John Downes-Angus
@johndownesangus.bsky.social
Public HS English Teacher in NYC.
Something fun to think about is how to create the conditions of a seminar-style undergrad “take out the text and talk about it” class in a room with 32 15 year olds whose levels are across the map. Don’t mean this snarkily or despairingly—it’s something I’d like to figure out.
November 29, 2025 at 12:33 AM
Something fun to think about is how to create the conditions of a seminar-style undergrad “take out the text and talk about it” class in a room with 32 15 year olds whose levels are across the map. Don’t mean this snarkily or despairingly—it’s something I’d like to figure out.
The American pope went to Turkey on Thanksgiving
November 27, 2025 at 10:22 PM
The American pope went to Turkey on Thanksgiving
Want to make sure our schools aim to produce kids that would give a similar answer—not likely when middle schoolers don’t read books in class.
www.newsweek.com/zohran-mamda...
www.newsweek.com/zohran-mamda...
Zohran Mamdani's 2002 childhood wishlist goes viral over one key detail
Zohran Mamdani’s sweet childhood holiday wishlist has gone viral as social media users say it paved the way for the future.
www.newsweek.com
November 27, 2025 at 8:24 PM
Want to make sure our schools aim to produce kids that would give a similar answer—not likely when middle schoolers don’t read books in class.
www.newsweek.com/zohran-mamda...
www.newsweek.com/zohran-mamda...
Grateful this Thanksgiving for “the old deluder Satan law”, both for its insane name and for the precedent it set
November 27, 2025 at 12:03 PM
Grateful this Thanksgiving for “the old deluder Satan law”, both for its insane name and for the precedent it set
This Thanksgiving, just put the “not dishwasher safe” dishes in the dishwasher. They need to get over themselves. They’re not special.
November 27, 2025 at 1:33 AM
This Thanksgiving, just put the “not dishwasher safe” dishes in the dishwasher. They need to get over themselves. They’re not special.
Moving comparison between transient and immaterial beauty and the memory in summer of a beautiful fall day, an argument that an appreciation of beauty leads both to a reverence for himself and a love for all of mankind—good stuff, Percy Bysshe, A+.
November 27, 2025 at 1:10 AM
Moving comparison between transient and immaterial beauty and the memory in summer of a beautiful fall day, an argument that an appreciation of beauty leads both to a reverence for himself and a love for all of mankind—good stuff, Percy Bysshe, A+.
Anyone have a little “books teachers should read about AI” list? Am reading Kate Crawford’s book now. Going to read Karen Hao’s. Things we should read/share with colleagues and peers.
November 26, 2025 at 1:05 PM
Anyone have a little “books teachers should read about AI” list? Am reading Kate Crawford’s book now. Going to read Karen Hao’s. Things we should read/share with colleagues and peers.
Percival Everett wrote the best paragraph ever written about a dog, fyi
November 26, 2025 at 1:23 AM
Percival Everett wrote the best paragraph ever written about a dog, fyi
Related: I have elementary school teacher friends who’ve told me they’ve eliminated play in Kindergarten to make space for reading screeners. You know who those kids are—and we know why this is happening.
we shouldn’t (more fully) turn high schools into metric production mills
November 25, 2025 at 11:35 PM
Related: I have elementary school teacher friends who’ve told me they’ve eliminated play in Kindergarten to make space for reading screeners. You know who those kids are—and we know why this is happening.
Reposted by John Downes-Angus
we shouldn’t (more fully) turn high schools into metric production mills
November 25, 2025 at 10:39 PM
we shouldn’t (more fully) turn high schools into metric production mills
Am obsessed with this and other like passages I’ve read about how being a 19th century weaver lent itself to reading and thinking. We obsess about workforce preparation in education—maybe my aim is to prepare my students to be philosophical weavers.
November 25, 2025 at 10:11 PM
Am obsessed with this and other like passages I’ve read about how being a 19th century weaver lent itself to reading and thinking. We obsess about workforce preparation in education—maybe my aim is to prepare my students to be philosophical weavers.
I love Commonweal/wish I could go to this but I can’t—posting here in case any fellow NYC teacher people are interested
events.columbia.edu/cal/event/ev...
events.columbia.edu/cal/event/ev...
Commonweal Magazine Roots Series: "Why Read?"
<p>What is the spark for human cooperation? How does beauty bind its beholders? Why do we read, write, and seek the truth together -- even if our search never ends? This event series, a collaboration ...
events.columbia.edu
November 25, 2025 at 12:58 AM
I love Commonweal/wish I could go to this but I can’t—posting here in case any fellow NYC teacher people are interested
events.columbia.edu/cal/event/ev...
events.columbia.edu/cal/event/ev...
Think public schools could learn a lot from public music radio stations—as in, basically, don’t bring your audience garbage if you don’t have to
November 24, 2025 at 10:12 PM
Think public schools could learn a lot from public music radio stations—as in, basically, don’t bring your audience garbage if you don’t have to
Being the playlist-making guy for grocery stores between like 11/20 and 12/25 must be a really chill job
November 24, 2025 at 9:55 PM
Being the playlist-making guy for grocery stores between like 11/20 and 12/25 must be a really chill job
View from what one local historian tells me is, not even kidding, the oldest parking garage in the US
November 23, 2025 at 9:16 PM
View from what one local historian tells me is, not even kidding, the oldest parking garage in the US
Do think David Foster Wallace would have had a lot to say about the aims of American education
November 23, 2025 at 6:54 PM
Do think David Foster Wallace would have had a lot to say about the aims of American education
Reposted by John Downes-Angus
hi! are you someone who:
1) cares about close reading and has a background in literary studies
2) teaches 12th grade English OR freshman writing?
if so, will you get in touch with @dan-sinnamon.bsky.social and me?
we want to talk! well, actually, we want to listen.
1) cares about close reading and has a background in literary studies
2) teaches 12th grade English OR freshman writing?
if so, will you get in touch with @dan-sinnamon.bsky.social and me?
we want to talk! well, actually, we want to listen.
November 19, 2025 at 7:55 PM
hi! are you someone who:
1) cares about close reading and has a background in literary studies
2) teaches 12th grade English OR freshman writing?
if so, will you get in touch with @dan-sinnamon.bsky.social and me?
we want to talk! well, actually, we want to listen.
1) cares about close reading and has a background in literary studies
2) teaches 12th grade English OR freshman writing?
if so, will you get in touch with @dan-sinnamon.bsky.social and me?
we want to talk! well, actually, we want to listen.
It’s funny to me that in this otherwise bafflingly subtle and elusive book, James chose in “the wings of the dove” to make fun of the way Italian people would say little in English
November 23, 2025 at 1:36 AM
It’s funny to me that in this otherwise bafflingly subtle and elusive book, James chose in “the wings of the dove” to make fun of the way Italian people would say little in English
Rousseau’s intro to his confessions is funny but also more moving now in AI-era
November 21, 2025 at 9:24 PM
Rousseau’s intro to his confessions is funny but also more moving now in AI-era
Lots of my kids will be the first in their families to go to college and lots of them plan to attend a CUNY school—just got off a ton of calls with such families and I’m just so glad they have this system. Proud to have gone to one/to work at a CUNY-affiliated HS.
November 21, 2025 at 12:56 AM
Lots of my kids will be the first in their families to go to college and lots of them plan to attend a CUNY school—just got off a ton of calls with such families and I’m just so glad they have this system. Proud to have gone to one/to work at a CUNY-affiliated HS.
Parents, a tip: teach your kids to say thanks to their teacher at the end of lessons. It works! They’re my favorite kids.
November 20, 2025 at 8:44 PM
Parents, a tip: teach your kids to say thanks to their teacher at the end of lessons. It works! They’re my favorite kids.
Had the kids listen to Radiohead for 15m while they wrote about this, then we read “ode on melancholy.” “Mr. DA this class just made me so sad”
November 20, 2025 at 7:02 PM
Had the kids listen to Radiohead for 15m while they wrote about this, then we read “ode on melancholy.” “Mr. DA this class just made me so sad”
This is probably my favorite day of the week: kids writing about whatever they found worth writing about in our text. So hard to ask them to just write without having them default to weird habits fostered by Byzantine checklists, etc.
November 20, 2025 at 2:45 PM
This is probably my favorite day of the week: kids writing about whatever they found worth writing about in our text. So hard to ask them to just write without having them default to weird habits fostered by Byzantine checklists, etc.
I’m sorry but how did I think I was busy before having a kid? What was I doing?
November 20, 2025 at 1:51 AM
I’m sorry but how did I think I was busy before having a kid? What was I doing?
This one is a good example of a poem I love, maybe my actual favorite, that I could never explain to kids. Like I don’t know what I’d say to them
www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/52192/...
www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/52192/...
At the Fishhouses
Cold dark deep and absolutely clear, element bearable to no mortal, to fish and to seals. Cold dark deep and absolutely clear, the clear gray icy water. The water seems suspended above the rounded gra...
www.poetryfoundation.org
November 19, 2025 at 9:46 PM
This one is a good example of a poem I love, maybe my actual favorite, that I could never explain to kids. Like I don’t know what I’d say to them
www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/52192/...
www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/52192/...