Zach Czaia

The cover of One Day, Everyone will have Always Been Against This. Simple red background, with bold black all caps letters, and the drawn silhouette of a bomb plummeting towards a child. The gold "National Book Award Winner" sticker is on the upper right.

Omar El Akkad's One Day, Everyone will have Always Been Against This has won the National Book Award. This is a deserving, necessary win. His words need to be on all of our minds and in all of our hearts.

"When it mattered, who sided with justice and who sided with power?"

High school student email gassing up a sensitive middle-aged writer

I’m good in the hood.

Last week, I gave a talk pushing back against claims that AI will democratize education, and I included this slide meant to trouble narratives - and self-serving programs like OpenAI's new "free" ChatGPT for teachers - that focus narrowly on access to technology as some kind of transformative force.

#SundayMacbethChat intro page

Okay, so let's do officially do this! a slow-read of Macbeth with Sunday discussion threads starting November 23rd! #SundayMacbethChat

Everyone's welcome! And just like Beloved, I am definitely going to be looking at this with very-fresh (i.e. humble) eyes!

docs.google.com/document/d/1...

Folger Guides to Teaching Shakespeare | Folger Shakespeare Library The new Folger Guides to Teaching Shakespeare series offers innovative tools and detailed lesson plans for teaching some of Shakespeare's most frequently taught plays, starting with Hamlet, Macbeth, a...

I'm actually doing Macbeth next semester, too! (Probably February/Marchish) Been digging in to The Folger Guide on it, and resource seems pretty good. www.folger.edu/teach/folger... But would love to hear how you're approaching.

The Heaviness of Teaching a conversation with Adrian Neibauer

Shout out to @marcusluther.bsky.social and @mrneibauer.bsky.social for sparking this piece. As well as Ross Gay's beautiful book, INCITING JOY. Here's link to Broken Copier ep: substack.com/home/post/p-...

“I Don’t Wanna” Reflections on Teaching and Parenting, and with Many Guest Appearances

zachczaia.substack.com/p/i-dont-wanna

and: what that viral atlantic article from a while ago did was call into question the “college readiness” part of common core’s claims about “college and career readiness” and i don’t know if enough people understand the nature or stakes of the fight

What do playing with toddlers and almost becoming a professional clown have to do with teaching? They remind me of why I fell in love with teaching. #TeacherSky #EduSky #SubstackSky

open.substack.com/pub/adrianne...

"To tell students not to use AI for the work that was AI-generated for us is, in my opinion, beyond ridiculous. She wants to know what we know. It’s only fair that the same should apply to teachers." Thanks, Scout Snider, for telling it like it is. And @jsanofranchini.bsky.social for sharing.

Thanks for inspiration on this piece to @susangbarber.bsky.social @arielsacks.bsky.social Ellen F. Davis, and Robert Frost. And can't forget Eric and Tami Taylor.

"Never a Dull Moment, Babe" Notes on Surprise--in Teaching, Writing, and Publishing

"Never a Dull Moment, Babe": Notes on Surprise--in Teaching, Writing, and Publishing

zachczaia.substack.com/p/never-a-du...

AI is not a mere tool for helping teachers. When you remove the human element of teaching and learning, you are not being more efficient nor effective. The ability to learn is what makes us human, and humans teaching humans is a fundamentally human act that is necessary for meaningful engagement.

I Need AI to Write Better Lesson Plans So My Students Stop Using AI to Write Their Papers I care deeply about my students’ learning, but with all the new technologies available to help them cut corners, I worry that they’re not doing the...

Teachers! If your students are using AI to write their papers, maybe it's because you personally are not using AI enough. Here's my new @mcsweeneys.net www.mcsweeneys.net/articles/i-n...

This is some great satirical writing, a la Swift's Modest Proposal! I think it would be fun to take class with @taliaargondezzi.bsky.social

"Scrupulous and well researched, this is a much-needed portrait of an often-overlooked area of American Catholicism." ~Publishers Weekly #Racism #Identity #Religion

Read the review: https://bit.ly/4mGTM6z. BLACK AND CATHOLIC by @tiaphd.bsky.social is coming soon!

It is important to not mistake the demands of the job for your real work in the classroom. Show up for the students in ways that count the most and that the system can’t measure. That’s where your agency lives. Where your work matters most. #EdChat #EduSky

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My new essay on AI (www.alfiekohn.org/article/ai/) includes quotes from, or links to, writings by @emilymbender.bsky.social, @palan57.bsky.social, @stopgenai.com, @ddmeyer.bsky.social, @zachczaia.bsky.social, @lutzfernandez.bsky.social, @empittsdonahoe.bsky.social, @garymarcus.bsky.social ....

Refusing Generative AI in Writing Studies Visit the post for more.

Thanks @zackteitel.bsky.social for provocation/inspiration. Thanks @rcmeg.bsky.social @jsanofranchini.bsky.social Maggie Fernandes for brilliant Quickstart Guide: refusinggenai.wordpress.com

AI Literacy as Sex Ed? “There’s a line I use when teaching about building AI literacy in K-12 classrooms: ‘At the end of the day, it’s just sex ed.’ Every time I share it, I’m met with nods, chuckles, and that look of sudde...

‘AI Literacy as Sex Ed?’

zachczaia.substack.com/p/ai-literac...

‘Consider the bad times, and who they are good for.’ Brilliant line and brilliant piece.

Thank you, David. Just finished reading WE BECOME WHAT WE NORMALIZED this week, and already want to re read it. I didn’t know how much I needed that book.

Thanks @daviddark.bsky.social for added inspiration on this piece. Highly recommend all his work.

"Know Where You Stand, and Stand There" Notes on Daniel Berrigan's Poems and Another School Shooting

‘Know Where You Stand and Stand There’: Notes on Some of Daniel Berrigan’s Poems and Another School Shooting

zachczaia.substack.com/p/know-where...

Teaching without Teaching by Scott F. Parker Introducing One Subject Press' First New Book!

One Subject Press just released our first new book, and it is a beauty. TEACHING WITHOUT TEACHING by Scott F. Parker. zachczaia.substack.com/p/teaching-w...

Minnesota is taking an ungodly amount of hits this year.

This is one of the absolute toughest things about predatory inclusion — the predation is often fun or a little useful. Criticism makes a reasonable person sound like an asshole. LowerEd weathered me for this kind of social death.

So I’ll say it: your enjoyment does not matter & should not matter.

asking the non-sentient sentence generator that uses sentient authors’ works without their consent if it consents to you using a pastiche of others’ work that you commanded it to produce is some of the highest decoupling I have seen Lo these many years

And shout out to @profjw.bsky.social whose wonderful “Critical Magic Theory” was big inspiration.

"Another Round" A Movie Review & Other Back to School Recommendations

New post out, “Another Round” up on Substack.

zachczaia.substack.com/p/against-co...