Given that we are at the finish line of a very-busy 2025 with The Broken Copier, the goal of this short episode is first and foremost to express gratitude for what has been an incredible year of conversations and community-building—and also to share an update that over the next few months, we are going to slow down just a bit.

2025 was an incredible year with The Broken Copier, yet the pace we’ve been at in terms of written posts and recorded conversations sort of runs smack dab into the paradox of our goal: we deeply value an education conversation that centers the voices of classroom teachers, but prioritizing what it takes to be a full-time classroom teacher? As so many of you know from personal experience, it takes a lot.

Toss in being parents of little ones, and “a lot” can quickly become “too much”—especially in terms of making this a sustainable project going forward. So for the short term, we are going to be generous towards ourselves in adjusting the pace.

This is why you’ll see fewer posts and fewer conversations for these first few months of 2026. We aren’t going away! Instead, the goal is to prioritize sustainability and even more importantly authenticity—as we continue to believe in the importance of telling the good story of what the classroom is and can be.

And that’s exactly what we plan on doing going forward with The Broken Copier, even if that means taking a little time to learn and listen more in the short term to make that storytelling more meaningful in the long run.

One final note: thank you to all those who continue to listen, engage, and share these conversations—as it continues to be sincerely affirming to see the different ways The Broken Copier has resonated with teachers and educators. As we say: this is community work, it always has been, and—more than ever—it will continue to be.

As always, thanks to: Alberto Lugo, one of Jim’s former students, for contributing their music to The Broken Copier podcast—and also Tom Csatari for allowing us to use his band’s recording of “Woodstock” from their 2020 album, Garden.

* Find Tom’s work at uncivilizedtom.com, and on Instagram @banduncivilized.

* Find Alberto’s work at djsynchro.weebly.com, and on Instagram @djsynchro.

Thanks for listening! Share or leave a review if you’re willing, and take care of yourselves as educators as we enter into 2026!

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit thebrokencopier.substack.com