Jason Himsl (he/him/his)

I'm increasingly of the mind that if kids are going to engage in formal writing, it should be about a topic they're familiar with and have picked themselves. I find it can be hard to assess their skill development as writers when it's conflated with their content knowledge.

An excerpt from Gretchen McCulloch's "Because Internet" that addresses the idea that the talk that we hear in polished texts like movies, news programs, audiobooks, and speeches bears little resemblance to what we experience in real life.

An excerpt from Gretchen McCulloch's "Because Internet" that extends the idea about unrealistic communication and draws important connections to how we learn to read and write - that educational experiences privilege polished writing that focus on minimizing errors rather than engaging in authentic acts of communication.

I'm most of the way through @gretchenmcculloch.com's #BecauseInternet and am *thoroughly* enjoying it. I keep coming back to her intro, though, and would love for the English teachers out there to spend some time sitting with the ideas here.

The world feels quite precarious right now—and sometimes we forget what it feels like to pursue happiness. @alv9n.com digs into a study that asked more than 10,000 people to share their joy. From personal growth to friends and family, here’s our happiness mapped.

pudding.cool/2026/02/happ...

A word graphic reads: Freedom to Read Week (February 22 to February 28, 2026) L'image lit : Semaine de la liberté d’expression (Du 22 février au 28 février 2026)

📢 #FTRW26 has officially begun! This week, we're sharing events and activities across Canada to celebrate the #FreedomToRead. Follow the hashtag or visit freedomtoread.ca to find events near you.

An excerpt from a letter from Western University admitting me to the Doctor of Education program in Curriculum and Pedagogy beginning in September 2026.

I'm happy to share that I'll once again be slipping into the role of student in my old stomping grounds. I'm looking forward to all of the new learning that will come my way.

AI Transparency Surveys: A Tool for Navigating Student Choices Together A high school English teacher wondered: What happens when students can openly discuss AI boundaries, then reflect on their own use through a simple survey?

When high school English teacher @thevogelman.bsky.social made space for open dialogue about AI, students responded with curiosity, candor, and insights that helped to shape the classroom culture. 💬

#EduSky

I found the section with advice for high school students to be particularly effective here.

Carl Benedikt Frey Economist A.I. tutors may already outperform most human teachers, but they also make shortcuts tempting and can hinder genuine exploration. We need to set aside A.I.-free time to read and explore independently, and encourage using A.I. tutors to question and probe one’s own understanding. Moreover, we should place greater emphasis on in-person, tutorial-style teaching in which students debate, defend their views and are pushed to articulate their reasoning. Gary Marcus Gary Marcus Cognitive scientist Most of the impact has been negative; high schools and colleges are at a loss as to how to proceed now that term papers are no longer valid either as an evaluation or as a means to get students to think. Most other applications remain speculative. Helen Toner Helen Toner A.I. policy researcher Education was already due for a significant shake-up, so the need to adapt to new A.I. tools might be a blessing in disguise.

Where Is A.I. Taking Us? Eight Leading Thinkers Share Their Visions. www.nytimes.com/interactive/...

I'm happy to be able to help.

It's got a very utopian 60s feel about it, but Richard Brautigan's "All Watched Over By Machines Of Loving Grace" may work for you. www.readingdesign.org/all-watched-...

In English, adjectives seem to follow a specific order:

opinion - size - age - shape - color - origin - material - purpose - noun

We’re steeped in the pattern from birth, and apply it effortlessly.

Ok, which one sounds better?

A) It’s an old little amazing house.
B) It’s an amazing little old house.

B, right?

Which of these?
1) She was wearing a huge green raincoat.
2) She was wearing a green huge raincoat.

You chose 1, didn't you?

WHY??

7-12 English/Language - Mentor Texts Texts you can use to inspire your speaking, writing and creating!

Hopefully you'll find this helpful. A colleague and I have been regularly updating this Padlet with prospective mentor texts that we find interesting and valuable. We've leaned hard into multimodality, so you'll find a range of text types under each of the categories. padlet.com/himsjaso1809...

I'd wager that's so he can lock into a long-term deal should he stay healthy after the first two.

4/$240M is just crazy money. I'm floored by that number.

'E' before 'i,' when the “rule” feels like a lie...

I am honoured to announce I’ve been appointed as a member to the Order of Canada. Thank you to everyone for the support! I dedicate this to my late Mom who taught me so much about history, local independent media & research. I know that she would be, like me, screaming with joy! #orderofcanada

The 'kin' of ‘napkin’ means "little."

‘Nap’ comes from ‘nape,' which means “tablecloth.”

So a napkin is a little tablecloth.

10/10, no notes.

Reflecting on the incredible work of the #TDSB Middle Years Digital Storytelling initiative with Apple.

From drawing and video creation to interactive digital storytelling, teachers are discovering powerful ways to help students communicate their ideas with authenticity, creativity, and confidence.

The tragedy of Ziggy's character arc really landed for me with a rewatch. I really enjoyed all of his David Simon collaborations.

And I'll add that one of the reasons why students may not value the experience of writing is because much of the writing they're asked to do in school does not require thinking. In fact, they're given lots of methods (templates, et al) that actively discourage thinking.

118 days until Opening Day

I had a student ask me once how I could answer so many questions about Romeo and Juliet so quickly. I told him it's a lot easier when you've read or watched it 40 times.

It's a position that has evolved over the course of my career. Rookie me would have absolutely voted for 3+.

While I'm an English major and love literature, every part of me now believes that our first responsibility is to prepare students for the literacy landscape of 2025 and beyond.

There are many traditional practices in English classrooms that I *wish* teachers would reevaluate. If there's learning in Shakespeare that can't be achieved in any other way, then go for it. If there are more current, relevant, and engaging ways to achieve the same ends, why not use them? 5/5

And by no means am I maligning Parasite - it's a movie that deals with love, struggle, greed, power, ignorance, and inequality. These are issues every bit as universal as anything Shakespeare wrote about. Why then a month for Shakespeare but Bong Joon Ho would instead likely be dismissed? 4/5

And I've seen multiple mentions of keeping these units to a month. I'll point out that these are ultimately scripts that are meant to be performed in 2.5 hours. If I said to colleagues that I'd be spending the next month in class reading the Parasite screenplay, they'd think I was crazy. 3/5

In my 25+ years of experience, I find that if I stop explaining (translating?) the play for students, they do not understand it, and this is true even when watching them. If we accept that teaching literacy skills and strategies is one of our core responsibilities, what are students learning? 2/5

For the 80%+ of people who are arguing for multiple Shakespeare plays, my recommendation is to remember that English is both a discipline AND a course that every student has to take. For those who will not be heading studying literature, what are they taking away from studying Shakespeare? 1/5

Bird on the School Path Dawn Watson There is this bird furiously hoking through the bushes, like What. The fuck. Is this leaf. Doing. In my— And this. And fucking this.

This made me laugh, it’s so good!