The grading pile just arrived and the breaks just disappeared. In this episode, we're tackling the "Long Stretch," January to Spring Break, and figuring out how to survive without drowning in take-home work. I'll walk you through how to move feedback from "delayed" (the pile) to "real-time" (the room) using jigsaw structures, Pear Deck, and the Wingperson protocol. Grab your calendar and let's figure out your actual capacity.

Join me for this episode of the Anti-Burnout PLC, where we explore the concept of personal growth and transformation.

This episode offers practical strategies for educators to reconnect with their students and themselves, fostering a supportive and collaborative environment.

Tune in to discover how to create a plan that truly serves both you and your students.

🔗 Mentioned in this episode:

Twelfth Night Unit: Twelfth Night Unit with She's the Man Film Pairing | Scaffolded Close Reading

It's a Wonderful Life Unit: Literatary Analysis and Film Study Unit

Hexagonal Norms Activity: Collaborative Classroom Community Norms - Hexagonal Thinking Activity

For Every One by Jason Reynolds (free resource)

The Excavation Challenge starts this month — five days, we're building a writing unit from what you already have. New year, new system.

About the Anti-Burnout PLC: This is a weekly planning session. You show up, we work through something together, you leave ready.

After 18 years of teaching, here are some things I FINALLY figured out.

I stopped chasing homework completion. I stopped blaming students for not being ready. I started designing differently.

These are the 25 lessons that changed my classroom in 2025.

Pantone chose white for 2026, and their reasoning, "clarity without coldness, structure without severity," felt like someone naming the thing I've been trying to figure out this semester.

What do you do when students aren't walking with you? I'm calling my approach Loving Insistence.

Remember lining up in the computer lab to die of dysentery? There's something that pixelated pioneer simulator understood about learning that we've forgotten in our rush to make everything accessible.

In this episode, I'm exploring why the best learning happens when failure is expected, feedback is immediate, and students choose to struggle because the struggle feels meaningful. We're diving into what's changed since 1985, why confusion has become a signal to rescue rather than persist, and how we've accidentally taught students that difficulty means they're doing something wrong.

We'll Discuss:

• Why removing struggle actually removes the mechanism of learning itself
• The critical difference between productive struggle and overwhelming frustration
• How AI and instant information access have rewired how students approach confusion
• Four concrete strategies for creating "Oregon Trail moments" in your English classroom
• Why faster feedback matters more than detailed feedback (and how to actually do it)
• How to use discussion as a productive struggle space without needing resolution

If you've noticed students shutting down at the first sign of difficulty, or if you're wondering why summarized versions don't stick, this episode reframes struggle as a feature—not a bug—of genuine learning.

Oregon Trail didn't have an easy mode. It had strategy. Let's bring that energy back to English class.

Dictionary.com just named "6-7" their 2025 Word of the Year. It's not even a word—it's numbers from a viral song, celebrated for being "meaningless, ubiquitous, and nonsensical."

We used to think Idiocracy was satire. Now it feels prophetic. "6-7" becoming Word of the Year isn't just about slang—it reveals what we're valuing as a culture. We're not just dumbing things down; we're celebrating meaninglessness AS content.

In this episode, I'm connecting what's happening in classrooms to this broader cultural shift toward brainrot...students who are genuinely smart but fluent in content designed to be meaningless, the anti-intellectualism we're not naming, and what teaching for meaning actually resists.

What we're covering: • Why "6-7" as Word of the Year should concern teachers • The Idiocracy connection—celebrating absurdity over substance • What I'm seeing: awareness gaps, optimization culture, accountability issues • Teaching moves that resist meaninglessness: collaborative discussion, portfolio assessment, texts that require human thinking • Why slowing down to actually think is an act of resistance

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds gives you both satisfaction (complete episodes) AND character development (growth across the season). What if English learning works the same way?

We've been pressured to design curriculum where everything builds UP—each lesson scaffolding to the next in perfect linear sequence. But English skills aren't plot points that get resolved. They're character traits that keep developing through repeated encounters in varied contexts.

In this conversation, I reflect on the changes in education since the pandemic and importance of revisiting effective strategies from the past, such as flipped learning, the role of homework, and the use of physical manipulatives in the classroom.

Ultimately, we need to remember the core values of teaching and learning as they navigate the current educational landscape.

Your students are obsessed with Outer Banks, rewatching Friends for the tenth time, and choosing shows from before they were born over algorithm-recommended content. This isn't random—it's sophisticated rebellion against hyper-personalization and a hunger for genuine community.In this episode, we explore why Gen Z actively seeks intergenerational cultural connection and how English teachers can use this craving to create deeper literary engagement.

Let's take a look at why and how your lived experience of the 90s and 2000s is suddenly valuable curriculum content, and learn how nostalgic anchoring creates emotional safety for intellectual risk-taking.

If you're tired of chasing trends to make literature "relevant," let's think about how to teach from authentic cultural knowledge that both energizes you and engages your students.

Resources mentioned:

Teaching with 90s Nostalgia Crash Course: subscribepage.io/eZSMtV

Feeling like you're just delivering someone else's curriculum in someone else's system? In this episode, we explore how to reclaim your professional agency by creating a distinctive classroom culture - even within the constraints of standardization.

I'll share why building classroom microcosms isn't just good for students (though it is) - it's essential for teacher wellness and sustainability. We'll talk about the elements that create belonging, the "fandom" aspects that build real community, and how small acts of agency can transform both your teaching and your students' learning.

Plus, I'll tell you about that time I gave away an Easy Bake Oven to my sophomores and why random moments of joy might be the most radical thing you can do in a standardized system.