Jackie Mercer

Wife, mom, educator, distance runner. Young, scrappy, and hungry

[Jackie Mercer @EnglishLady0610]

Talking about Emmett Till and the Most Southern Place this morning at #NCTE2019 @crowechris @CaseyGause1

[National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE) @ncte]

"Holding the mirror up . . . is a way we can all reach each other, all understand each other, all the ways we can all have empathy and respect for each other if we hold the mirror up to [nature]." Thank you to Tom Hanks for sharing his love of literacy in today's General Session.

[Jackie Mercer @EnglishLady0610]

@jessicajbeck This made me laugh out loud! ☕️

[Jackie Mercer @EnglishLady0610]

@NewsHourExtra Omg thank you! 😂❤️ We like to think we are a fun group lol

[Jackie Mercer @EnglishLady0610]

@vicpasquantonio @NewsHourExtra Thank you for attending our session and for your kind words 🥹

[PBS News Classroom @NewsHourExtra]

Wow—what a fabulous session #ncte23

You might know that 45% of teachers leave within the first 5 years…

…THESE veteran AND new teachers are teaming up since yes, ALL teachers need constant support to address ever changing issues and keep growing!

[Jackie Mercer @EnglishLady0610]

@tfrancisco203 @MarkVopat …but according to “The Google”…

[Jackie Mercer @EnglishLady0610]

@michaelrulli I hate to break this to you, but “The Google” and your son’s friends are not convincing nor reliable sources.

What am embarrassing day to be an Ohioan…

[Dr. John Spencer @spencerideas]

In baseball, there's an entirely useless statistic called Runs Batted In (RBI). When I was a kid, we would often hear about the RBI leaders and I immediately noticed two trends in RBI leaders.

1. They nearly all played for teams with a really good offense.
2. They nearly all hit at the 4th or 5th spot in the line-up.

I was a nerdy little kid who didn't know anything but I knew this was a bogus statistic.

See, RBI measures how many runners a batter knocks in. Sounds important, right? Definitely something worth measuring. But it turns out that it's highly skewed. Not every batter is in the position to knock in a run. If you are the lead-off hitter (batting #1 in the line-up) you often bat with no runners on. Also, if you're on a crappy team, you run into the same challenge.

So it turns out that RBI count doesn't really tell you how well someone hits for power. For that, you need a stat called slugging percentage. If you want to see how consistent a batter is, go with on-base percentage. If you're looking for balance, go with OPS (on-based plus slugging percentage).

In pitching the equivalent is a win-loss record or an ERA compared to WHIP. Total wins is a metric based on a team's overall performance.

But the things is, our world is full of seriously flawed statistics. BMI is useless compared to measuring one's actual vitals. Plus, BMI has a really negative history connected to eugenics. Go look it up. It's disgusting. And even today, it's often weaponized against perfectly healthy people when they don't fit the stereotype of "average" that doesn't actually exist. I run 5 days a week. I eat healthy food. My body fat percentage is low to moderate but based on BMI I'm obese.

I share all of this because the same thing exists in education. When we use standardized test scores to measure a student's learning (or worse, still, a teacher's effectiveness) we're often running into the same trap as the RBI. We're measuring privilege and positionality while ignoring the data that actually matters. We're running into the BMI trap and failing to embrace neurodiversity. And, like BMI, there's a dark side of psychometric history rooted in eugenics.

I'm not opposed to data. I love data. But my love for data is precisely why I hate bad data. My love for data is precisely why I am so opposed to nearly every policy that uses standardized tests to measure learning.

[Jo @JoJoFromJerz]

As a parent I’m not worried that my 9 and 13 year olds are going to be “indoctrinated” with “wokeness” at school.
I’m not worried that they’re going to ‘feel guilty about their whiteness’ because they’re learning accurate history.
I’m not worried that they’re going to be “groomed” to become furries and to make their pees pees in litter boxes.
Those things aren’t real.
Wanna know what is real?
My worry that they’re going to get shot. That someone with an AR-15 is going to go into their school and shoot them.
So, while the same gun fetishizing, AR-15 lapel pin wearing, locked and loaded family Christmas card posing Republicans fear monger & manufacture crises under the guise of “parents rights”, I say this:
It is my right as a parent to send my kids to school without worrying that they will get shot.
It ain’t the drag queens, the African American history, the books with two moms or two seahorse dads which threaten our kids.
It’s the fucking guns.

[Jackie Mercer @EnglishLady0610]

I can’t wait to present with @S13Valingo! See ya in November, @ncte!

[Jaclyn A. Siegel, PhD @jacasiegel]

Professors, if you have an assignment due this long weekend, it costs zero dollars to change the deadline to next week so that students can relax for a few days.

[Jackie Mercer @EnglishLady0610]

That one time that @ncte charged people full price for virtual access to a conference (misleading people to believe they’d have full access to the conference) and then provided them with a few prerecorded sessions and access to four live session for the entire conference…

[Jackie Mercer @EnglishLady0610]

I literally thought this was only happening to me! 🤔🫣🤯

[Amy Lenord @alenord]

Anyone else noticing students opting out of assignments because they don’t like them or are boring? I think one of the after effects of their time “learning at home” is that they have determined that if they don’t like doing it, it doesn’t have value. Or is it just me?

[Jackie Mercer @EnglishLady0610]

I had a really good day with my students today.

That’s it. That’s the tweet. ❤️

[Jackie Mercer @EnglishLady0610]

@Jacob_Labendz I always tell my students, “If there’s a problem, let me know and we can figure something out, but I’m not asking for details,” because quite honestly it’s none of my business. The pandemic really solidified my views on this.

[Jackie Mercer @EnglishLady0610]

That moment when you’re researching and you find the *perfect* article to include in your literature review…

[Jackie Mercer @EnglishLady0610]

Students*

[Jackie Mercer @EnglishLady0610]

Exhausted today, but former student told current students how well prepared they feel after having taken my classes last year, so that feels like a win!