Episode Details

If you scroll social media right now, you'll probably land on a teacher revamping their reading corner like it's a home renovation reveal, then a TikTok Shop haul of classroom must-haves you didn't know you needed nine seconds ago, then someone who built an entire year's curriculum with AI in under a minute. And somewhere underneath all of it is this creeping feeling that you're already behind, and the school year has hardly even started.

In this episode, I'm telling a story about a veteran teacher I worked next door to early in my career, and why I think about my mistake in emulating her every time some new pendulum swing happens in education. And, I discuss how a lot of what shapes our thinking about teaching no longer originates from trainings or mentors or our own gut instincts and professional expertise. It's coming from whichever five seconds of video happened to outperform in an algorithm built to sell ads, not to teach well.

The truth is that you don't have to teach like the teacher down the hall, and you don't have to teach like an IG influencer. You just have to keep asking the question I had to learn the hard way: is this authentic to my teaching philosophy, or am I performing someone else's idea of what a good teacher looks like?

Listen in. Or read the transcription here.