I see myself as a writer; I’m a professional liar.
– Harlan Ellison, 1976
Every now and then, we need a little reminder of our need to be antagonistic toward the establishment and really break things open that need to be broken.
In this interview from British television in 1976 (sorry, it won’t let me embed here), Harlan Ellison speaks about a bit of his life and his consistent efforts to be a thorn in the side of those in power.
The world might be a better place if we could stir up a little trouble as teachers and students by being a little more contrarian.
Interviewer: “I’ve read your stories and I was quite disturbed. There’s a lot of violence sometimes.
HE: “There’s a lot of violence in the world.”
Truth.
Interviewer: “I would call you a science fiction writer. Now, is that exactly what you are?”
HE: “No, that is exactly what I am not… I take contemporary events and look at them through the lens of fantasy and see what they really mean in mythic terms.”
Critiquing the world as it is through stories has been the primary mode of improving society since societies first formed.
On why he owns a gun (after describing taking out a sniper outside his home):
I own a gun because as much as I’d like to believe the world is a soft, pink & white bunny story, it isn’t. I deal with reality; I’m a pragmatist.
I still miss Harlan.
The Eclectic Educator is a free resource for everyone passionate about education and creativity. If you enjoy the content and want to support the newsletter, consider becoming a paid subscriber. Your support helps keep the insights and inspiration coming!
Blistering verdict:Brené Brown turns vulnerability from a punchline into a power-up.Daring Greatly isn’t self-help fluff; it’s a rigor-backed field guide for stepping into the arena when your brain is screaming, “Nope.” It reads fast, hits hard, and leaves you with language—and habits—that change how you lead, teach, parent, and show up.
Spoiler-free recap (no “cheap seats” commentary included)
Brown’s premise is simple and seismic: vulnerability is courage in action—the willingness to be seen when outcomes aren’t guaranteed. Drawing on years of qualitative research, she maps how shame (the fear of disconnection) drives perfectionism, numbing, and armor… and how shame resilience (naming what’s happening, reality-checking our stories, reaching out, and speaking it) gives us our lives back.
You’ll walk through:
Scarcity culture (“never enough”) vs. worthiness (“I’m enough, so I can risk more”).
Armor types—perfectionism, foreboding joy, cynicism—and how to set them down.
Empathy as antidote (connection > fixing).
Wholeheartedness: living with courage + compassion + connection, anchored by boundaries.
No plot twists to spoil—just a research-driven blueprint that makes bravery behavioral, not mythical.
Why this book still matters (and why your team/family/class will feel it)
It rewires the courage myth. Courage isn’t swagger; it’s risk + emotional exposure + uncertainty. That framing scales from a tough conversation to a moonshot.
It gives you a shared language. “Armor,” “scarcity,” “shame triggers,” “wholehearted”—terms your team can actually use in meetings without rolling their eyes.
It upgrades feedback culture. Vulnerability isn’t oversharing; it’s specific, boundaried honesty. That’s the backbone of psychological safety and real performance.
It’s ruthlessly practical. The book reads like a human-systems playbook: name it, normalize it, and move—together.
AI & authenticity. In a world of auto-generated polish, human risk-taking is the differentiator. Vulnerability is how we build trust beyond the algorithm.
Hybrid work, thin trust. Distance amplifies story-making. Brown’s “story I’m telling myself…” move is rocket fuel for remote teams and relationships.
Schools & Gen Z. Teens live under surveillance capitalism. Teaching boundaries + worthiness beats any pep talk on resilience.
Read it like a field guide (fast, no navel-gazing required)
Skim for tools, then circle back for depth. Treat each section like a drill you can run this week.
Practice out loud. Say the scripts: “Here’s what I’m afraid of… Here’s what I need… The story I’m telling myself is…”
Pick one arena. A hard 1:1, a classroom norm, a family ritual. Ship courage in small, observable iterations.
For my fellow geeks & builders
If Neuromancer gave us cyberspace, this gives us the social API for courage. It’s the middleware between your values and your behavior under load. Think of shame as a high-latency bug; Brown gives you the observability tools to catch it in prod and roll a patch without taking the system down.
Who will love this
Leaders & coaches who care about performance and people.
Educators & parents building cultures of belonging without lowering standards.
Makers & founders whose work requires public risk and iterative failure.
Anyone tired of armoring up and ready to try brave instead of perfect.
Pair it with (next reads)
The Gifts of Imperfection (Brown) — the on-ramp to wholehearted living.
Dare to Lead (Brown) — her organizational upgrade, perfect for teams.
Crucial Conversations (Patterson et al.) — tactics for high-stakes talk, post-armor.
Final verdict
Five stars, zero hedging.Daring Greatly is the rare book that alters your behavioral defaults. It’s sticky, quotable, and wildly usable the minute you close it. If you build products, classes, teams, or families, this is the courage stack you want installed.
Ready to step into the arena? Grab Daring Greatly in paperback, hardcover, or audio—whichever format helps you practice while you read. (Some links on my site may be affiliate links, which help support this work at no extra cost to you.)
The Eclectic Educator is a free resource for everyone passionate about education and creativity. If you enjoy the content and want to support the newsletter, consider becoming a paid subscriber. Your support helps keep the insights and inspiration coming!
Blistering verdict:Neuromancer doesn’t predict the future—it jailbreaks it. William Gibson plugs you into a neon-slick, rain-slicked world where data has gravity, money moves at the speed of light, and the line between human and machine is just another corporate asset to be negotiated. It’s fast. It’s razor-sharp. And four decades on, it still crackles like a live wire.
Spoiler-free recap (no ICE burned, promise)
Meet Case—a burned-out “console cowboy” who once rode the matrix like a god until he crossed the wrong people and lost the only thing that mattered: his ability to jack in. He’s offered a dangerous second chance by a mysterious patron with deep pockets and deeper secrets. Enter Molly, a mirror-shaded street samurai with retractable razors and zero patience for anyone’s nonsense. The job? A multilayered, globe-hopping (and orbit-hopping) heist threading megacorps, black-market biohacks, and an AI problem that’s less “glitch” and more “philosophical earthquake.”
The plot moves like a hot knife through black ice—tight, propulsive, and always one layer more ambitious than you think. Every chapter ups the stakes; every alleyway has a camera; every ally might be a contractor. You don’t need spoilers. You need a seatbelt.
Why this book still matters (and why geeks keep handing it to friends)
It gave us our mental model of the net. Gibson’s “cyberspace” isn’t just a word—it’s an interface, a mythos, a feeling. The luminous grids, the consensual hallucination of a shared data world? That’s the cultural operating system we installed long before broadband.
It forged the cyberpunk aesthetic. Street-level grit meets orbital decadence; chrome and sweat; hackers and mercenaries threading the seams of empire. If you love The Matrix, Ghost in the Shell, Cyberpunk 2077, or Mr. Robot, you’re drinking from this well.
It nailed corporate power as world-building. Megacorps behaving like nations. Security as religion. Branding as surveillance. In 2025, tell me that doesn’t feel uncomfortably like a user agreement we all clicked.
It treats AI as character, not prop. Neuromancer asks the questions we’re still arguing about in boardrooms and labs: autonomy, constraint, alignment, and what “self” means when the self can be copied, merged, or monetized.
The prose is pure overclocked poetry. Gibson writes like he’s soldering language: compressed, glittering, and purpose-built. The sentences hum; the metaphors bite; the world feels legible and alien at once.
What hits different in 2025
Identity as a login. Case isn’t just locked out of systems; he’s locked out of himself. That anxiety—who are we without access?—is the backbone of our cloud-tethered lives.
The gig-hacker economy. Contractors, fixers, “teams” assembled like temporary code branches. It’s Upwork with thermoptic shades.
Biohacking & upgrade culture. From dermal mods to black-clinic tune-ups, the book treats the body like firmware—exactly how today’s wearables, implants, and nootropics culture wants you to think.
Algorithmic power. Replace “AI” with your favorite recommendation engine and the social physics hold: it watches, it optimizes, it nudges. The ethics still sting.
How to read it (and love it)
Surf the jargon. Don’t stop to define every acronym. Let the context teach you like you’re a rookie riding shotgun with veterans.
Trust the city. The settings—Chiba City, the Sprawl, orbit—are more than backdrops; they’re tutorial levels. Watch what they reward and punish.
Hear the bassline. The book is paced like a heist film. When it slows, it’s loading a bigger payload. When it sprints, hang on.
If you’re this kind of reader, this book is your jam
You love high-concept, high-velocity fiction that respects your intelligence.
You care about tech culture’s DNA—where our metaphors and nightmares came from.
You’re a world-building nerd who wants settings that feel lived-in, not wallpapered.
You’re into AI, hacking, and systems thinking and want a story that treats them as more than shiny props.
The influence blast radius
Neuromancer is ground zero for the cyberpunk sensibility: the hero is small, the system is massive, and victory looks like carving a human-sized space in a machine-sized world. Its fingerprints are everywhere—console cowboys inspiring dev culture; “ICE” as the vibe under every security audit; fashion, music, and UI design that still chase its cool. Even the way journalists write about breaches and “entering the network” leans on Gibson’s visual grammar. Read it and you’ll start seeing the code behind the cultural interface.
After you jack out: what to read next
Count Zero and Mona Lisa Overdrive (finish the Sprawl Trilogy—richer world, expanding consequences).
Burning Chrome (short stories that sharpen the vision).
Adjacent canon: Neal Stephenson’s Snow Crash (satire-powered rocket fuel), Pat Cadigan’s Synners (media and minds), and Rudy Rucker’s Ware series (weirder, wilder, wonderfully so).
Final verdict
Neuromancer is essential reading—full stop. It’s the rare novel that changed the language we use to talk about technology and remains a pulse-pounding ride. If the Internet is the city we all live in now, Gibson drew the first street map that felt true. Pick it up for the thrills; keep it on your shelf for the ideas that won’t let you go.
Ready to jack in?Grab Neuromancer in paperback, ebook, or audio—however you mainline stories—and let it rewrite your mental firmware. (Some links on my site may be affiliate links, which help support the work at no extra cost to you.)
The Eclectic Educator is a free resource for everyone passionate about education and creativity. If you enjoy the content and want to support the newsletter, consider becoming a paid subscriber. Your support helps keep the insights and inspiration coming!
“In a world of infinite meetings, the scarcest resource is a goal people still remember after the coffee goes cold.”—my inner monologue every Tuesday at 7:45 a.m.
The bell hasn’t even rung when the dread kicks in. Our math PLC shuffles into a windowless room, walls plastered with mission statements no one can quite quote. The agenda glows on the projector—review data → craft SMART goal → adjourn—and someone opens last year’s spreadsheet. The cursor blinks like a taunting metronome:
Specific? “Raise Algebra II mastery five percent.” Measurable? “Benchmarks track that.” Achievable? “If the moon aligns with spring break.” Relevant? “District said so.” Time-bound? “May 15—graduation is May 16.”
Click Save. Google Drive adopts another orphan destined to be rediscovered—unfed and unloved—during next August’s in-service.
SMART ≠ Smart Enough
George T. Doran’s 1981 article introduced SMART as a managerial life-hack for middle managers drowning in vague memos. It worked because clarity beats wish-craft, so the acronym stuck. But teaching isn’t widget manufacturing, and a Professional Learning Community (PLC) is not middle management. Drop the vanilla acronym into a PLC and you often get tidy compliance—polite, forgettable, and incapable of nudging practice. (community.mis.temple.edu)
I’m not here to bury SMART; I’m here to jailbreak it. A goal that’s merely Specific and Measurable can still be pedagogically hollow. “Cover Unit 9 by Friday” is S-M-A-R-T and about as inspiring as a DMV form.
To make SMART sparkle inside a PLC, we have to graft it onto four live wires:
The Science of Learning & Development (SoLD)—brains toggle between threat and reward;
Connectivism—knowledge flows through networks, not warehouses;
Authentic learning anchored in your district’s Portrait of a Learner;
and the 4 Shifts Protocol, an instructional OSHA for deeper learning.
Flash these firmware updates onto the SMART scaffold, and the goal begins to breathe.
SoLD: Wiring the Goal to the Brain
Why does vanilla SMART sputter? Because it’s silent on how humans learn. SoLD research shows brains remain plastic when three conditions coexist: high challenge, high belonging, and obvious relevance. Stress without support drowns the prefrontal cortex in cortisol; stress with support sparks focus and growth. (soldalliance.org)
SoLD’s three non-negotiables translate into PLC design questions:
Do learners feel seen?
Is the work just beyond current mastery?
Can every brain tag the task as useful outside class?
Compare two drafts:
Vanilla — Increase correct factoring of polynomials by five percent. SoLD-Tuned — By March 1, our Algebra II PLC will co-design three community-based modeling tasks—housing prices, local wage growth, skateboard trajectories—to lift correct use of multiple representations from 52 % to 75 %, measured by a shared rubric at a public expo.
The rewrite injects authenticity (local data), public exhibition (belonging + accountability), and the sort of demanding lift brains find exhilarating instead of paralyzing.
Connectivism: Goals as Network Packets
George Siemens argued that learning is less about what you know and more about how quickly knowledge flows through your network. In PLC terms, the nodes are you, your colleagues, that teacher on Instagram who posts slick Desmos hacks, and the treasure trove of lesson plans fermenting in Google Drive. A goal that stops at student data is a half-closed circuit—knowledge stagnates; momentum dies. (jotamac.typepad.com)
A network-savvy SMART goal spells out connection rituals:
a shared Drive folder where every lesson artifact lives;
a standing five-minute “What I tried this week” round-robin at each PLC;
a Friday Google Classroom prompt where teachers asynchronously swap feedback clips.
Bandwidth is a pedagogy. If the SMART statement doesn’t declare how the signal moves—from teacher to teacher and from student back to teacher—the circuit stays dark.
Authentic Learning & the Portrait of a Learner
Your district likely brandishes a glossy “Portrait of a Graduate”—creative problem-solver, compassionate collaborator, civic-minded innovator. Trouble is, many goals never leave the gated community of state standards; they measure skill fragments in lab conditions and call it progress. Authentic learning demands the opposite: skills unleashed in messy, consequential contexts, judged by audiences who care. Real-world stakes super-charge motivation and memory. (Edutopia)
That shows up in the Relevant clause. Instead of “aligns with KY Standard A2.Q.E,” try:
Students will design statistical dashboards for the city’s housing task force and defend their recommendations at a public forum.
Now the graduate-profile competencies are mission requirements, not hallway décor.
The 4 Shifts Protocol: Deeper-Learning Guardrails
Scott McLeod and Julie Graber’s 4 Shifts—deeper thinking, authentic work, student agency, technology infusion—work like a four-question crash test. Ask them of every draft goal: Does the task demand real cognitive wrestling? Will the product matter outside class? Do learners steer key decisions? Does tech amplify learning rather than merely digitize worksheets? If you answer “no” to any, keep writing. (dangerouslyirrelevant.org)
Most beige goals die on question 2: they yield products destined for the recycling bin, not the community or the Web.
Crafting Goals for PLCs, Not in PLCs
Here’s how our team writes without turning the meeting into a TED-style slog:
We walk in with evidence, not impressions—photos, student reflections, screenshots. We verb-hack mushy words like improve into verbs that signal complexity: design, simulate, defend. Every first-person singular becomes we—collective efficacy is grammatically plural. Before anyone clicks Save, we schedule two mid-cycle check-ins and agree on which artifacts (videos, drafts, rubric snapshots) will anchor them. Finally, we script a diffusion ritual—maybe a 60-second TikTok recap or a slide deck for the next faculty meeting. When sharing is baked into the goal, it doesn’t depend on hero-level willpower later.
A Full-Stack Example
Here’s a possible Algebra II goal :
By April 30, our Grade 10 math PLC will co-create, peer-review, and teach two interdisciplinary projects where students build interactive dashboards using local housing and wage data. At least 80 % of students will accurately interpret variability and propose actionable recommendations, judged by a shared rubric and showcased during a public “Data Night.” The team will meet every other Wednesday to iterate, store artifacts in a shared Drive folder, and survey students’ sense of belonging before and after the unit.
Break-down:
SoLD — belonging survey + public showcase.
Connectivism — Drive folder, peer-review rhythm, community data partnership.
The acronym didn’t change, but the genome inside is worlds away from “raise scores five percent by May.”
Dumpster Fires I’ve Authored (So You Don’t Have To)
I’ve written SMART goals that cratered spectacularly. Patterns emerge:
Input worship—“cover all twelve units” tracks what teachers do, not what kids learn.
Equity blindness—averages hide who’s drowning.
Ankle-high ambition—easy feels achievable, but starves growth.
Write-once, read-never—static goals in dynamic systems rot.
The fix is unglamorous: reopen the document, ask where belonging, relevance, or cognitive demand evaporated, and then rewrite.
Why This Matters More Than Benchmarks
A well-coded SMART goal has just two outcomes: teacher practice shifts and student cognition blooms. Everything else—acronyms, rubrics, meeting norms—is scaffolding. When a goal hits all four live wires, classrooms feel weird in the best sense. Students argue over data visualizations. Parents cheer on their children in Instagram stories from public showcases. Teachers trade spreadsheet formulas like favorite playlists. One morning, you realize no one’s counting ceiling tiles; everyone’s too busy debugging and learning in real time.
If that sounds utopian, remember: it’s biology plus bandwidth plus sentences you’ll actually reread. The brain loves hard problems in safe rooms. Networks love traffic. A SMART goal that guarantees both is no longer paperwork—it’s propulsion.
Your Turn
Open last year’s PLC folder, find the stalest goal, and run it through SoLD, Connectivism, authentic relevance, and the 4 Shifts. Rewrite until it hums like good sci-fi—plausible, provocative, people-centric. Then ship it. Invite your students, your admin, and your Instagram teacher circle to poke holes. Iterate. Repeat.
If this dive hit home, subscribe to The Eclectic Educator—my Friday dispatch where pedagogy meets punk rock—and forward this post to your PLC before the next calendar-driven time heist. Let’s make SMART stand for something again.
Oh, and you might want to pick up a copy of Read This Before Our Next Meeting, because most PLCs are 45-minute time vampires and this 90-minute read shows you how to turn them into fast, decision-driven sprints.
The Eclectic Educator is a free resource for everyone passionate about education and creativity. If you enjoy the content and want to support the newsletter, consider becoming a paid subscriber. Your support helps keep the insights and inspiration coming!
Teaching can feel like sprinting through sand: every ounce of effort disappears into new mandates, fresh interruptions, and the endless pressure to prove you’re “impacting achievement.” Robert Greene’s Mastery offers a different vision—one drawn from Darwin’s notebooks, Temple Grandin’s cattle chutes, and Mozart’s late-night scales. Greene insists that anyone who treats skill-building as a deliberate, three-phase journey—Apprenticeship → Creative-Active → Mastery—will reclaim momentum and stay in the classroom long enough to matter. Below is a narrative roadmap that translates each phase into research-backed actions you can begin during pre-service week, with evidence that they work and persuasive arguments strong enough to convince even your most overwhelmed colleague to click “Add to Cart.”
Almost half of American K-12 teachers now say they feel burned out “often or always,” a figure Gallup has tracked since 2022 and one that remains unchanged in 2025 (Devlin Peck). Surveys in Texas peg the fatigue even higher—three out of four teachers report being “exhausted,” with two-thirds eyeing the exits (Houston Chronicle). Attrition follows a cruel curve: novices leave just as their instruction could blossom, while veterans plateau when novelty fades. Greene argues that the path out is not better work-life “balance” but a conscious march toward expertise—because mastery, unlike balance, supplies its energy.
Greene’s Map in Plain English
Greene distills the biographies of history’s stand-out performers into a three-act structure. Apprentices absorb fundamentals until they become second nature; creative-actives recombine those fundamentals in bold experiments; true masters spot patterns others miss and simplify complexity (sipreads.com, Nat Eliason). In copywriting terms, the book is a “big promise” paired with a believable mechanism: you can transform your teaching, and here’s the step-by-step engine that makes it happen.
Phase 1: Apprenticeship—Winning the First 10,000 Minutes
What It Looks Like in a Classroom
Forget the romantic myth of genius; Greene says apprentices log mundane reps under watchful eyes. For teachers, this means treating high-impact moves—such as retrieval questions, spaced review, and explicit modeling—like musicians treat scales.
Retrieval practice. A 2017 meta-analysis encompassing 118 studies found that the technique consistently enhanced learning across age groups and subjects (Retrieval Practice). Start every period with two low-stakes recall prompts. Record accuracy; reteach when the class average dips below 80 percent.
Spaced practice. Neuro-education researchers conclude that revisiting content 24 hours, one week, and one month later maximizes retention for months — and the longer the interval, the longer the memory trace endures (THE EDUCATION HUB). Work those intervals into your warm-ups before adding a single new bell-ringer.
Rosenshine-style explicit instruction. Barak Rosenshine’s ten principles synthesize decades of cognitive-science evidence on how humans learn; short daily reviews and bite-sized explanations sit at the top of his list (Devlin Peck). Film a five-minute segment, then annotate where you checked for understanding.
Why It Pays Off
Feedback ranks among the highest effect sizes catalogued by John Hattie—around d = 0.70, almost double the hinge-point that separates worthwhile strategies from noise (VISIBLE LEARNING). When you wrap each retrieval sprint with “where to next” comments, you are compounding two evidence-based levers at once.
Phase 2: Creative-Active—Turning Fundamentals into Innovation
Once the basics hum automatically, Greene says the apprentice must risk “creative crimes”—small, testable departures from the script that force new neural wiring. In copywriting, this is your product’s “demonstration” moment: show the prospect the payoff.
Mash strategies. Combine retrieval with peer teaching: students quiz partners, then explain answers out loud. Cognitive science calls the blend “elaborative interrogation,” and it deepens transfer of knowledge to novel problems (Progress Learning Blog).
Prototype homework versions. Run spaced problem sets in one class, traditional packets in another, and compare quiz scores a week later. Early field experiments on spaced homework deliver significant gains over cramming (Houston Chronicle).
Document publicly. Greene notes that masters cultivate “social intelligence” by exposing ideas to critique. Weekly reflections posted in a team Google Doc turn tacit hunches into collective knowledge; professional development studies find that peer transparency accelerates skill uptake (Network for Educator Effectiveness).
Phase 3: Mastery—Seeing the Game and Guiding Others
Greene’s masters do two things novices rarely attempt: they compress complexity into elegant patterns and they mentor the next wave. Teacher research echoes him. A 108-study meta-analysis shows mastery-learning programs reliably raise exam performance, especially when experts make criteria explicit and coach students toward them (SAGE Journals).
Spot error trends. Use a simple spreadsheet or dashboard: where do misconceptions cluster? Redesign tomorrow’s mini-lesson to pre-empt those pitfalls.
Open your door. Peer observation, when low stakes and feedback-rich, improves both the observer’s and observed teacher’s practice—and even bumps student test scores in the observer’s class (Network for Educator Effectiveness |).
Coach a novice. Rigorous studies on instructional coaching show that targeted, cycles-based feedback outperforms traditional workshop PD for both teacher retention and student learning gains (Instructional Coaching Group).
Masters, Greene reminds us, aren’t superhuman. They’re relentless editors of their craft—and generosity is their sharpening stone.
A 30-Day Story You Can Tell Yourself
Day 1: choose one micro-skill—say, crafting two retrieval prompts per lesson. Day 7: film and self-critique a five-minute segment focused solely on those prompts. Day 14: Invite a colleague to observe for “retrieval density” and provide you with notes. Day 21: add spaced review intervals; compare quiz data to your Day 1 baseline. Day 30: Share the results and the film clip in your PLC.
You have now walked Greene’s first two phases, gathered real data, and leveraged peer feedback—three evidence-rich practices stitched into one micro-narrative.
Why the Book Earns a Slot in Your Tote Bag
Greene supplies what most PD skips: a compelling story that keeps teachers in the arena long enough to see evidence payoffs. Retrieval, spacing, feedback, coaching—these are not trends; they’re durable findings across hundreds of studies. Mastery ties them to a motivational arc that protects against the burnout numbers you saw earlier, giving you purpose when enthusiasm wanes.
Call to Action
Teaching is a craft you will never finish, but you can decide today whether the next 180 school days feel like wheel-spinning or measured ascent. Greene’s Mastery is the blueprint. Read the opening chapter tonight. Pick your micro-skill before the coffee brews tomorrow. And start counting progress, not just hours.
If you’ve ever found yourself carrying the full weight of your classroom on your shoulders—exhausted, overextended, and wondering if your students are truly engaged—The Shift to Student-Led by Catlin R. Tucker and Katie Novak offers a powerful path forward.
By blending Universal Design for Learning (UDL) with blended learning strategies, this book helps teachers transition from being the center of the classroom to becoming learning designers and facilitators, without sacrificing structure, rigor, or accountability.
Empowers learners to take charge of their education through student-led workflows that build agency, motivation, and metacognition.
Aligns with UDL principles, offering multiple ways for students to access content, express learning, and stay engaged.
Supports teacher sustainability with practical tools that reduce burnout and promote shared responsibility in the classroom.
Includes ready-to-use templates and reflection tools for immediate implementation—in class or in PLCs.
What Are Student-Led Workflows?
Tucker and Novak outline 10 specific shifts that flip the script on traditional classroom practices. A few standout transformations:
From…
To…
Sit-and-get lessons
Inquiry-based discovery
Whole-group discussions
Student-facilitated conversations
Solo assignments
Projects with authentic audiences
Teacher-led feedback
Student self-assessment & reflection
Private practice
Peer-created practice tasks
Each shift includes step-by-step guides, examples, and tools to make it manageable, even in busy classrooms with diverse learners.
🎯 Why This Matters Now (More Than Ever)
Teaching is hard. Teaching after a pandemic, amid ongoing changes and rising needs? Even harder.
This book isn’t just about pedagogy—it’s about reclaiming joy in your practice and building classrooms where students are doing the work of learning. That includes:
Meeting diverse needs without creating 30 different lesson plans.
Building life-ready skills like reflection, goal-setting, and collaboration.
Creating space for student voice, choice, and autonomy.
Who This Book Is Perfect For
👩🏫 K–12 Teachers looking to create more student-driven classrooms 🤝 Instructional Coaches supporting PLCs or teacher growth cycles 🏫 School Leaders designing systems that promote learner agency 🎓 Pre-service Teachers & Faculty studying modern learning design
📚 Downloadable tools embedded in each chapter for immediate use
Ready to Start Small? Here’s How 👣
Pick one workflow to try—maybe feedback or group discussions.
Invite students into the process: What helps them learn? What’s not working?
Use reflection check-ins to adjust and improve.
Celebrate growth—with student artifacts, voice recordings, or video showcases.
Classroom Scenarios That Just Work
Middle School ELA: Students run peer-led literature circles with discussion protocols
High School Science: Learners build digital flashcard decks and quiz each other
Upper Elementary: Students design mini passion projects and present them to families
Final Thoughts: Why This Shift Matters
This isn’t a silver bullet, but it is a breath of fresh air. The Shift to Student-Led gives educators the tools to create meaningful, student-centered learning without burning out. You’ll find yourself doing less of the heavy lifting and more of the inspiring.
And that’s the kind of classroom every student—and teacher—deserves.
The heat has officially arrived here in Kentucky, and with it comes one of my favorite seasonal rituals: the Summer Reading Stack. You know the one. The books you optimistically pile up beside your hammock, or your travel bag, or your nightstand, knowing full well you won’t read them all, but determined to try anyway.
As I prepare to disappear into as many pages as possible between projects and planning, I’ve rounded up some of the June 2025 SFF releases that have piqued my curiosity, stirred my genre-loving soul, and whispered, “read me next.” This month’s picks include vampire spaceships, cursed couriers, underwater palaces, swan-based political coups, and so much more.
So pour yourself a tall glass of iced tea (or Romulan ale — I won’t judge), and dive into this list of stellar speculative fiction releases.
A dying queen. An heir who can’t get it together. A rival powerful enough to tear down everything. This high-stakes island fantasy features matriarchal legacy, political power grabs, and complicated magic. It’s giving Game of Thrones meets The Green Bone Saga — and I am here for it.
If you told me this book was Dracula meets Battlestar Galactica, I’d throw my credits at the nearest data terminal. Set on the spaceship Demeter (a clever nod to Stoker), this queer horror story features space vampires, interstellar travel, and a haunted AI that might need to become Blade.
When the royal road trip from hell goes sideways (thanks, arrogant prince), it’s up to Elen the courier to get everyone out of a haunted town alive. This one promises political intrigue, ancient magic, and the kind of “why am I always the responsible one?” energy I feel deep in my soul.
439 Pages – 06/10/2025 (Publication Date) – Tor Books (Publisher)
Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil by V. E. Schwab
Out June 10 (Tor Books)
Three women. Three timelines. Vampires. Schwab’s gothic sensibilities are on full display in this “toxic lesbian vampire” novel (her words, not mine), and I’m already bracing for heartbreak, blood, and beautifully written trauma.
544 Pages – 06/10/2025 (Publication Date) – Tor Books (Publisher)
The Ghosts of Gwendolyn Montgomery by Clarence A. Haynes
Out June 17 (Legacy Lit)
A glamorous NYC publicist finds herself haunted — literally and figuratively — after a museum tragedy. Throw in a psychic caught in a ghostly love triangle and some deeply buried secrets, and this one sounds like The Sixth Sense meets Scandal with a Bronx twist.
An Indigenous warrior mother seeking vengeance in a colonized city? Yes, please. Add in morally gray alliances, godlike powers, and a blood debt that could ignite a revolution, and you’ve got a fantasy epic I’m bumping to the top of the list.
New SFF for Young Readers (and the Young at Heart)
A Forgery of Fate by Elizabeth Lim
Out June 3 (Knopf Books)
Beauty and the Beast but make it a con artist with prophetic painting powers? Lim continues to blend folklore and feminism with flair. Truyan agrees to marry the Dragon King to save her family, but we all know that kind of bargain never goes according to plan…
480 Pages – 06/03/2025 (Publication Date) – Knopf Books for Young Readers (Publisher)
Among Ghosts by Rachel Hartman
Out June 24 (Random House)
A medieval town where freedom is earned by surviving a year and a day — until a ghost, a dragon, and a murder shake the walls. Hartman’s return promises haunting imagery and a layered coming-of-age story, perfect for fans of Seraphina and The Graveyard Book.
399 Pages – 06/24/2025 (Publication Date) – Random House Books for Young Readers (Publisher)
Embrace the Serpent by Sunya Mara
Out June 24 (HarperCollins)
A jeweler’s apprentice finds herself in the Serpent King’s castle. To survive, she marries him — but finds herself drawn to someone else entirely. Intrigue, jewels, forbidden romance… this one’s for readers who like their fantasy a little dark and a lot twisty.
Inspired by Swan Lake, this sapphic fantasy delivers palace politics, magical transformations, and a mission to restore a kingdom’s lost magic. When the king dies and blame falls on the wrong person, Odile must team up with the very person she betrayed to find the truth.
That’s all for now, fellow explorers of the weird and wonderful. If you pick up any of these, let me know — I’m always up for a good bookish conversation, especially if it involves morally ambiguous magic or sentient spaceships.
Until next time: read deeply, imagine wildly, and remember… the TBR pile is infinite, but your joy is the compass.
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Affectionately dubbed “America’s Government Teacher,” Sharon McMahon recently geeked out with Ryan Holiday at his Painted Porch bookstore, diving into overlooked gems of American history. Holiday praised Booker T. Washington’s “Up from Slavery,” highlighting its impactful pragmatism. McMahon connected this to the profound ripple effects on figures like Julius Rosenwald, Toni Morrison, and John Lewis.
Their enthusiastic exchange ranged from Paul Jennings’s “A Slave in the White House” to Taylor Branch’s monumental civil rights chronicles, celebrating storytelling that transforms history into vivid, human narratives. Alongside laughter and shared struggles about balancing life and work, both authors reminded us how vital—and fun—history can be.
Their meeting was a vibrant testament to the power of knowing history, geekiness and all.
The Eclectic Educator is a free resource for everyone passionate about education and creativity. If you enjoy the content and want to support the newsletter, consider becoming a paid subscriber. Your support helps keep the insights and inspiration coming!
Artificial intelligence is not just a technological breakthrough—it is reshaping industries, redefining jobs, and transforming economies worldwide. Businesses and policymakers are grappling with AI’s immense potential and disruptive power. These books provide essential insights into how AI is influencing the global economy and business landscape.
The Big Nine: How the Tech Titans and Their Thinking Machines Could Warp Humanity – Amy Webb
Amy Webb provides a compelling analysis of the nine companies dominating AI development: Google, Amazon, Facebook, Apple, Microsoft, and China’s BAT—Baidu, Alibaba, and Tencent. She explores how these tech giants are steering AI in ways that could benefit humanity or lead to unintended consequences.
This book offers a stark warning about the lack of global AI governance and the risks of AI monopolies. Webb argues that the power concentrated in these companies could shape the future of economies and societies in ways that we are not fully prepared for. Her thought-provoking insights make this an essential read for anyone concerned about the intersection of AI, business, and policy.
AI Superpowers: China, Silicon Valley, and the New World Order – Kai-Fu Lee
Kai-Fu Lee, a renowned AI expert and venture capitalist, compares the AI advancements in China and the U.S., illustrating how these two superpowers compete for AI dominance. He outlines how AI-driven automation will impact worldwide jobs, industries, and economic structures.
Lee’s background in Silicon Valley and China provides a unique perspective on how AI drives innovation and economic transformation. He also explores how AI will disrupt traditional employment structures, arguing that societies must rethink work and income distribution. This book is crucial for understanding the global AI arms race and its implications for the future.
288 Pages – 09/14/2021 (Publication Date) – Harper Business (Publisher)
Prediction Machines: The Simple Economics of Artificial Intelligence – Ajay Agrawal, Joshua Gans, & Avi Goldfarb
This book uses an economic framework to explain AI’s impact on the economy. The authors argue that AI fundamentally lowers the cost of prediction, transforming decision-making in business and society.
By focusing on AI as an economic tool, this book makes the case that AI is not just a futuristic technology but a fundamental shift in how businesses operate. It provides actionable insights into how companies can integrate AI to improve efficiency, reduce costs, and drive innovation.
The Age of AI: And Our Human Future – Henry Kissinger, Eric Schmidt, & Daniel Huttenlocher
This book, written by a former U.S. Secretary of State, a former Google CEO, and an MIT professor, explores AI’s profound implications for global politics, economics, and society. The authors discuss how AI is changing business, governance, and international relations, making it a must-read for those interested in AI’s role in shaping the world order.
The book emphasizes that AI is not just a tool but a transformative force that will redefine industries and challenge traditional notions of leadership and strategy. Its broad perspective makes it valuable for business leaders, policymakers, and anyone interested in AI’s long-term consequences.
220 Pages – 11/02/2021 (Publication Date) – Little, Brown and Company (Publisher)
Why These Books Matter
Understanding AI’s business and economic impact is essential for entrepreneurs, executives, and policymakers. These books provide a comprehensive view of how AI disrupts industries, reshapes economies, and challenges existing business models. Whether you are a business leader or just curious about AI’s broader implications, these books will equip you with the knowledge needed to navigate the AI-driven future.
Have you read any of these books? Do you have other recommendations on AI’s impact on business and the economy? Let’s discuss in the comments!
Artificial intelligence has rapidly evolved from a futuristic concept to an integral part of our daily lives. Large Language Models (LLMs) like ChatGPT, Bard, and Claude are revolutionizing how we interact with technology, but how do they work? If you want to understand the technology behind AI, deep learning, and LLMs, this post highlights essential books that provide the foundational knowledge you need.
Artificial Intelligence: A Guide for Thinking Humans – Melanie Mitchell
A fantastic starting point, this book provides an accessible introduction to AI’s fundamental concepts. Melanie Mitchell explains key ideas in machine learning, neural networks, and AI’s current limitations, offering a balanced perspective on what AI can and cannot do. Through clear explanations and engaging storytelling, Mitchell demystifies AI and presents real-world examples to illustrate how these technologies function.
What sets this book apart is its focus on making complex AI topics understandable for general readers. Whether you’re an AI enthusiast or just curious about how artificial intelligence impacts our world, this book is an excellent resource. Mitchell also delves into the history of AI. He explores why human-like intelligence remains a challenge for machines, making this a compelling read for anyone interested in the future of AI.
336 Pages – 11/17/2020 (Publication Date) – Picador Paper (Publisher)
The Alignment Problem: Machine Learning and Human Values – Brian Christian
This book tackles one of AI’s most pressing issues: how do we ensure machine learning models align with human values? Brian Christian explores the ethical and technical challenges in training AI systems, making this a must-read for anyone interested in AI safety and ethics. He takes readers through a journey of how AI learns, the biases it inherits, and the moral dilemmas that arise when machines make decisions on behalf of humans.
Christian does an excellent job of breaking down complex topics while maintaining an engaging narrative. By incorporating real-world case studies and interviews with AI researchers, he thoroughly examines how we might shape AI to be more ethical and beneficial for society. The book raises critical questions about responsibility, bias, and the future of AI regulation, making it a thought-provoking read.
496 Pages – 10/06/2020 (Publication Date) – W. W. Norton & Company (Publisher)
Genius Makers: The Mavericks Who Brought AI to Google, Facebook, and the World – Cade Metz
For those curious about the history and key players behind AI’s explosion, Genius Makers provides an engaging narrative about the pioneers of deep learning, including Geoffrey Hinton, Yann LeCun, and Demis Hassabis. It’s a fascinating look at the competitive race to develop AI, covering breakthroughs in neural networks and the intense competition between tech giants to dominate the AI space.
Metz tells the story through the lens of individual researchers and innovators who made AI what it is today. He captures the excitement, the scientific rivalries, and the ethical dilemmas involved in AI’s development. The book offers an insider’s view of how AI became one of the most sought-after technologies and what that means for the future.
Rebooting AI: Building Artificial Intelligence We Can Trust – Gary Marcus & Ernest Davis
Rebooting AI critically examines AI’s limitations and argues that current machine-learning approaches fall short of true intelligence. The authors propose alternative strategies for developing AI systems that are more reliable, transparent, and capable of real-world reasoning. They highlight the pitfalls of deep learning and emphasize the need for hybrid models that integrate traditional AI techniques with modern advancements.
What makes this book particularly valuable is its practical approach to AI criticism. Instead of merely pointing out flaws, Marcus and Davis suggest ways to improve AI to work more effectively in real-world applications. Their insights are crucial for developers, researchers, and anyone interested in AI’s long-term impact on society.
AI 2041: Ten Visions for Our Future – Kai-Fu Lee & Chen Qiufan
Blending fiction with expert analysis, this book envisions how AI will shape various aspects of society by 2041. Kai-Fu Lee, a leading AI researcher, and Chen Qiufan, a science fiction writer, craft ten compelling narratives illustrating AI’s potential future. Each story is followed by an analysis explaining the technological principles behind it, bridging the gap between imagination and reality.
This unique format makes AI 2041 both an entertaining and educational read. The authors explore AI-driven healthcare, automation, and geopolitical challenges, providing a well-rounded view of AI’s possibilities. Whether you enjoy science fiction or want to glimpse what AI could mean for our world, this book offers a fascinating perspective.
Deep Learning – Ian Goodfellow, Yoshua Bengio, & Aaron Courville
This textbook is considered the bible of deep learning for readers who want a deep technical dive. It covers neural networks’ mathematical and theoretical underpinnings and is widely used in AI research and academia. This book provides an extensive foundation in deep learning algorithms, optimization techniques, and model architectures, making it an essential reference for those who want to understand AI at an advanced level
While this book is more technical, it remains one of the most comprehensive resources available for deep learning. It’s ideal for students, engineers, and researchers who want to master the principles that drive AI today. This book is a must-have if you’re serious about AI and ready to tackle the mathematical aspects.
It ensures you get the best usage for a longer period
Hardcover Book
Goodfellow, Ian (Author)
Why These Books Matter
Understanding AI isn’t just for computer scientists—it’s essential for anyone interested in technology’s impact on society. These books provide a comprehensive view of how AI models are built, how they learn, and what challenges they present. Whether you’re a beginner or someone with technical expertise, these reads will deepen your knowledge of AI and LLMs.
What are your thoughts on these books? Have you read any of them, or do you have other recommendations? Let’s discuss in the comments!
