A friend made this prayer into a short video and, while the focus is on the work of Christians (real Christians, not the power-mad Christian Nationalists currently trying to ruin literally everything in the world), I can’t help but see our work as educators reflected here, as well.
This prayer was first presented by Cardinal Dearden in 1979 and quoted by Pope Francis in 2015. This reflection is an excerpt from a homily written for Cardinal Dearden by then-Fr. Ken Untener on the occasion of the Mass for Deceased Priests, October 25, 1979. Pope Francis quoted Cardinal Dearden in his remarks to the Roman Curia on December 21, 2015. Fr. Untener was named bishop of Saginaw, Michigan, in 1980.
It helps, now and then, to step back and take a long view.
The kingdom is not only beyond our efforts, it is even beyond our vision.
We accomplish in our lifetime only a tiny fraction of the magnificent enterprise that is God’s work. Nothing we do is complete, which is a way of saying that the Kingdom always lies beyond us.
No statement says all that could be said.
No prayer fully expresses our faith.
No confession brings perfection.
No pastoral visit brings wholeness.
No program accomplishes the Church’s mission.
No set of goals and objectives includes everything.
This is what we are about.
We plant the seeds that one day will grow.
We water seeds already planted, knowing that they hold future promise.
We lay foundations that will need further development.
We provide yeast that produces far beyond our capabilities.
We cannot do everything, and there is a sense of liberation in realizing that.
This enables us to do something, and to do it very well.
It may be incomplete, but it is a beginning, a step along the way, an opportunity for the Lord’s grace to enter and do the rest.
We may never see the end results, but that is the difference between the master builder and the worker.
We are workers, not master builders; ministers, not messiahs.
We are prophets of a future not our own.
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David Wiley is experimenting with what he calls “generative textbooks” — a mashup of OER (open educational resources) and generative AI. His core idea is:
What if anyone who can create an open textbook could also create an AI-powered, interactive learning tool without writing code?
From Open Content to Open AI-Driven Learning
For decades, Wiley has championed open education resources (OER)—teaching and learning materials freely available to adapt and share under open licenses like Creative Commons. With generative AI now in the mix, Wiley sees a unique opportunity to merge the participatory spirit of OER with the dynamic adaptability of language models.
The result? A new kind of learning tool that feels less like a dusty PDF and more like a responsive learning app—crafted by educators, powered by AI, and free for students to use.
The Anatomy of a Generative Textbook
Wiley’s prototype isn’t just a fancy textbook—it’s a modular, no-code authoring system for AI-powered learning. Here’s how it works:
Learning Objectives: Short, focused statements about what learners should master.
Topic Summaries: Context-rich summaries intended for the AI—not students—to ground the model’s responses in accuracy.
Activities: Learning interactions like flashcards, quizzes, or explanations.
Book-Level Prompt Stub: A template that sets tone, personality, response format (e.g., Markdown), and overall voice.
To build a generative textbook with ten chapters, an author creates:
One book-level prompt stub
Ten learning objectives (one per chapter)
Ten concise topic summaries
Various activity templates aligned with each chapter
A student then picks a topic and an activity. The system stitches together the right bits into a prompt and feeds it to a language model—generating a live, tailored learning activity.
Open Source, Open Models, Open Access
True to his roots, Wiley made the tool open source and prioritized support for open-weight models—AI models whose architectures and weights are freely available. His prototype initially sent prompts to a model hosted via the Groq API, making it easy to swap in different open models—or even ones students host locally.
Yet here’s the catch: even open models cost money to operate via API. And according to Wiley, most educators he consulted were less concerned with “open” and more with “free for students.”
A Clever—and Simple—Solution
Wiley’s creative workaround: instead of pushing the AI prompt through the API, the tool now simply copies the student’s prompt to their clipboard and directs them to whatever AI interface they prefer (e.g., ChatGPT, Gemini, a school-supported model). Students just paste and run it themselves.
There’s elegance in that simplicity:
No cost per token—students use models they already have access to.
Quality-first—they can choose the best proprietary models, not just open ones.
Flexibility—works with institution-licensed models or free-tier access.
Of course, there are trade-offs:
The experience feels disjointed (copy/paste instead of seamless).
Analytics and usage data are much harder to capture.
Learners’ privacy depends on the model they pick—schools and developers can’t guarantee it.
A Prototype, Not a Finished Product
Wiley is clear: this is a tech demonstration, not a polished learning platform. The real magic comes from well-crafted inputs—clear objectives, accurate summaries, and effective activities. Garbage in, garbage out, especially with generative AI.
As it stands, generative textbooks aren’t ready to replace traditional textbooks—but they can serve as innovative supplements, offering dynamic learning experiences beyond static content.
The Bigger Picture: Where OER Meets GenAI
Wiley’s vision reflects a deeper shift in education: blending open pedagogy with responsive AI-driven learning. It’s not just about access; it’s about giving educators and learners the ability to co-create, remix, and personalize knowledge in real time.
Broader research echoes this trend: scholars explore how generative AI can support the co-creation, updating, and customizing of learning materials while urging care around authenticity and synthesis.
Related Innovations in Open AI for Education
VTutor: An open-source SDK that brings animated AI agents to life with real-time feedback and expressive avatars—promising deeper human-AI interaction.
AI-University (AI‑U): A framework that fine-tunes open-source LLMs using lecture videos, notes, and textbooks, offering tailored course alignment and traceable output to learning materials.
GAIDE: A toolkit that empowers educators to use generative AI for curriculum development, grounded in pedagogical theory and aimed at improving content quality and educator efficiency.
Final Thoughts
David Wiley’s generative textbooks project is less about launching a product and more about launching possibilities. It’s a thought experiment turned demonstration: what if creating powerful, AI-powered learning experiences were as easy as drafting a few sentences?
In this vision:
Educators become prompt architects.
Students become active participants, selecting how they engage.
Learning becomes dynamic, authorable, and—critically—free to access.
That’s the open promise of generative textbooks. It may be rough around the edges now, but the implication is bold: a future where learning tools evolve with educators and learners—rather than being fixed in print.
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In 2018, Dan Brown (yes, thatDan Brown of The Da Vinci Code) helped fund a project at Amsterdam’s Ritman Library to digitize thousands of rare, pre-1900 books on alchemy, astrology, magic, and other occult subjects. The result, cheekily titled Hermetically Open, is now live with 2,178 digitized texts—freely available in their online reading room.
At first glance, this might feel like a niche curiosity, the kind of thing best left to academics or fantasy novelists. But the truth is, these works are a goldmine for educators looking to spark authentic learning across disciplines. They’re messy, strange, multilingual (Latin, German, Dutch, French, and English), and they blur the boundaries between science, philosophy, medicine, and mysticism. And that’s exactly why they’re valuable.
Why Teachers Should Care
For a few hundred years, it was nearly impossible to separate theology, philosophy, medicine, and natural science from alchemy and astrology. Isaac Newton himself famously spent as much time on apocalyptic prophecies and alchemical experiments as he did on calculus and optics. To engage students with these texts is to remind them that knowledge has always been interdisciplinary, networked, and evolving.
That makes them perfect material for authentic learning and connectivist classrooms: students work with primary sources, make connections across fields, and grapple with how humans have always sought to explain the world.
How Different Subjects Can Use the Collection
English & Literature (HS & College):
Analyze archaic language, quirky spellings, and “long s” typography in original texts.
Compare occult poetry or allegories to Romantic and Gothic literature.
Use passages as mentor texts for student-created “modern grimoires” or magical realism writing.
History & Social Studies (MS–HS):
Trace how alchemy influenced the rise of modern chemistry.
Explore how astrology shaped political decisions in early modern Europe.
Debate the blurred lines between science and mysticism in intellectual history.
Science (HS Chemistry & Physics):
Contrast alchemical “recipes” with modern chemical equations.
Investigate how flawed models of the universe still paved the way for discovery.
Discuss how cultural context shapes what gets counted as “science.”
Art & Design (All Grades):
Study illuminated manuscripts and esoteric symbols as design inspiration.
Create modern visual interpretations of alchemical diagrams.
Explore symbolism as a universal language across time.
Philosophy & Civics (HS & College):
Debate the tension between hidden vs. open knowledge.
Compare Platonic philosophy, Christian theology, and occult traditions.
Examine how fringe ideas challenge (and sometimes advance) mainstream thinking.
Why It Matters
When students encounter these texts, they’re not just paging through dusty old curiosities. They’re stepping into a world where knowledge wasn’t siloed, where science, spirituality, and imagination lived side by side. For teachers, this is a chance to create assessments that matter—projects where students remix history, art, and science, using both ancient texts and modern tools like AI.
It’s weird. It’s wonderful. And it’s exactly the kind of resource that can make authentic learning feel alive.
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Leon Furze makes an important case: if the best we can do in the age of AI is to tighten surveillance, we’ve already lost.
In all corners of education, we need to stop policing artificial intelligence and focus instead on designing better assessments. GenAI gives us an excuse to have these conversations. AI needs to prompt us to reflect on what matters most: validity, fairness, transparency and of course, learning.
Instead of treating generative AI as a threat to assessment, we should see it as a provocation—an opportunity to reimagine how we measure and value learning. His five principles (validity, reality, transparency, process, and professional judgement) are solid on their own, but when refracted through authentic learning and connectivism, they take on even sharper meaning.
1. Validity becomes authenticity. Assessment validity isn’t just about matching standards to outcomes—it’s about ensuring that what students are asked to do actually matters. Authentic learning demands that assessments reflect the messy, interconnected problems students will face beyond school. A lab report, a policy pitch, or a podcast that connects with a real audience provides validity in a way a locked-down multiple-choice exam never will. AI doesn’t threaten that kind of assessment; it strengthens it, because students must decide how and when to use the tool responsibly within authentic contexts.
2. Designing for reality means designing for networks. Furze’s “design for reality” principle resonates strongly with connectivism. The reality is that knowledge no longer lives solely inside a student’s head—it’s distributed across networks of people, resources, and technologies. An assessment that ignores that fact is already outdated. When we allow students to bring AI into the process (declared openly, as Furze suggests), we invite them to practice navigating networks of information, filtering noise from signal, and building connections that mirror the way knowledge flows in the real world.
3. Transparency and trust are relational, not transactional. Authentic learning environments thrive on trust: teachers trust students to take risks, and students trust teachers to guide without over-policing. Connectivism reminds us that learning happens in community, and that means shared norms around how tools like AI are used. Instead of “thou shalt not” rules, we need open conversations: Why might you use AI here? When might it short-circuit your learning? Transparency becomes less about compliance and more about cultivating reflective practitioners who can articulate their choices.
4. Assessment as process = learning as ongoing connection. If assessment is a process, not a point in time, then it looks less like a final judgment and more like a portfolio of evolving connections. Students don’t just demonstrate what they know; they show how they know, who they connect with, and how their thinking shifts over time. This is connectivism in action: learning is the ability to make and traverse connections, not the ability to store facts in isolation. AI can become part of that process—as a collaborator, a draft partner, or even a provocateur that challenges their assumptions.
5. Respecting professional judgement = empowering educators as designers. Authentic learning doesn’t happen in lockstep with rigid policies; it requires teachers to design experiences that matter in their contexts. Connectivism reminds us that teachers are nodes in the network too, bringing their expertise, relationships, and creativity. Respecting professional judgement means trusting teachers to balance the affordances of AI with the human dimensions of belonging, curiosity, and care.
The big takeaway? AI doesn’t invalidate assessment. It invalidates bad assessment. If the only way an assignment “works” is by pretending students live in a vacuum, disconnected from tools, networks, and communities, then it was never truly authentic to begin with.
For those of us who see learning as both deeply human and deeply networked, Furze’s five principles are a call to action: design assessments that honor authenticity, embrace connections, and prepare students for a world where knowledge is always evolving—and never isolated.
Here are a few ideas to get your creative mind going as you think about redesigning your assessments:
1. Color Mapping Across Disciplines (Art + Science)
Task: Students design a digital exhibit that compares different historical models of color (Newton’s circle, Munsell’s system, RGB cubes). They use AI tools to generate visualizations, then critique the limitations of each.
Authenticity: Color mapping is both a scientific and artistic problem. Students engage in real-world disciplinary practices.
Connectivism: Students link to a network of thinkers (Newton to Roussel), and share their exhibits with peers online.
AI Role: Visualization generator, comparison tool, but students must justify why a model matters for perception or art.
2. Community Podcast: Local Environmental Issues (ELA + Science + Civics)
Task: Students research a local environmental challenge (e.g., water quality, urban green space), create a podcast episode featuring expert interviews, and use AI to help with transcription, sound editing, and draft questions.
Authenticity: Students contribute to civic discourse in their community.
Connectivism: They learn from and connect with real experts and share publicly.
AI Role: Drafting interview questions, transcribing recordings, generating promotional materials—but students remain responsible for the core knowledge and ethical framing.
3. History “What If” Simulation (Social Studies)
Task: Students use AI to model counterfactual scenarios (e.g., “What if the printing press had been invented 200 years earlier?”). They must critique the AI’s reasoning, identify inaccuracies, and build their own historically valid narrative in response.
Authenticity: Historians often test counterfactuals to sharpen their understanding of cause and effect.
Connectivism: Students cross-reference scholarly works, archives, and even online history communities.
AI Role: Idea generator and foil—the flawed AI answers become a catalyst for deeper historical reasoning.
4. Entrepreneurial Pitch for a School Problem (Business + Math + Design)
Task: Students identify a real issue in their school (e.g., cafeteria waste, lack of study space), design a product/service solution, and pitch it to administrators or community members. AI is used for market research summaries, prototype visuals, or cost projections.
Authenticity: Mirrors real entrepreneurial problem-solving.
Connectivism: Students collaborate with community stakeholders and pitch to an authentic audience.
AI Role: Research and prototyping assistant, not a substitute for problem-finding or decision-making.
5. Literature in the Age of Machines (ELA)
Task: Students select a literary theme (identity, power, justice) and compare how a human-authored poem and an AI-generated poem tackle it. They publish a critical essay or multimedia piece reflecting on authorship, creativity, and meaning.
Authenticity: Engages with contemporary debates about art and authorship.
Connectivism: Students link across traditions—classic texts, modern scholarship, AI-driven art.
AI Role: Source of creative “texts” to analyze, not a replacement for analysis.
Why These Work
Each task:
Builds validity by aligning with standards and real-world practices.
Designs for reality, where AI is part of the workflow.
Encourages transparency—students must declare and justify how they used AI.
Emphasizes process, not just a single product.
Relies on teacher judgment to guide reflection and assess growth.
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For centuries, scientists, artists, and philosophers have tried to pin down a “perfect” way to map color. But here’s the problem: color isn’t just physics, and it isn’t just perception—it’s both. Try to squeeze it into a neat geometric model, and you’ll quickly realize it refuses to stay put.
That’s what makes French video essayist Alessandro Roussel’s latest ScienceClic piece so fascinating for educators. He takes us from Isaac Newton’s prism experiments all the way to modern models of hue, brightness, and saturation. Along the way, he shows why there isn’t just one map of color, but many. Each communicates something different about how humans experience this slippery phenomenon.
So what’s the classroom connection?
In art: Students can compare different models of color—Newton’s circle, Munsell’s tree, the modern RGB cube—and reflect on how each changes the way we think about mixing, matching, or designing with color.
In science: Teachers can use these models to illustrate how physics collides with perception. Why do two people see the “same” red differently? How does light wavelength interact with the human eye and brain?
In interdisciplinary projects: Color mapping opens doors to conversations about how humans create systems to explain the unexplainable. It’s a perfect bridge between STEM and the humanities.
And then comes the kicker for students who think we’ve “solved” everything already: scientists recently managed to engineer a new, so-called impossible color called ‘olo’—a shade outside the traditional visible spectrum.
It’s a reminder that color isn’t just a solved equation or a finished wheel. It’s a living, shifting puzzle that still invites curiosity, wonder, and experimentation.
Imagine giving your students that as a challenge: If color can’t be mapped perfectly, what’s your best attempt?
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Most of us have heard (or said) the phrase: “I’m just not a math person.” Duolingo—the same company that made millions of people practice Spanish while waiting in line at Starbucks—is on a mission to change that story.
You probably know Duolingo as the language app with the slightly unhinged green owl who won’t let you forget your streak. But since 2022, Duolingo has been quietly building something new: a math course. And just like its approach to languages, the company believes it can make math more approachable, less intimidating, and maybe even fun.
Why Math? Why Now?
According to Samantha Siegel, the engineer leading Duolingo’s math push, the choice to focus on 3rd grade and up wasn’t random. Around that age, kids hit fractions—and that’s where things start to go sideways for a lot of learners. Fractions are a gateway. Struggle there, and the rest of math often feels like a foreign language.
Duolingo’s idea: treat math like a language. Build fluency through small, repeatable practice. Create low-stakes games. Give immediate feedback. And—most importantly—reduce the anxiety that creeps in when kids (and adults) start believing math is beyond them.
How It Works
If you’ve ever tapped your way through Spanish verbs or French phrases, the math experience feels familiar—but with some clever twists:
Dynamic problems: Lessons refresh with new numbers every time, so you’re not memorizing answers—you’re actually practicing.
Interactive input: Instead of multiple choice, you might drag the corners of a rectangle to measure area, or handwrite a fraction into the screen.
Visual learning: Geometry isn’t just explained; it’s something you manipulate on the screen.
In other words, the app tries to ground abstract math ideas in movement, visuals, and play.
Tackling Math Anxiety Head-On
Here’s the thing: math anxiety is real, and it’s not just about ability—it’s about confidence. When kids (or adults) tense up at the first sight of an equation, their brains literally struggle to process what’s in front of them.
Duolingo’s bet is that by gamifying the experience, they can lower the stakes. Just like the app makes it totally fine to get a French verb wrong, it’s trying to make it okay to fumble a fraction. In a classroom context, that shift could matter—a lot.
Where It Stands Today
The math course is now baked right into the main Duolingo app, alongside language and even music lessons. Learners can keep their streak going across subjects—whether they’re conjugating verbs, strumming chords, or multiplying fractions. Duolingo hasn’t shared exact numbers, but we’re talking millions of math users already.
And it’s not just for kids. Plenty of adults are using it too—either to brush up on long-forgotten basics or to help their kids without pulling out dusty textbooks.
What This Means for Educators
Is Duolingo going to replace teachers? Of course not. But as a supplemental tool, it’s promising. It gives students a way to practice math outside the classroom that feels a lot more like a game than homework. It also gives parents an accessible, non-threatening entry point into supporting their kids’ learning.
The bigger story here is the attempt to reframe math itself. If Duolingo can help chip away at the “I’m not a math person” narrative—if it can make math feel just a little more like a game and a little less like a stress test—that’s a win.
Final Thought
Duolingo isn’t just teaching fractions and geometry; it’s trying to rewrite how learners feel about math. And in a world where math anxiety holds so many students back, that mission might matter even more than the streaks.
Maybe, just maybe, the next time someone says “I can’t do math,” we’ll have an owl to thank for proving them wrong.
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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!
When the average human lifespan is broken into weeks, it comes out to roughly 4,000 tiny squares on a calendar. Oliver Burkeman’s Four Thousand Weeks: Time Management for Mortals argues that every choice you—or your teachers—make is an irrevocable investment of one of those squares. That simple, urgent idea is the antidote to the chronic overload driving record-high teacher stress and attrition. Below is the straight-talk pitch I deliver when I hand the book to a classroom teacher—no fables, no fluff, just a direct-response case for why this needs to be the first professional-development read of the new school year.
Three-quarters now shoulder extra duties to cover shortages, compounding burnout. (Devlin Peck)
A typical classroom loses the equivalent of ten instructional days each year to interruptions alone. (Education Week)
Those numbers aren’t a motivation problem; they’re a math problem. No planner, rubric, or inbox-zero ritual will create the hours you don’t have. Burkeman starts where every other productivity guru won’t: by admitting you can’t fit it all in.
The Big Idea Teachers Haven’t Tried Yet
Burkeman’s thesis is deceptively simple: because you’re finite, you must decide—up front—what you will not do. Reviewers have called the book “refreshingly alternative” to hustle culture (Matt Swain) and “a wise meditation on human transience” (Janice Greenwood). For educators drowning in initiatives, it’s a life-raft made of three core moves:
Choose what to fail at. Instead of trying to “balance” everything, deliberately neglect low-stakes tasks so high-impact work can thrive (Finding Mastery).
Work from a “closed” list. Keep a limitless “open” list for every possible to-do, but restrict your active list to ten items—nothing enters until something exits (Reddit).
Pay yourself first with time. Devote your best hour each day to priorities that matter before the building’s demands siphon your focus (sidsavara.com).
These are not trendy hacks. They are structural shifts that acknowledge the conveyor-belt reality of modern schools.
Five Transformations Your Teachers Will See
1. From Endless Prep to Deliberate Impact
Adopting the closed-list rule forces teachers to ask: Which planning task will move student learning the farthest today? Every “yes” becomes a promise to finish, not a vague ambition. In trials outside education, practitioners report sharper focus and lower anxiety after just one week (idratherbewriting.com).
2. From Reactive to Strategic Inbox
Burkeman’s “decide what to fail at” legitimizes delayed email responses. When leaders institute 24-hour reply windows, RAND found teacher stress indicators drop while retention rises (RAND Corporation). Guiltless triage frees hours that would otherwise be lost to back-and-forth threads.
3. From Exhausted Evenings to Guarded Mornings
The “pay yourself first” principle mirrors personal-finance wisdom: invest before you spend. Guardian productivity analysts list tackling the hardest task first as one of the top ways to regain calendar control (The Guardian). Teachers who block the first prep period for deep work finish grading faster and carry less home.
4. From Hustle Guilt to Intentional Leisure
Burkeman reframes rest as an end, not a recharge tactic—critical, given that female educators report higher burnout than their peers every year since 2021 (RAND Corporation). Structured downtime protects cognitive bandwidth for tomorrow’s classes.
5. From Initiative Fatigue to Focused Mastery
When districts subtract old programs before adding new ones, they see stronger morale and fewer resignations (idratherbewriting.com). The book supplies the philosophical permission slip administrators need to prune the agenda.
What Your Teachers Will Learn—Chapter by Chapter
Chapter
Teacher Translation
The Limit-Embracing Life
Why the dream of “someday I’ll catch up” is a trap—and how to stop waiting for it.
The Efficiency Trap
Proof that faster grading often creates more grading (looking at you, instant-feedback apps).
The Watermelon Problem
How to spot “busywork masquerading as importance” before it hijacks planning time.
The Cluttered Desk of the Mind
Mental techniques to resist the dopamine pull of hallway interruptions and push notifications.
The End of Time Management
A practical blueprint for the closed-list system and serial focus—complete with classroom-ready examples.
Each chapter concludes with thought experiments and micro-habits that are easy to test during a single prep block.
Hard Proof It Works
Technical writer David Kowalsky reduced his active task list from 27 items to 7 in one week by adopting the open/closed system (idratherbewriting.com).
Readers on Goodreads consistently cite the “closed list” as the most transformational takeaway (Goodreads).
Productivity forums report that the two-list method can slash context-switching fatigue within days (Reddit).
If it can tame an entrepreneur’s workload, it can tame a teacher’s.
How to Roll It Out Next Week
Assign Chapters 1-3 for a PLC discussion. Frame it around the RAND burnout data to root the conversation in urgency (RAND Corporation).
Pilot the closed-list in one content team. Compare instructional-minute recovery against the EdWeek interruption baseline of ten lost days (Education Week).
Use the “choose what to fail” exercise to cut one legacy assignment per unit. Frees cognitive load for feedback that matters.
Protect a daily “pay yourself first” slot; even 15 minutes meets Guardian guidelines for reclaiming focus (The Guardian).
Revisit results after two weeks. Expect fewer late-night grading marathons and clearer student feedback cycles.
Objections You’ll Hear—and How to Answer
“I can’t ignore emails—parents will panic!” Set automated replies promising a 24-hour turnaround. Research shows that delayed, thoughtful answers can reduce the need for follow-up emails, ultimately netting you more goodwill (The Guardian).
“My to-do list won’t fit on one page.” That’s the point. The overflow belongs on the open list where it can’t ambush your attention (Goodreads).
“I don’t have time to read a book.” Burkeman’s 288 pages equal four 40-minute commutes or one Netflix mini-series. The ROI is reclaiming weeks this semester.
Your teachers don’t need another app, spreadsheet, or motivational poster. They need a paradigm that acknowledges reality, honors their limited weeks, and channels focus where it counts: student learning. Four Thousand Weeks delivers exactly that.
Sources
Matt Swain, book summary of Four Thousand Weeks (Matt Swain)
RAND Corporation, State of the American Teacher 2025 (RAND Corporation)
If you’re a teacher, you know the truth: 40 hours is a fantasy.
Between planning, grading, answering emails, parent meetings, PD sessions, hallway duty, IEPs, MTSS meetings, and trying to breathe 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 7 time-saving tools that can actually 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 Week Doesn’t Exist in Education
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 actually 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 speed it up.
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.”
Each of these is designed to save time without sacrificing quality—and yes, they’re all tools I either use or would recommend.
1. Planbook.com – Digital Lesson Planning Made Simple
Say goodbye to clunky binders and endless Google Docs. Planbook allows you to plan, align to standards, and adjust with drag-and-drop ease. Affiliate Tip: Mention the ability to copy lessons year-to-year, saving hours in future terms.
2. Google Keep – Fast Notes, Checklists, and To-Dos
Think of it as your sticky note board, digitized. Keep is great for batching feedback notes, tracking student conferences, and setting reminders. Pro Tip: Use labels like “Grading,” “Parent Calls,” or “Copy Room” to stay organized.
3. ClickUp or Notion – Project Management for Educators
Use these to manage units, track standards, or even collaborate across your PLC. Want to build a weekly to-do board? Create a reusable template.
Record personalized audio feedback directly into student work. Students engage more, and you save time typing. It’s also fantastic for English learners and students with IEP accommodations.
If you find yourself typing the exact phrases over and over, Text Blaze lets you create keyboard shortcuts that expand into full sentences, feedback, or email replies. Think: /grade1 = “Great start! Please expand on your second point.”
Want to plan on paper but keep it digital? Write in this notebook, scan it with your phone, and send it directly to Google Drive, Notion, or email. Great for capturing notes from PD or coaching conversations, then tossing them into your digital workflow.
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.
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.
