education – Page 3

Daring Greatly: The Courage Manual You Didn’t Know You Needed

I want to be honest about my relationship with Daring Greatly before I say anything else, because I think it matters.

When Brené Brown’s TED talk went viral, I was skeptical. The vocabulary — vulnerability, wholehearted, shame resilience — sounded like the kind of therapeutic language that gets plastered on motivational posters and stripped of the difficult specificity that actually makes it useful. I’d seen the ideas travel from a research context to a corporate keynote to a school district “culture” initiative, losing precision at every step.

So I put off reading the book for longer than I should have.

I was wrong to. Daring Greatly is not what I expected. It’s a more rigorous, more honest, and more specifically useful book than the way it tends to be discussed. And for anyone who works in education — particularly anyone who coaches teachers, which requires asking adults to be vulnerable about their practice in ways that most professional norms actively discourage — it’s genuinely important.

What the Book Actually Is

Brown is a qualitative researcher who spent years studying connection, shame, and what she calls “wholeheartedness” — the capacity to engage fully in life despite uncertainty and imperfection. Daring Greatly is built on that research: real data, patterns from thousands of interviews, and a framework she developed to understand what gets in the way of genuine engagement.

The central claim is that vulnerability — defined as risk, emotional exposure, and uncertainty without guaranteed outcome — is not weakness. It is the precondition for courage, creativity, connection, and meaningful work. The armor we build to avoid vulnerability (perfectionism, cynicism, numbing, controlling) protects us in the short term and costs us everything in the long term.

The book is titled after a Theodore Roosevelt quote: the famous “man in the arena” passage, the one about the critic who sits in the cheap seats versus the person who is actually in the fight, who “dares greatly” even knowing they will fail sometimes. Brown uses it as a frame for what she’s asking: not to eliminate vulnerability, but to choose it deliberately, in service of what matters.

Why It Matters in Schools, Specifically

Teaching is one of the most vulnerable jobs there is, and we have almost no professional language for that.

Every day, teachers stand in front of 25 or 30 people and attempt to make something happen — understanding, curiosity, skill, connection — without any guarantee that it will work. The lesson they planned might fall flat. The explanation they thought was clear turned out to be confusing. A student they’ve been trying to reach for weeks shuts down at the one moment they feel like they’re finally getting through. This happens constantly, and mostly in silence, because the professional culture of teaching tends to reward certainty and penalize visible struggle.

As an instructional coach, a significant part of my work involves watching teachers teach — sitting in classrooms, observing, taking notes, then having conversations about what I saw. This is, if you think about it, a structured invitation to vulnerability. I’m asking a professional to let someone into the most imperfect part of their work, the part they haven’t figured out yet, and to talk about it honestly.

What Brown’s research makes clear is why this is so hard and why so many coaching relationships fail to produce genuine reflection: shame. Not dramatic shame, but the quiet, ambient kind — the professional fear that if you let someone see what’s not working, they’ll conclude that you are not working. That the struggle is evidence of inadequacy rather than evidence of honest effort in a genuinely difficult job.

Brown’s framework for navigating this — what she calls shame resilience, the capacity to recognize shame, reality-check the story you’re telling yourself, reach out, and speak it rather than let it drive behavior — is a practical map for conversations that coaching depends on. It’s not therapeutic language. It’s a professional development infrastructure.

The Research Versus the Brand

Here’s my honest caveat, because this book has a complicated position in the culture.

The research underlying Daring Greatly is real and legitimate. Brown’s qualitative work is careful, and her framework is grounded in patterns observed among real people. The book respects the reader’s intelligence.

But Brown has also become a brand, and the brand version of these ideas is considerably more diluted than the book version. The corporate keynote version of “vulnerability” often means “share something personal at the start of a meeting to build rapport,” which is not what Brown is describing. The school culture version tends to mean “hang growth mindset posters and say ‘we value failure,'” which is also not what Brown is describing.

The book itself is more demanding than that. It’s asking for something that is genuinely uncomfortable: not performed openness but actual risk. Not vulnerability as a tactic, but vulnerability as a condition of meaningful work. There’s a significant difference, and if you’ve been exposed to the brand version without the book version, the book may surprise you with how much harder it asks you to be on yourself.

What Resonates as an Educator

A few things from this reread that I keep thinking about:

The distinction between perfectionism and high standards. Brown is not arguing against excellence. She’s arguing against the specific cognitive trap of using perfectionism as a protective strategy — the belief that if you do everything perfectly, you can avoid criticism, judgment, and failure. That trap is everywhere in teaching and education leadership, and it produces exactly the opposite of what it promises.

The concept of “foreboding joy.” The tendency to preemptively imagine disaster when things are going well — to hold back from full engagement because full engagement feels dangerous. Teachers who’ve been through painful years sometimes develop this reflex: don’t get attached to a good moment because it will end. It’s a real pattern, and Brown names it precisely.

The arena metaphor is applied to professional learning. The person in the arena is the teacher who tries something new, has it fall apart in front of their students, and then learns from it. The person in the cheap seats is anyone who critiques without attempting. School cultures that penalize visible struggle and reward only polished performance push people out of the arena and into the cheap seats — and then wonder why professional learning doesn’t stick.

Who Should Read This

If you coach teachers or lead professional development, this book will give you a framework for understanding why the work is harder than it looks and what the emotional conditions for genuine growth actually require. Read it before you design your next coaching cycle.

If you’re a teacher who’s been in the profession long enough to have developed professional armor — the particular efficiency and distance that protects you from full engagement — this book will name what’s happening with more precision than most things you’ll find in education-specific reading.

If you’re skeptical of self-help books in general (I was), give the first three chapters a try before deciding. It earns its keep.

Rating: 4 out of 5. The research is real, the framework is useful, and the writing is clear without being condescending. The half-star off is because some sections drift toward the brand territory — the motivational phrasing that feels more like it was designed for an audience than worked out for a reader. The core is worth it.

Get Daring Greatly

If You Liked This, Read Next

Dare to Lead by Brené Brown — Brown’s follow-up focuses on leadership and organizations rather than on individuals. More directly applicable to school leaders and coaches.

The Gifts of Imperfection by Brené Brown — The book that preceded Daring Greatly, covering many of the same ideas with more focus on personal life than professional. A good companion.

Mindset by Carol Dweck — The growth mindset research that maps directly onto what Brown is describing about perfectionism and failure. Read together, they’re more useful than either is alone. (Affiliate link)

The Shift to Student-Led by Tucker and Novak — Connects Brown’s ideas about vulnerability and risk to the classroom specifically: what it actually means to create conditions where students (and teachers) can fail productively. (Affiliate link)

Related on this site: the Mastery post covers the long arc of skill development in teaching. Brown and Greene are in conversation, whether they know it or not — Brown asks what makes it possible to keep showing up to hard work, Greene asks what happens when you do.

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!

Sharpen Your Collective Spears: How to Write SMART Goals That Actually Move a PLC

Photo by Polina Zimmerman on Pexels.com

“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.
Authentic Learning — city-council-relevant dashboards.
4 Shifts — deeper thinking (stats modeling), authentic work (public policy), agency (students choose variables), tech infusion (interactive dashboards).

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.

Slow Light: When Yesterday Hijacks Today

Ever wondered what life would feel like if your eyes buffered reality the way old dial-up modems buffered videos? Slow Light, the stop-motion stunner from Warsaw animation duo Kijek/Adamski, answers that question with style. It’s nameless hero sees everything on a seven-year delay—kindergarten birthday candles flare up during his first kiss, a forgotten snowball fight snows over a job interview, and so on. Yesterday isn’t lurking in the background; it’s live-streaming right on top of today.

The filmmakers crank up the disorientation to eleven with hand-cut paper sets awash in neon paint. Every frame feels like a pop-up book crossed with a fever dream. Their mini behind-the-scenes reel on Vimeo is a crash course in low-tech wizardry; it’s a reminder that big ideas don’t need Hollywood budgets, just relentless creativity (and a mountain of X-Acto blades).

Turning Slow Light into Authentic Learning

Below are four ways to let this short brain-bender spark real-world, student-centered work. Mix and match, or allow students to design their path.

Lens	Authentic Task	Real-World Connection	Graduate Profile Tie-In
Physics & Neuroscience	Remix the film’s handmade aesthetic in 3D: scan paper sets into Blender and add interactive hotspots that reveal “past vs. present” layers when clicked.	Partner with a local optometrist or university lab for feedback; publish explainer videos debunking vision myths.	Innovative Problem Solver, Effective Communicator
Media Literacy & Storytelling	Analyze how stop-motion’s frame-by-frame illusion mimics the film’s time-lag theme. Teams storyboard their own short that visualizes a cognitive quirk (e.g., déjà vu, false memories).	Submit films to a youth animation festival or stream them during a community movie night.	Creative Producer, Productive Collaborator
SEL & Psychology	Use the protagonist’s delayed perception as a metaphor: How do past experiences color present choices? Students craft personal “slow light” journals, then design advisory lessons to help younger peers understand trauma and resilience.	Collaborate with school counselors to run peer-led workshops on growth mindset and coping strategies.	Empathetic Citizen, Reflective Learner
Design Thinking & Tech	Remix the film’s handmade aesthetic in 3-D: scan paper sets into Blender, add interactive hotspots that reveal “past vs. present” layers when clicked.	Publish the interactive scene on the class website; invite feedback from professional animators via Zoom.	Digitally Fluent Innovator, Self-Directed Navigator

Ready-Made Reflection Prompt

If your own vision carried a seven-year delay, which past moments would you be doomed (or delighted) to relive—and how might that reshape who you are today?

Let students answer in whatever medium they choose—audio diary, comic strip, data viz—then host a gallery walk to surface common themes of perception, bias, and memory.

Bottom line: Slow Light isn’t just artsy eye candy. In the right hands (read: your classroom), it becomes a launchpad for interdisciplinary inquiry, hands-on making, and soul-searching reflection—all hallmarks of authentic learning that sticks long after the credits roll.

h/t to kottke.org

The 40-Hour Teacher Week Myth (and 7 Tools to Help You Reclaim Your Time)

black and white photo of clocks — Photo by Andrey Grushnikov on Pexels.com

If you’re a teacher, you know the truth: 40 hours is a fantasy.

Between planning, grading, answering emails, attending parent meetings, professional development sessions, hallway duty, IEPs, MTSS meetings, and trying to catch a breath for a moment, teaching is a job that routinely demands 50 to 60 hours per week, and sometimes even more. It’s not that we’re bad at time management. It’s that we’re swimming against a system that wasn’t designed for sustainability.

But here’s the good news: while you may not be able to control the system, you can change how you manage your time within it.

In this post, we’re going to:

Debunk the 40-hour teacher week
Explore how to design your time like a limited resource
Share seven time-saving tools that can help you win back your evenings and weekends
Provide practical, teacher-tested time hacks you can implement right away

Let’s dig in.

Why the 40-Hour Teacher Week Is a Myth

The idea of a 40-hour workweek originated from industrial labor models—you clock in, you do your job, and you clock out. But teaching isn’t just a job. It’s a calling, a performance, a planning-intensive, people-heavy, paperwork-dense act of organized chaos.

Here’s how time gets spent:

Instruction: 30+ hours/week
Lesson planning & prep: 5–10 hours/week
Grading and feedback: 5–8 hours/week
Emails and communication: 3+ hours/week
Meetings (PLC, IEP, PD, admin): 2–5 hours/week

And that’s before you factor in classroom setup, tech troubleshooting, data analysis, sub plans, hallway coverage, behavior documentation, and the emotional labor of being “on” all day.

Teaching is a job that will expand to consume every available minute if you let it.

That’s why reclaiming your time starts with a mindset shift.

Time Budgeting vs. Task Management

Traditional time management says, “Make a list and get it all done.”

But that assumes time is infinite and predictable. It’s not.

Instead, use a time budgeting mindset: you start with a finite amount of time and allocate it intentionally.

Try this:

Budget 30 minutes to plan tomorrow’s lesson. When the timer goes off, stop. Done is better than perfect.
Give yourself 45 minutes to grade a set of quizzes. Use a single-point rubric or comment bank to expedite the process.
Block off 1 hour for parent communication. Use templated responses, voice memos, or batch them in your planning period.

You wouldn’t overspend your money without consequence. Don’t overspend your time.

The 80% Rule: Done Is Better Than Perfect

Aim for 80%.

We waste enormous energy trying to make things perfect—the perfect slide deck, the perfect anchor chart, the perfect assignment. And while excellence matters, so does survivability.

Let go of perfection and embrace “effective enough.”

7 Time-Saving Tools Every Teacher Should Try

These aren’t miracle apps, but they are real tools that save real time.

As always, some of these links are affiliate links, and if you end up purchasing, I get a small fee.

1. Planbook.com – Streamlined Lesson Planning

Planbook is simple, flexible, and lets you align lessons to standards, shift days easily, and copy units from year to year. One hour of setup can save you dozens later.

Pro tip: Create reusable weekly templates for each prep.

2. Grammarly Premium – Faster Writing, Clearer Feedback

Stop second-guessing your grammar and tone in emails or report card comments. Grammarly speeds up communication while maintaining professionalism.

Use it for: parent emails, student feedback, lesson materials.

3. Mote – Voice Notes in Google Docs

Instead of typing out detailed feedback, record a voice note and embed it in student work. Mote works seamlessly in Google Classroom.

Why it works: it’s faster and more human.

4. Notion or ClickUp – Your Teacher Command Center

Whether you’re tracking coaching cycles, unit pacing, student data, or PD goals, these tools help you visualize and centralize your work.

Tip: Build a dashboard that integrates your calendar, to-do list, and major goals.

5. Text Blaze – Instant Text Snippets

Turn common feedback into keyboard shortcuts. For example: type “/mtss1” and paste a pre-written MTSS note. Huge time saver for documentation and repetitive tasks.

6. Rocketbook – Smart Paper for Analog Teachers

Love to write things by hand, but need to digitize them fast? Use this reusable notebook to scan and upload to Google Drive, Notion, or email.

Perfect for: lesson brainstorming, meeting notes, coaching logs.

7. Google Keep – Digital Sticky Notes That Stick

Use it to capture quick ideas, batch feedback, or create checklists. Label and color code for visibility. Bonus: integrates well with Gmail and Calendar.

5 Time-Saving Habits to Build This Month

Tools help. But systems sustain. Here are habits to pair with your tools:

1. Theme Your Days

Monday: Lesson planning
Tuesday: Grading
Wednesday: Family communication
Thursday: Data and meetings
Friday: Catch up + self-care

2. Use Comment Banks and Rubrics

Create a Google Doc with your most-used feedback phrases. Pair with single-point rubrics in Google Classroom.

3. Batch Like a Boss

Group similar tasks (e.g., grade all assignments from 2nd period, then all from 3rd) to reduce cognitive switching.

4. Automate What You Can

Schedule recurring parent newsletters. Use auto-responders during peak grading periods. Build email templates.

5. Reflect Weekly

Take 15 minutes each Friday to reflect:

What worked?
What drained me?
What can I tweak for next week?

Final Thoughts: Time Is a Teacher’s Most Precious Resource

You are not a robot. You are not lazy. You are not doing it wrong.

You are working inside a system that asks too much and gives too little.

But with the right tools and some intentional design, you can reclaim your time.

You deserve to leave school without guilt. You deserve a weekend. You deserve a full life.

It begins by treating your time as sacred.

Trump Declares War on Libraries—Signs Order to Eliminate Federal Library Funding

chair beside book shelves — Photo by Rafael Cosquiere on Pexels.com

Libraries are one of the last truly public institutions—free, accessible to all, and serving millions every year. So of course, the Trump administration wants to destroy them.

On Friday night, Trump signed an executive order eliminating the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS), the only federal agency that funds America’s libraries. The same institution that provides:
📚 Early literacy programs for kids
📚 High-speed internet access for communities left behind by telecom giants
📚 Summer reading programs for children
📚 Job search assistance for unemployed workers
📚 Braille and talking books for people with visual impairments

All for just 0.003% of the federal budget—peanuts compared to corporate subsidies and military spending. But let’s be real: this isn’t about money. This is about power.

Libraries are one of the last spaces in America not controlled by corporations or the ultra-rich. They provide free access to knowledge, support marginalized communities, and serve as safe havens. That’s why the right-wing hates them.

This move is part of a broader fascist attack on public institutions. They’ve been banning books, terrorizing librarians, and defunding schools. Now they’re going after the very existence of libraries themselves.

We fight back.
📢 Call your reps and demand they stop this.
📢 Show up at town halls and library board meetings.
📢 Flood Congress with calls, emails, and protests.
📢 Support your local libraries—because once they’re gone, they won’t come back.

🔥 Defend public libraries. Defend public knowledge. Defend democracy. 🔥

Theocracy in Public Schools: Arizona GOP Pushes Religious Chaplains Over Trained Counselors

gray concrete road between grass field — Photo by Pixabay on Pexels.com

Arizona Republicans are at it again—dismantling public education and replacing it with religious indoctrination. Their latest stunt? SB 1269 allows untrained religious chaplains to provide mental health counseling to students instead of licensed professionals.

Rep. David Marshall says “Jesus is better than a psychologist,” as if prayer is an adequate substitute for professional mental health care. Meanwhile, Sen. Wendy Rogers, a known far-right extremist with ties to white nationalism, is leading the charge to erase the separation of church and state entirely—because, in her words, “that’s a myth.”

Let’s be clear: this bill isn’t about helping students. It’s about using public schools to funnel state-sanctioned religious propaganda to kids. Republicans claim there’s a “spiritual deficit” causing student mental health struggles—not economic inequality, not school shootings, not climate anxiety, not lack of access to healthcare, but a lack of religion.

This bill:
⚠️ Violates the First Amendment by forcing religious figures into public schools.
⚠️ Endangers students by replacing licensed counselors with untrained chaplains.
⚠️ Opens the door for Christian Nationalism while silencing minority faiths (or, let’s be honest, outright banning non-Christian chaplains).

Meanwhile, Democrats have been fighting for more school counselors, psychologists, and social workers—REAL solutions to the youth mental health crisis. But the GOP would rather ignore science, shove their religion down kids’ throats, and strip public education for parts.

Public schools should be secular, mental health support should be evidence-based, and the government should NOT be a pulpit.

Mental Health, Teacher Pay, and School Choice: What’s Missing in Governors’ Education Plans?

Across the country, governors have laid out ambitious education plans for 2025—but have they missed the mark on boosting student achievement? While state leaders from both parties broadly agree on increasing education funding, supporting student well-being, and enhancing career pathways, few have directly addressed declining academic performance. FutureEd’s analysis reveals significant bipartisan commitments, including strengthening teacher pay and addressing youth mental health, yet highlights stark ideological divides over school choice and the role of diversity initiatives in education.

With federal pandemic-relief funds drying up, previously celebrated interventions like tutoring and enrichment programs are fading into the background. As governors debate whether school choice initiatives or stricter academic standards will drive student improvement, educators wonder: Are we missing an opportunity to place learning at the heart of education policy?

Education Under Attack? Why the ‘Unitary Executive’ Fight Matters for Schools

Unitary executive theory might sound like dry political jargon, but it’s at the heart of debates reshaping how the American government—and potentially education policy—functions. Despite some sensational headlines, the theory doesn’t aim to eliminate the three-branch structure of government; rather, it emphasizes the president’s control over the executive branch, specifically around the ability to remove officials. But why should educators and policymakers care?

Education policy, like other areas managed by specialized agencies, often depends on a certain degree of political independence to ensure expertise rather than short-term politics drive decisions. Agencies like the Institute for Education Sciences (IES) and the National Assessment Governing Board (NAGB) are designed precisely with this independence, with leadership terms deliberately spanning multiple presidential administrations.

However, under the Trump administration, these agencies face new challenges as unitary executive theory pushes the boundaries of presidential power. Recent moves by the administration, including contract cancellations and the politically motivated dismissal of key appointees, suggest a test of how far executive authority can stretch.

Why does this matter for education? If the independence of agencies like IES and NAGB is compromised, education policy could increasingly become a political football, undermining long-term, evidence-based educational improvement. For educators and policymakers alike, understanding this debate isn’t just about constitutional theory—it’s about safeguarding the stability and integrity of our educational institutions.

Learning to Make Big Mistakes in Public

My high school band director had a saying that has stuck with me through decades of life and learning:

“If you’re going to make a mistake, make it big enough so we can fix it.”

Creating something new—whether it’s music, writing, or an engaging lesson—is an act of courage. It’s tempting to play it safe, to stick to what’s tried and true. But growth lives on the edge of discomfort, when you commit fully, knowing it might not work out.

When mistakes are small, they’re easy to hide and ignore. But when they’re bold, obvious, and impossible to overlook, they become powerful learning tools. They point directly to where growth needs to happen.

Teachers, learners—don’t fear the wrong notes. Fear silence. Make your mistakes loud, clear, and brave. Then roll up your sleeves and fix them, publicly and proudly.

Because that’s where authentic learning begins.

Transform Your Teaching Mindset: How Positive Thinking Drives Success in the Classroom

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Your mindset shapes every aspect of your teaching. It influences how you handle classroom challenges, connect with your students, and even how much you enjoy your career. A positive mindset isn’t about ignoring difficulties—it’s about seeing growth opportunities where others see obstacles. As Henry Ford wisely said, “Whether you think you can or you think you can’t—you’re right.”

For teachers, how you think about yourself and your work directly impacts your effectiveness. But how can you cultivate a positive teaching mindset when the job demands feel overwhelming? The answer lies in small, intentional practices that rewire your thinking and keep you focused on the possibilities rather than the problems.

Reframing Classroom Challenges

Teachers face tough days—students acting out, lessons falling flat, and mounting to-do lists. In these moments, it’s easy to feel discouraged. But reframing challenges can make all the difference. Instead of thinking, “This student will never improve,” shift to, “This student is showing me where they need the most support.” Reframing doesn’t ignore the problem—it changes how you approach it.

To reinforce this practice, try using affirmations such as:

“I am a resourceful and adaptable teacher.”
“I see challenges as opportunities to grow.”
“Every student has the potential to succeed, and I am part of their journey.”

Write these affirmations down or repeat them in moments of frustration to reset your mindset.

Visualization as a Teaching Tool

Albert Einstein once said, “Imagination is more important than knowledge.” Visualization is a powerful technique often used by athletes and leaders, and it can be just as effective for teachers. Take five minutes each morning to picture your ideal day—students engaged, lessons flowing smoothly, and yourself responding with patience and confidence. This simple practice helps you enter the classroom with a clear vision of success.

Pair this practice with positive affirmations to strengthen its effect. For instance, while visualizing, repeat statements like, “I am confident and capable of handling any situation today.” Visualization, combined with affirmations, primes your brain to approach the day with clarity and focus.

Modeling Positivity in the Classroom

Your mindset impacts you and influences your students. When you approach teaching with optimism and confidence, your students are more likely to mirror those attitudes. Start the day with a positive affirmation for the class, such as “Today is a great day for learning.” Encourage students to create their own affirmations, fostering a classroom culture of positivity and growth.

Go Beyond Words With Tools That Amplify Your Efforts

While affirmations and visualization are powerful, tools like MindZoom Affirmations Software can take your mindset work to the next level. MindZoom integrates subliminal affirmations into your daily life, effortlessly reinforcing positive thoughts as you work, plan, and teach. It’s an easy way to stay consistent and ensure your mindset aligns with the success you envision.

Your Next Step: Invest in Your Mindset

Teaching is challenging, but your mindset can make all the difference. Integrating affirmations, visualization, and tools that support positivity into your routine can transform how you approach your classroom and your career. Ready to take the next step in becoming the teacher you’ve always wanted to be?

Click here to learn how MindZoom Affirmations Software can help you unlock your full potential and thrive in 2025.