Thursday's Three Things—On Starting Fresh
Three Things. On a Thursday.
With the calendar ticking into August shortly, we’re beginning to ramp up preparations for the 2026-2027 school year here at The Episcopal Academy. Given that the reality of the school year is right in front of us (for many of in the northern hemisphere anyway) this week’s resources focus on some foundational thinking elements we’re considering before launching into the boundless possibilities of the year ahead.
Even if the start of the year doesn’t apply directly to your context, we think there’s useful learning to be had below. As always, if you bring a big enough basket, you’re sure to bring something home.
Thursday’s Three Things
Creating a Culture of Learning—David Yeager’s 10 to 25: The Science of Motivating Young People gained lots of traction here at EA two years ago, so we’re heartened to see the work filtering into a broader ecosphere via their FUSE (Fellowship Using the Science of Engagement) Substack. The linked video, and accompanying article, offers powerful examples of what FUSE calls a “culture of learning” speech—critical elements for addressing what Yeager calls the “adolescent predicament.”
User Results May Vary—Edtech has been everywhere for awhile, but it somehow feels more everywhere in 2026. With the glut of AI tools at our disposal, Ammar Merhbi’s ‘Digital Competence is a Pedagogical Illusion’ is an important reminder not to let flashy tools get in the way of the intended learning. Merhbi writes, “The current global backlash against screens isn’t necessarily a failure of technology itself, but a failure of how tech integration has been defined, measured, and taught to in-service educators. When technology is decoupled from rigorous instructional design and cognitive science, the device stops being an accelerator and becomes a classroom liability.” Keep that in mind before unveiling those shiny new AI tools next year.
Last Thing’s First—What if you started your first day of the school year by thinking about the last day? That’s the question posed by John Duffy in this Edutopia piece. We like the inclusion of psychologist Daniel Kahneman’s “peak-end rule” here, particularly given the varied demands on student attention and our (at EA) increased focus on how students experience the classroom each day. Developing shared norms and feelings can go a long way in ensuring you end the year with the same amount of enthusiasm that you’re likely entering it.
Your Weekly Moment of Zen
The Weekly Moment of Zen is often about finding adjacent inspiration. Is it also a rip off of the longstanding Daily Show segment of the same name? Absolutely. Everything is a remix. Think of it as a final stamp on each week’s post. Typically it’s not explicitly teaching and learning related, but if you squint hard enough we think you’ll see some parallels.
This week’s Moment of Zen comes from musician Razaak Eniola’s Instagram where he explores the beauty of human difference, writing:
Prince was weird
Before Erykah badu was erykah badu
Erykah badu was weird
before Marc Rebillet was Marc Rebillet
Marc was weird
we live in a culture that loves a final product
…. everybody loves to clap at the end
and most of the time
we are clapping for the wrong reasons
The etymology and meaning of the word weird is - “one who is able to control their own fate”
that seems pretty cool to me