James MacIndoe

IB HS Admin (DC - DEN - SoCo)

[James MacIndoe @JamesMacIndoe]

@MarisaEThompson Covering classes during my only planning period. I keep track of how many I've covered this year and so far... 32!

[James MacIndoe @JamesMacIndoe]

@Edu_Historian I wrote a whole paper about this in grad school. The first high schools built in NoVa after Brown vs Board were specifically named after Confederate Generals (ex: one was literally named "Robert E. Lee HS"). V controversial and costly to rename those campuses.

[James MacIndoe @JamesMacIndoe]

@Stephen_Sawchuk Excellent news! Congratulations!

[Tyler Rablin @Mr_Rablin]

I use to be on the team that's like, "Let kids bring phones into the classroom! We'll use them for learning!"

The problem, and the reason I've changed my stance, is simply that the attention economy makes this nearly impossible.

It's a losing battle for kids & their brain.

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[James MacIndoe @JamesMacIndoe]

@TVietor08 I know this pain, and I see you, my friend.

Sending you all the love and light I can muster.

[James MacIndoe @JamesMacIndoe]

@Stephen_Sawchuk EdWeek is the crown jewel of my interview experiences, but then again I'm just a commoner

[James MacIndoe @JamesMacIndoe]

Like I don't even want to type out the stuff that's happened *just this week* that has me spinning inside. It's too much. I wouldn't even know where to start. There's so much pain inside of these kids causing so much chaos inside of schools everywhere.

[James MacIndoe @JamesMacIndoe]

This will not be the year that makes me bitter about teaching. This will not be the year that makes me bitter about teaching. This will not be the year...

[James MacIndoe @JamesMacIndoe]

Got my first “are you teaching CRT” email yesterday and today was told by a colleague that the reason we don’t teach more books by non-white authors is because they just aren’t as good. Really feeling it on all sides this week.

[James MacIndoe @JamesMacIndoe]

I held 19 parent-teacher conferences last night, the first 16 back-to-back-to-back, and honestly they were all great and I'm glad they happened.

[Carol Jago @CarolJago]

Sunday night reminder: You are a writing teacher, not a copy editor.

[Tyler Rablin @Mr_Rablin]

I was in a spot for a bit where I was afraid to let go of late penalties and using points to convince students to engage in the work. The main reason was that I didn't have an alternative.

If you're in that spot and looking for an alternative, here's what I do.

A thread...

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[James MacIndoe @JamesMacIndoe]

@BisforBerkshire If only they’d go through the trouble of finding out what fascism actually is.

[Ben Rhodes @brhodes]

It says a lot that’s not good about American politics and society that $7.5 trillion for a decade on defense gets almost no debate while less than half of that investing in people and saving the planet is so hard to pass

[James MacIndoe @JamesMacIndoe]

Me and a bunch of sick (and masked!) children watched a belligerent and threatening adult anti-masker get tossed from a pediatric ER tonight and hooooooooo boy that is a thing I never thought I’d type on so many levels

[James MacIndoe @JamesMacIndoe]

And then other kids started comparing me in accurate but unflattering ways to various past their prime fruits and I was like "wow, ok, at least I don't need to reteach metaphor to this class."

[James MacIndoe @JamesMacIndoe]

I was expressing to my students how I feel like covid and parenting and the general anxiety of the last few years have compelled me to age like an overripe peach. One girl looked at me and was like "nah, I'd say you're more like a banana that's been on the counter for too long,"

[James MacIndoe @JamesMacIndoe]

Love it and will be stealing it.

[Kelly Gallagher @KellyGToGo]

Interesting idea: "One of my best writing teachers used to ask her class, after finishing a novel, to go back and read the first paragraph for the ways in which it predicted the rest of the text, or in the most skillful cases, taught us to read it."
https://t.co/pylfRxCShc

[James MacIndoe @JamesMacIndoe]

I choose to see the best in my students. Sometimes it’s hard work. Sometimes it’s easy. But it’s always the most important decision I make each day.

[James MacIndoe @JamesMacIndoe]

@alb_kris_10 Huge. And bus drivers.