Get yourself unstuck: overthinking is boring and perfectionism is a trap — from timeshighereducation.com by David Thompson The work looks flawless, the student seems fine. But underneath, perfectionism is doing damage. David Thompson unpacks what educators can do to help high-performing students navigate the pressure to succeed and move from stuck to started
That’s why I encourage imperfection, messiness and play and build these ideas into how I teach.
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These moments don’t come from big breakthroughs. They come from removing pressure and replacing it with permission.
Getting (and Keeping) Early Learners’ Attention — from edutopia.org by Heather Sanderell These ideas for lesson hooks—like using songs, video clips, and picture walks—can motivate young students to focus on learning.
How do you grasp and maintain the attention of a room full of wide-eyed students with varying interests and abilities? Do you use visuals and games or interactive activities? Do you use art and sports and music or sounds? The answer is yes, to all!
When trying to keep the attention of your learners, it’s important to stimulate their senses and pique their diverse interests. Educational theorist and researcher Robert Gagné devised his nine events of instructional design, which include grabbing learners’ attention with a lesson hook. This is done first to set the tone for the remainder of the lesson.
3 Ways to Help Students Overcome the Forgetting Curve — from edutopia.org by Cathleen Beachboard Our brains are wired to forget things unless we take active steps to remember. Here’s how you can help students hold on to what they learn.
You teach a lesson that lights up the room. Students are nodding and hands are flying up, and afterward you walk out thinking, “They got it. They really got it.”
And then, the next week, you ask a simple review question—and the room falls silent.
If that situation has ever made you question your ability to teach, take heart: You’re not failing, you’re simply facing the forgetting curve. Understanding why students forget—and how we can help them remember—can transform not just our lessons but our students’ futures.
The good news? You don’t have to overhaul your curriculum to beat the forgetting curve. You just need three small, powerful shifts in how you teach.
7 Nature Experiments to Spark Student Curiosity — from edutopia.org by Donna Phillips Encourage your students to ask questions about and explore the world around them with these hands-on lessons.
Children are natural scientists—they ask big questions, notice tiny details, and learn best through hands-on exploration. That’s why nature experiments are a classroom staple for me. From growing seeds to using the sun’s energy, students don’t just learn science, they experience it. Here are my favorite go-to nature experiments that spark curiosity.
Live Your Creed, Langston Hughes — via a recent e-newsletter from Getting Smart
I’d rather see a sermon than to hear one any day.
I’d rather one walk with me than just to show the way.
The eye is a better pupil and more willing than the ear.
Advice may be misleading but examples are always clear.
And the very best of teachers are the ones who live their
creed,
For to see good put into action is what everybody needs.
I can soon learn to do it if you let me see it done.
I can watch your hand in motion but your tongue too fast
may run
And the lectures you deliver may be very fine and true
But I’d rather get my lesson by observing what you do.
For I may misunderstand you and the fine advice you give
But there’s no misunderstanding how you act and how
you live.
From DSC: And regarding this weekend, what an incredible waste of money to put the military on display (for his own birthday). This smacks of what arrogant dictators do. It’s big-time ugly.
If our justice system had done its job, this arrogant lawbreaker and convicted criminal would be in jail right now. No wonder he has no regard for the legal system, the Constitution, or the law — those things don’t serve his interests. They impede his interests. And thank God for that! In fact, may true leaders rise up within the Legislative and Judicial Branches of our government. The latter is our best chance of keeping our democracy, as the Republican Party has ceded all of their power — and responsibility — over to Donald Trump. They are not leaders in any sense of the word.
But whatever happens, ultimately, there WILL be justice.
Is America being humbled? Or is it being destroyed?
In President Trump’s first term, the Pentagon opposed his desire for a military parade in Washington, wanting to keep the armed forces out of politics.
But in Mr. Trump’s second term, that guardrail has vanished. There will be a parade this year, and on the president’s 79th birthday, no less.
The current plan involves a tremendous scene in the center of Washington: 28 M1A1 Abrams tanks (at 70 tons each for the heaviest in service); 28 Stryker armored personnel carriers; more than 100 other vehicles; a World War II-era B-25 bomber; 6,700 soldiers; 50 helicopters; 34 horses; two mules; and a dog.
In this episode, we hear from professionals at different stages of their career journeys as they reflect on risk, resilience, and growth. They share advice on stepping into leadership roles, recognizing when it may be time for a change, and overcoming imposter syndrome.
Making Learning Matter— from emilypittsdonahoe.substack.com by Emily Pitts Donahoe We’ve got to get better at talking to students
In a recent newsletter, John Warner articulated a problem I’ve been mulling over for quite some time now:
“The challenge is to convince students that there is a genuine benefit in the struggle of learning as something distinct from the steady forced march of schooling. How do I convey the genuine value of thinking when the cultural message of the moment is the opposite?”
If higher education is to have any meaningful future at all, we have to find real answers to this question.
So, for a long time, I’ve been lamenting that we don’t talk enough with students about the value of work in our disciplines. We should devote more time to exploring how this knowledge operates in the real world! We should explicitly communicate its benefits not only for students’ future professional lives but also for their personal lives, and for the world at large! We should give them a self-transcendent purpose for learning! We should show them that what they learn has real, tangible meaning beyond the classroom!
74 percent of microschools have annual tuition and fees at or below $10,000, with 65 percent offering sliding scale tuition and discounts;
Among microschools that track academic growth data of students over time, 81 percent reported between 1 and 2 years of academic gains during one school year;
Children receive letter grades in just 29 percent of microschools, while observation-based reporting, portfolios, and tracking mastery are the most prevalent methods of tracking their impact;
The most important student outcomes for currently-operating microschools are growth in nonacademic learning, children’s happiness in their microschool, skills perceived as needed for future, and academic growth.
How To Get Hired During the AI Apocalypse — from kathleendelaski.substack.com by Kathleen deLaski And other discussions to have with your kids on the way to college graduation
A less temporary, more existential threat to the four year degree: AI could hollow out the entry level job market for knowledge workers (i.e. new college grads). And if 56% of families were saying college “wasn’t worth it” in 2023,(WSJ), what will that number look like in 2026 or beyond? The one of my kids who went to college ended up working in a bike shop for a year-ish after graduation. No regrets, but it came as a shock to them that they weren’t more employable with their neuroscience degree.
A colleague provided a great example: Her son, newly graduated, went for a job interview as an entry level writer last month and he was asked, as a test, to produce a story with AI and then use that story to write a better one by himself. He would presumably be judged on his ability to prompt AI and then improve upon its product. Is that learning how to DO? I think so. It’s using AI tools to accomplish a workplace task.
Also relevant in terms of the job search, see the following gifted article:
‘We Are the Most Rejected Generation’— from nytimes.com by David Brooks; gifted article David talks admissions rates for selective colleges, ultra-hard to get summer internships, a tough entry into student clubs, and the job market.
Things get even worse when students leave school and enter the job market. They enter what I’ve come to think of as the seventh circle of Indeed hell. Applying for jobs online is easy, so you have millions of people sending hundreds of applications each into the great miasma of the internet, and God knows which impersonal algorithm is reading them. I keep hearing and reading stories about young people who applied to 400 jobs and got rejected by all of them.
It seems we’ve created a vast multilayered system that evaluates the worth of millions of young adults and, most of the time, tells them they are not up to snuff.
Many administrators and faculty members I’ve spoken to are mystified that students would create such an unforgiving set of status competitions. But the world of competitive exclusion is the world they know, so of course they are going to replicate it.
And in this column I’m not even trying to cover the rejections experienced by the 94 percent of American students who don’t go to elite schools and don’t apply for internships at Goldman Sachs. By middle school, the system has told them that because they don’t do well on academic tests, they are not smart, not winners. That’s among the most brutal rejections our society has to offer.
A wide range of roles can or will quickly be replaced with AI, including inside sales representatives, customer service representatives, junior lawyers, junior accountants, and physicians whose focus is diagnosis.
Dario Amodei — CEO of Anthropic, one of the world’s most powerful creators of artificial intelligence — has a blunt, scary warning for the U.S. government and all of us:
AI could wipe out half of all entry-level white-collar jobs — and spike unemployment to 10-20% in the next one to five years, Amodei told us in an interview from his San Francisco office.
Amodei said AI companies and government need to stop “sugar-coating” what’s coming: the possible mass elimination of jobs across technology, finance, law, consulting and other white-collar professions, especially entry-level gigs.
Why it matters: Amodei, 42, who’s building the very technology he predicts could reorder society overnight, said he’s speaking out in hopes of jarring government and fellow AI companies into preparing — and protecting — the nation.
In a room bigger than most at South Central Correctional Center in Licking, Missouri, a group of men has volunteered for a creative project that stretches beyond prison walls. For about 40 hours each week, they cut and stitch quilts for children in foster care or with disabilities, sewing vibrant, patterned patchworks and finding joy and camaraderie while doing so.
Rick: What kinds of strategies do you think would help?
Richard: In education, we should expand the use of male-friendly teaching methods, such as more hands-on and active learning approaches. We should also consider redshirting boys—starting them in school a year later—to account for developmental differences between boys and girls. We should also introduce more male mentors and role models in schools, particularly in elementary education, where male teachers are scarce. In the workforce, apprenticeship and vocational training programs need to be expanded to create pathways into stable employment for young men who may not pursue a four-year degree. Career counseling should also emphasize diverse pathways to ensure that boys who may not thrive in a traditional academic setting still have opportunities for success. Additionally, fatherhood policies should recognize the importance of male engagement in family life, supporting fathers in their role as caregivers and providers.
While on the topic of K12 education, also see:
How Electives Help All Students Succeed — from edutopia.org by Miriam Plotinsky Giving students a choice of electives increases engagement and allows them to develop skills outside of core academic subjects.
I recently conducted a student focus group on the topic of school attendance. One of the participants, a high school junior who admitted to being frequently late or absent, explained why she still came to school: “I never want to miss Drama. My teacher is awesome. Her class is the reason I show up every day.” As the rest of the focus group chimed in with similar thoughts, I reflected on the power that elective courses hold for students of all ages.
These courses, from jazz band to yoga, cement students’ sense of self not just in their primary and secondary years, but also in their journey toward adulthood. In these tight economic times, schools or districts often slash electives to save money on staffing, which is highly detrimental to student success. Instead, not only should budget cuts be made elsewhere, but also elective offerings should increase to heighten student choice and well-being.
Defense attorney Jason Lamm won’t be handling the appeal, but said a higher court will likely be asked to weigh in on whether the judge improperly relied on the AI-generated video when sentencing his client.
Courts across the country have been grappling with how to best handle the increasing presence of artificial intelligence in the courtroom. Even before Pelkey’s family used AI to give him a voice for the victim impact portion — believed to be a first in U.S. courts — the Arizona Supreme Court created a committee that researches best AI practices.
In Florida, a judge recently donned a virtual reality headset meant to show the point of view of a defendant who said he was acting in self-defense when he waved a loaded gun at wedding guests. The judge rejected his claim.
Experts say using AI in courtrooms raises legal and ethical concerns, especially if it’s used effectively to sway a judge or jury. And they argue it could have a disproportionate impact on marginalized communities facing prosecution.
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AI can be very persuasive, Harris said, and scholars are studying the intersection of the technology and manipulation tactics.
April 29 2025: A major new survey, from legal intelligence platform Robin AI, has revealed a severe lack of trust in the legal industry. Just 1 in 10 people across the US and UK said they fully trust law firms, but while increasingly open to AI-powered legal services, few are ready to let technology take over without human oversight.
Perspectus Global polled a representative sample of 4,152 people across both markets. An overwhelming majority see Big Law as “expensive”, “elitist” or “intimidating” but only 30% of respondents would allow a robot lawyer — that is, an AI system acting alone — to represent them in a legal matter. On average, respondents said they would need a 57% discount to choose an AI lawyer over a human.
In just three years, the company, which builds software for analyzing and drafting documents using legally tuned large language models, has drawn blue-chip law firms, Silicon Valley investors, and a stampede of rivals hoping to catch its momentum. Harvey has raised over half a billion dollars in capital, sending its valuation soaring to $3 billion.
Live experiential learning: ILT as usual?
Is live experiential learning, or LEL, just a surface rebranding of traditional instructor-led training?
Absolutely not. In fact, LEL is as distant from traditional ILT as Sleep No More is from traditional theater.
Instead of sitting politely, nodding along — or nodding off — as an instructor carefully reads aloud from their slide deck, learners roam about, get their hands dirty and focus on the things that matter to them (yes, even if that means they don’t get to every topic or encounter them in the way we would have liked).
In short, LEL has the ability to shake up your learners, in a good way. And when they realize that this isn’t learning as usual, they land in a mental space that makes them more curious and receptive.
So what does this look like, really? And how does it work?
As learning and development leaders, you can create fun, engaging and challenging exercises for teams that develop these important characteristics and improve numerous markers of team efficacy. Exercises to improve team performance should be focused on four themes: negotiation, agreement, coordination and output. In this article, I’ll discuss each type of exercise briefly, then how I use a framework to create challenging and engaging exercises to improve collaborative problem-solving and performance on my teams.
Marketers have spent billions of dollars testing what works—and their insights can revolutionize microlearning. By borrowing from marketing’s best strategies, L&D professionals can create microlearning that cuts through the noise, engages learners, and drives real behavior change.
If marketing can make people remember a product, L&D can make people remember a skill.
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