Most of the teachers I met in Chicago were frustrated with a great deal of the professional development provided to them by the district and in their schools. I suspect this sentiment is shared in a lot of settings and probably outside of teaching as well with required professional learning, or human resources modules for…
Author: Alexander Rolnick
Advice for a New Teacher
I had a student-teacher last term for the first time. It was a learning experience for both of us, made challenging by remote learning and the complexity of one of the courses I taught. I shared some advice with him at the start of his placement, and am now revising for his first year. It’s…
Adolescent Development and Technology
Back when I was doing my Masters in Curriculum & Instruction at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, I took a couple of classes in adolescent psychology. At the time, I didn’t find them all that useful, as many of the interesting and useful insights were duplicated in a wonderful class in the learning sciences which was…
Human Intelligence and Artificial Intelligence
Identifying and defining intelligence is a challenge since there are so many ways in which humans, animals, and artificial creations display intelligence. Although some academics have made the case that standardized tests like the SAT measure intelligence reasonably well, they notably avoid trying to define intelligence at all. Certainly, the SAT measures a specific sort…
Our Children
It is no great surprise that humans care for their children over all others, but the deeply human need to care for “our children” over the children of a community or a society presents some significant challenges for policymakers and those interested in improving social, economic and educational outcomes for children who grow up in…
Capitalism and Moving
Moving captures the reality of modern capitalism in some fascinating ways that help to illuminate aspects of our system of capitalism that are not always visible in day-to-day life. I took the previous week off of writing as I moved from Chicago to St. Louis, and as I dealt with the stresses of moving, I…
Artificial Intelligence in Social Studies
Alongside climate change, artificial intelligence seems likely to have one of the most substantial impacts on human life over the next 20-30 years. However, outside of computer science classes, artificial intelligence is rarely addressed at the secondary school level. There are obvious benefits to teaching programming and algorithm thinking to high school students, but it…
The Learning of School Year 20/21
At the start of school year 20/21, I told that it would be unlike any in history, and suggested they consider writing a journal of their experiences. Coming off of the COVID-altered 19/20 school year, I had low expectations for remote learning, but the year went better than expected. Although I’m not sure how many…
Eating Semi-Vegetarian
My taste for meat and cheese and eggs is very much at odds with the reality that consumption of these foods not only vastly increases human and animal suffering but also has significant negative environmental impacts on people and the planet. And yet, it is only over the last half a year that I’ve been…
Light, Darkness, and Slavery
A couple of years ago, I read Colson Whitehead’s The Underground Railroad and was struck by its use of magical realism to portray the darkness of slavery and, as Whitehead articulated, “the truth of things, not the facts.” To be honest, I do think there’s some danger in fictional interpretation being understood as fact. At…