Kelley Cusmano

2024-2025 MI Teacher of the Year. HS ELA Curriculum Consultant & Leadership T. @Teachplus @ASCD EL. Twin of @sarah_giddings1. Mom of 2!

[Alexander Russo @alexanderrusso]

"NCLB held schools responsible for their students’ performance on standardized tests, but only in English and math. There was no such exam for history—less because reformers cared too little about it than because, ironically, everyone cared too much to agree on what should be tested."

How America Gave Up on Its Own History - The Atlantic https://t.co/RTrZWpFFPg

[Politics & Poll Tracker 📡 @PollTracker2024]

NYT: “Who Should I Vote for?” Voters Turn to A.I. Before Casting Their Ballots

Mia Taylor looked down at her Los Angeles County election ballot a few weeks ago and felt a familiar mix of duty and dread. How could she possibly know the best choices in the dozens of local contests she was asked to vote in? Partly on a lark, she turned to a newly ubiquitous tool: Claude.

Ms. Taylor snapped a picture of her ballot and asked: “So, who do I vote for here?”

https://t.co/lpTkV5j26h

[David Frum @davidfrum]

250 years after July 4, 1776, the successor of King George III pays taxes and publishes his returns. The successor of George Washington does not. https://t.co/CbIXDe8UQY

[Bob Ojeda @BobOjeda19]

This story has laid largely dormant in my mind for 25 years. Never gone, but very hard to think about the horror of that morning and I’d rather not. This is my morning of September 11, 2001.

At this point in my life, I am a pitching coach for The Brooklyn Cyclones, the Mets’ minor league baseball team. I have a sponsor’s softball game at our ballpark at 10 AM. My house in Jersey is about an hour drive away. I’m at my kitchen table having coffee, getting ready to head in at around nine. I put on the news. The traffic report mentions it’s a little heavy so I decide I’ll leave early. Just as I’m heading out the door the news breaks that a small plane appears to have hit one of the Twin Towers. I stopped to listen. The news reporter looks concerned and confused, but not panicked. It’s an unfolding moment and she’s keeping her cool. The look of disbelief was unstable; no answers, just confusion. She was trying her best, in her own way, to not create a mass panic. Whoever she was, she deserves a ton of credit, along with the other reporters who did the same thing.

I head to my car and put on 1010 WINS. I decide to head up Route 36. There is a bridge that crosses the Shrewsbury River that allows a direct view to the city. When I get there, I’m in disbelief. There is smoke coming from the top of one of the towers, yet still no panic on the radio, just reporting of what is currently known.

I call my daughter, who works in the city. I asked her where she is. She tells me she’s coming up the escalator from the bottom floors of the World Trade Center, exiting the subway. We stay on the phone. I hear the strain in her voice. Whatever has happened is not good and she is witnessing it firsthand. The radio does not betray the gravity of what happened. They are in disbelief along with all of us.

I step on the gas, and race up 36. By now I figure I’ll turn left, head into the city, pick up my daughter, and then drive on to the ballpark in Coney Island. We get cut off on the phone. The confusion on the radio continues and escalates. She calls me back a few minutes later. “Dad, I just came up the escalator and there are people jumping out of the windows, there’s people jumping out of the windows.” I ask her how high they are jumping from, trying to get a feel for what is happening. I am not ready for what she’s about to say. “80 floors.” A second plane hits the other tower. This is a nightmare, and I begin to feel panic coming up within me.

I take the Staten Island exit off of the parkway and approach the Outerbridge. I see cars stopped. Then the news comes over the radio. All bridges and tunnels are closed to the city. At the last possible moment, I turned off to the right and circled back down, heading back to my house. I’m doing over 100 miles an hour. I highly doubt a cop is going to stop me. I’m thinking, “What now?” I call my friend Lenny and say “I need your boat!” He asked me,“Where are you going?” I said, “To the city to get my daughter.” He’s well aware of what’s going on, and says, “I’m going with you.” I said, “No you’re not. I don’t know what I’m getting into. I don’t know what’s gonna happen. I don’t even know if I can get there but I have to try. I appreciate your offer, but I got it.” We plan to meet at his boat within 20 minutes. I pause going over the bridge on 36, take a look back, and it is beyond horrific. There’s people in those buildings and I hope one is not my daughter.

I call my daughter back, thank God I get a hold of her, and let her know the plans. I tell her to stay at her office. “Stay there until I get there. Stay put!” I swing by my house real quick. I have an idea I’m probably gonna need my father's flag. He was an army veteran who spent time in Iwo Jima. I plan on hanging it off the side of the little boat. Hopefully that will let the authorities know I’m on the home team. I run in the house and remove it from the triangle box in which I keep it and head down to the marina. My friend’s there and insists on going. We jump in and off we go.

Within minutes, a little comic relief. We need gas. Thankfully, there’s a fueling marina at Bahr’s Landing. We pull in. The young man working the pump was curious about where we are going. We fill up, he says good luck, and on our way. The radio is on. The news is still confusing but becoming clearer. Both towers have been hit. Both towers are on fire. We look at it. We see it in front of us, knowing we’re heading in.

I call my daughter. I tell her I should be there within a half hour, if we lose contact, I tell her to make her way down to the ferries evacuating people off the island. “Get to the top deck and look out to the open water. I’ll be in a small boat with grandpa‘s flag hanging off the side. Get to the top deck and wave and wave. If I see you, I’ll turn around and follow the boat back. If not, I’ll keep going.”

We’re a few miles out from the Verrazano Bridge. At this point, I think it’s going to be a dead end. I can’t imagine there won’t be police and Coast Guard closing off from that point. Suddenly, a small biplane with wings painted red and white appears. It is flying towards us but very erratically. I have no idea what that was about.

I have my daughter back on the phone. She finally arrived at her office on Wall Street. I tell her our ETA and then she feels something. The building shakes. “Dad, what was that?” I hear on the radio, which has made this whole scenario surreal. The radio has one report, my daughter has the live report, and we’re in the middle, trying to make sense of the whole thing…it’s impossible. You cannot make sense of this moment. I hear on the radio that the building collapsed, but I tell my daughter not to worry about it. It’s probably just all the trucks and everything rumbling around. I make up some nonsensical answer, and she was not in the mood to analyze anything. She was terrified.

Still no Coast Guard or police boats. We keep going under the bridge. Smoke billowing in front of us. The smell is unimaginable. It just smells like burning everything. It’s an acidic, rancid smell. Heartbreaking. Because I know what it is. We’re beginning to approach Governors Island. I tell Lenny to stay to the right, we’ll go around and then go straight towards Pier 11. So far, everything is going according to plan, a plan that is being made up as I go.

I’m looking at the smoke, the haze and everything and I’m in disbelief. My mind makes up that the tower is still there. “I can see the tower Lenny, can you see the tower?” “I can’t see it.” “It’s right there.” But it wasn’t there. It was gone. It was a pile of rubble. Confirmed by the papers, worksheets and everything flying through the air over our heads. Literally, pieces of paper. Pieces of paper that somebody sitting at their desk was working on an hour ago are now floating through the air, as well as the poor soul who was doing the work.

We’re around Governors Island and then, the inevitable. A small Coast Guard boat, that looks like a red inflatable boat, makes a B-line right for us. Machine gun mounted on the bow. I stand up on our bow and I’m frantically waving my father's flag that I’ve tied to the side of the boat. They come racing up in a no nonsense mood, helmets, guns, everything pointing right at us. They come right up next to our boat. “Where are you going?” “I’m going to pick up my daughter.” They turn, have a short conversation, I don’t know what’s gonna happen, then they turn back to me and say “Go ahead.” I could’ve fallen over.

I call my daughter again and thankfully get through and tell her head to the water. I’m coming up to Wall Street now. We head for the pier and pull up. lt’s kind of bouncy because of all the tugboats loading people on and getting them off the island. It was organized chaos but it was organized. I have so much respect for the men and women who handled that without panic. We pull up next to the pier. It’s about a 5- or 6-foot reach to the railing. I grab it. I’m holding on, ready to let go, throw my leg over the railing, and Lenny yells, “Don’t let go!” “Why? What’s the matter?” The engine died. This is great, I’m this close and I’m gonna fall in the water. I’m holding on with one hand on the boat and the other on the railing, being stretched like I’m in a torture device. Between the current and the bouncing, I don’t know how I stayed up. The longest 30 seconds of my life when he goes, “OK, OK. I got it.” I let go of the boat and climb over the side. I tell him to circle around right here. I’ll be back.

I begin to run up Wall Street. Unbelievably the first police officer I see on shore is from my hometown. He is directing people to the massive tugboats and the ferry boats getting people off of the island. He sees me and asks what I’m doing there. I explained to him that I’m going to get my daughter. He says good luck, I’ll see you at home.

Seconds later, strangely, an older lady comes up to me and says, “Excuse me, aren’t you Bobby O?” “Yes I am.” “Oh, I just love you. You are so fun to watch.” Then her son, who understood the gravity of the situation, says, “OK mom, come on, we gotta go.” I thanked her and her son and went on my way. Can’t make that stuff up.

I continued making my way up Wall Street. Incredibly, there’s my daughter coming down. It’s like a miracle. It’s a miracle in front of my eyes. I grab and hug her. We head back down to the water. We get to the water’s edge where the railing is, she looks down. Lenny has pulled up by then and she looks down and I said “Look, you gotta jump. There’s no other way, you’ve gotta jump.” It’s probably at least a 5-foot jump down to the deck to a bouncing boat with a wet bow being pushed around by the current and choppy water. She looks at me one last time, looks at the boat, and jumps. She lands and rolls but she is fine. I look around one last time at the surreal scene of I don’t even know what to call it. I jump down, hug my daughter again, sitting in our seats. We turn and head back down home. No one deserves this to happen to them.

This weekend, I am reminded of and send nothing but respect to the individuals, first responders, ferry and tug boat captains beside me, who organized amongst the chaos to help one another on a horrific day.

[Kelce Brothers @kelcebrothers]

Congratulations Taylor & Travis!!! 🥂

[The New York Times @nytimes]

Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce are officially married. Swift’s brother, Austin, acted as her “man of honor,” while Kelce’s brother, Jason, was his best man, according to a representative for the pop star. The ceremony was officiated by Adam Sandler. https://t.co/edFGBx4O9f

[Alexander Russo @alexanderrusso]

Don't fall for the argument that the edtech backlash is in danger of going too far.

All anyone's proposing are limits on devices, screentime, AI, and specific programs/platforms.

Far as I know, there is zero edtech that's been proven to be effective at helping kids learn.

[Trevor Noah @Trevornoah]

I completely understand where you’re coming from, but for a lot of gamers physical discs are the only way they could afford to play games because they could get them secondhand. You can also give games to your younger siblings Which is a great way to introduce them to the games you were playing.

Most importantly though, as we saw from PlayStation this past week, if the media we buy is only digital, it can be taken away from us at a moment’s notice with no recourse. Imagine that, one day your entire library of games could be deleted overnight because technically you don’t own it.

[Governor Gretchen Whitmer @GovWhitmer]

The documents that built our country are heading to Michigan! On July 9-26th, the Freedom Plane will bring nine original founding documents to the Henry Ford Museum of American Innovation as part of their National Tour.

We’re excited to welcome the Freedom Plane to Michigan!

[Tony Paul | Detroit News @TonyPaul1984]

Game 87: #Tigers 6, Yankees 2 (11 inn.).
Detroit is 38-49.
First-ever sweep for the Tigers at new Yankee Stadium.
Player of the game: Troy Melton.

[The Grade @thegrade_]

“I think the AI backlash is more profound than previous backlashes because it has happened so fast, and I think most parents feel like it has happened completely without their consent or understanding.” - NYT's Jessica Grose

[Tigers PR @DetroitTigersPR]

Last night's outing by Casey Mize was unlike any other in franchise history.

Across 126 years of Tigers baseball, he's the first pitcher to throw 7+ shutout innings with 10+ strikeouts, while allowing zero walks and no more than one hit.

#DNMW

[Jonathan Haidt @JonHaidt]

We over-protected children in the real world and under-protected them online. Since 2012, the results are undeniable—skyrocketing anxiety, depression, loneliness. Not by accident. Deliberate design choices by companies that knew what they were doing. So now we're at the tobacco moment. The lawsuits are succeeding. Public support is overwhelming.

Kids Over Clicks has the roadmap—age restrictions, safety-by-design, phone-free schools, AI accountability, end surveillance ads. No more excuses.

https://t.co/7FP6kCFBNU

[Kelley Cusmano @KellCusmano]

Absolutely. This point is incredibly frustrating for public school teachers. We call it “school shopping”. We see a LOT of parents who experiment with K-8-only to put their kids in public school for HS bc then they will become “college ready”. Except there are always huge gaps.

[Larissa Phillips @larissaphillip]

The growing popularity of homeschooling means a more porous border between homeschooled and public-schooled kids. The vast majority of “homeschooled” kids only do so for a tiny portion of their K-12 years.

More and more it’s a solution for kids who may be desperately unhappy or bored in school. On the one hand this seems like a good thing. (It’s one reason I will always support homeschooling, because of the necessity of being able to extricate one’s child from a really bad situation, and sometimes just getting a breather is a great option.)

But the back and forth is only going to make things more hectic and difficult in public school.

My sister, a reading specialist, used to complain about the Waldorf kids whose parents would bring them back to public school in late elementary because the kid couldn’t read. But the kid had missed the reading-instruction years and all the foundational early elementary years, and, for the kids who turned out to have real reading issues, had also lost years of intervention opportunity.

It’s an argument I’ve heard by anti-charter advocates, too—that the hard-to-teach/control kids get dumped back into public when it turns out they aren’t a good fit for the charter. But it’s the middle of the year and the already-difficult kid didn’t learn the routines or the basics that are part of early school-year curriculum and is now doubly taxed to learn the drills.

I’ve recently heard the same from public school teachers about homeschooled kids coming in and out: that it’s an extra difficulty to get a kid—who just spent two years doing nothing and is now back in school—caught up.

Thoughts?

[Kelley Cusmano @KellCusmano]

Well said!

[Brian Tolentino M.Ed @TolentinoTeach]

When teaching writing, I typically encourage my advanced students to choose the shortest, simplest, and most precise word possible.

Yes, we spend time expanding vocabulary with words like abstruse, loquacious, and didactic. Those words have value. But they should be used sparingly. In most situations, for most audiences, clarity and simplicity is key.

I think teaching should work the same way.

It is valuable to understand educational theories and the latest buzzwords. Many of those terms contain conceptual depth. But in everyday conversation, they should also be used sparingly. When we overload our speech with jargon, we begin to sound robotic.

The same applies to classroom practice.

When we flood teaching with buzzwords, acronyms, and overly complicated language, we often make learning harder for students instead of clearer.

Good teaching, much like good writing, is often rooted in simplicity, precision, and clarity.

[Harvey G. Cohen @CultrHack]

“The tragedy isn’t that students use ChatGPT to do course work. It’s that universities are teaching everyone—students, faculty, administrators—to stop thinking. We’re outsourcing discernment. Students graduate fluent in prompting, illiterate in judgment.”
https://t.co/nltGXEeBuc

[Jeanne Allen @JeanneAllen]

Yes, this is not a new phenomenon but it’s growing. It calls into question how AI can be deployed and taught if at the same time technology is reined in.

[Rochester Community Schools @rochcommschools]

In 2026, RCS Charity Week efforts raised over $86,000 for Samsmile for mental health advocacy and suicide prevention efforts. Hear more from our student council and staff leaders in episode 6 of the RCS Be Inspired podcast at https://t.co/miA9XfQYaj. Or search Apple or Spotify.

[Bob Wojnowski @bobwojnowski]

Even when the Tigers are 14 games under .500, the sounds of summer. More than 41k at Comerica Park to see Skubal and Kenley Jansen close out the White Sox 4-3. Festive crowd, capped by a Nelly concert. If they ever could climb back into the race ….

[Lenore Skenazy @FreeRangeKids]

Dear @Supernanny: Yes!

Parents must step back & let kids learn life skills, do more on own, EVEN playing outside, running errands, etc.

Let's say it OUT LOUD:

You can't have independence AND CONSTANT ADULT SUPERVISION.

Don't always accompany them!

https://t.co/ssDeIQehf9