated 105 million students watched this 1946 film about menstruation. There’s so much one could say about this, but…
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Watch

This 1950 Instructional Film on “Dining Together” Might Just Save Your Thanksgiving

I don’t know who made these films, but there are many of them online. Called “instructional” or “educational” films, you can…
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Health + Nutrition

Love the Teenager in Your Life? Know Their Brain.

When working with secondary education teachers, I often find myself reminding them that while teaching teenagers can be challenging on…
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Health + Nutrition

Immaturity is an Incredible Asset for Learning, Dewey Wrote

I’ve been listening to an audiobook of John Dewey’s classic Democracy in Education [free here]. Listening to his work is…
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