John Terry
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johntrterry.bsky.social
John Terry
@johntrterry.bsky.social
4.5K followers 270 following 1.4K posts
award-winning world history teacher, occasional writer, arkansas grad, phd from uva in early medieval things 🗃️ missing weird #stlcards twitter but nothing else

📍ATL

johntrterry.com
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johntrterry.bsky.social
thanks to a colleague I just learned about isaac rosenberg's haunting "break of day in the trenches" and I think you should learn about it, too, on this remembrance day www.poetryfoundation.org/poetrymagazi...
Break of Day in the Trenches By Isaac Rosenberg The darkness crumbles away. It is the same old druid Time as ever, Only a live thing leaps my hand, A queer sardonic rat, As I pull the parapet’s poppy To stick behind my ear. Droll rat, they would shoot you if they knew Your cosmopolitan sympathies. Now you have touched this English hand You will do the same to a German Soon, no doubt, if it be your pleasure To cross the sleeping green between. It seems you inwardly grin as you pass Strong eyes, fine limbs, haughty athletes, Less chanced than you for life, Bonds to the whims of murder, Sprawled in the bowels of the earth, The torn fields of France. What do you see in our eyes At the shrieking iron and flame Hurled through still heavens? What quaver—what heart aghast? Poppies whose roots are in man’s veins Drop, and are ever dropping; But mine in my ear is safe— Just a little white with the dust.
November 11, 2025 at 1:27 PM
johntrterry.bsky.social
this is my fight song
"Chicago style footnotes for freshmen" in the style of Zohran Mamdani's campaign sign
November 8, 2025 at 9:15 PM
johntrterry.bsky.social
your daily matthew 7.21-23 moment
21 “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. 22 On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?’ 23 And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.’
November 2, 2025 at 10:54 PM
johntrterry.bsky.social
a student has shared this with me and I am simply passing it along for your enjoyment
meme depicting depictions of celtic peoples in the ancient world. on the right, "how the Romans saw the Celts," featuring the dying Gaul in a classical style. on the left, "how the Celts saw themselves," a figural depiction of a mustachioed Celtic man on the body of someone wearing a business suit
October 31, 2025 at 3:22 PM
johntrterry.bsky.social
come for the terrifying stories of a haunting in hillsborough nc by @tommaxwell.bsky.social, stay for the amazing illustrations by phil blank bittersoutherner.com/we-salted-na...
watercolor title in red and and black reading "We Salted Nannie: A Real-Life Southern Ghost Story by Tom Maxwell, illustrations by Phil Blank terrifying watercolor depicting the ghosts that haunted the house in the story terrifying watercolor depicting the ghosts that haunted the basement of the house in the story terrifying watercolor depicting the ghosts that haunted the house in the story, in this scene someone is being haunted in bed
October 31, 2025 at 1:50 PM
johntrterry.bsky.social
<3 <3 <3
"Statuary elements currently being uncovered" in Notre Dame de Paris excavations. Visible are robed torsos of statues and a gothic tower.
October 31, 2025 at 12:46 PM
johntrterry.bsky.social
jaw-dropping irresponsibility by tech capitalists who know nothing about learning www.wired.com/story/ai-tea...
At Alpha, the guides’ support and oversight is meant to supplement the technology—and not just the personalized learning system the school has dubbed an AI tutor. Alpha can also use an array of management surveillance tools, which it calls “basic and extended capabilities,” to flag “incorrect usage” of the learning apps. These “anti-patterns” can “help detect engagement and focus issues.” The school may record students’ screen activity and their mouse and keyboard usage. Alpha may employ eye-tracking programs. Using what it calls a “pro sports analogy,” Alpha compares these tools to “game film.” While parents are asked to consent to these surveillance programs, the school’s handbook says that there is “no expectation of privacy” on campus. If parents want to restrict recordings of their children outside of the school, they have to manually opt out of the “anywhere” option—as Jessica Lopez learned midway through her older daughter’s second year at Alpha. The girl says she remembers sitting on her bed one night working on schoolwork when she received a notification that she’d been flagged for an anti-pattern. She says Alpha’s system sent a video of her in her pajamas, taken from the computer’s webcam, that showed her talking to her younger sister.
October 30, 2025 at 12:14 PM
johntrterry.bsky.social
good morning from george soros' cutest lil soldier
Sweet wonderful perfect toddler girl holding a snack container in her left hand and a "kings are for storybooks" sign in her right hand.
October 20, 2025 at 12:22 PM
johntrterry.bsky.social
shoutout to the good people at @indivisible.org, who responded quickly when my local organizer called out sick, jeopardizing the protest. they were able to vet me and make me the host on very short notice and from there brilliant volunteers pulled it all together. 1200+ in smyrna, ga.
crowd of people with signs and costumes outside the public library in Smyrna GA me and my daughter holding matching signs that read "kings are for storybooks"
October 19, 2025 at 2:28 AM
johntrterry.bsky.social
morning costco hot dog WITNESS ME
$1.50 hot dog plus soda combo from Costco, 10:45 am
October 17, 2025 at 2:53 PM
johntrterry.bsky.social
simple and effective
protest sign for me and my daughter reading "kings are for storybooks" with a castle with pink roofs and flags.
October 15, 2025 at 1:18 PM
johntrterry.bsky.social
gonna bring my sweet wonderful toddler to the no kings rally in my ATL suburb on 10/18 (concepts for signs appreciated!). if you live in the burbs of a big city I encourage you to look up a local demonstration. cities have plenty of support; your local community needs you. www.mobilize.us/nokings/
Orange sign with black lettering "No thrones. No crowns. No Kings. Saturday, Oct. 18"
October 8, 2025 at 1:03 PM
johntrterry.bsky.social
lolllll
In my experience, the people who are excited about AI rt also happen to be some of the most talentless fucking people I've ever met They're middle managers, executives, or marketers whose LinkedIn bio reads... "I'm the chief brand officer of user engagement at DataRectal but what I really am is a storyteller." LMAO. Virginia Woolf was a storyteller. Shel Silverstein was a storyteller. You work in tech, shitbird.
October 8, 2025 at 1:07 AM
johntrterry.bsky.social
"let's do the fucking news" is more rewarding if you imagine it in jennifer coolidge's voice
Jennifer Coolidge raising a glass of champagne from season 2 of White Lotus.
October 7, 2025 at 1:18 PM
johntrterry.bsky.social
imagine fat shaming him
still of james gandolfini from "in the loop"
September 30, 2025 at 6:54 PM
johntrterry.bsky.social
grading
me commenting on a paper with "still cannot believe delacroix copied this from coldplay's 2008 album 'viva la vida'" which is a dumb joke in reference to "liberty leading the people"
September 18, 2025 at 4:01 PM
johntrterry.bsky.social
well that's one way to get my blood pumping on a morning commute
Cover of Annie Jacobsen's Nuclear War: A Scenario featuring a mushroom cloud
September 3, 2025 at 6:06 PM
johntrterry.bsky.social
sorry not sorry, @jpbrammer.bsky.social is just about my favorite observer of american culture currently
“In college, I worked at Cracker Barrel in Tallahassee. I even gave my life to Christ in their parking lot. Their logo was iconic and their unique restaurants were a fixture of American culture. No one asked for this woke rebrand. It’s time to Make Cracker Barrel Great Again.” This text, posted to social media, has been roundly mocked, and I understand why. A kid with the haziest understanding of theology knew! His face on your morning toast? Maybe, but Jesus Christ is certainly not in the Cracker Barrel parking lot, you big dummy. Still, part of me, the Believer, can’t help but be moved by the scene Rep. Donalds presents. It’s the most American thing I’ve read maybe ever: A man, sitting alone in his car in Tallahassee, proffers his entire being to a Jew from Galilee; the interstate his River Jordan, America his Levant, Cracker Barrel his temple. How gorgeous and absurd. Did the Gentle Carpenter hear him? If not (I suspect not), are we doomed? My knees shake! Wow.
August 28, 2025 at 11:22 PM
johntrterry.bsky.social
lol amazing
Zohran Mamdani saying "you'll find a special surprise..." Zohran Mamdani saying "not a wad of cash"
August 23, 2025 at 8:05 PM
johntrterry.bsky.social
best novel I've read in I don't know when. beautiful, devastating, and hopeful. will be in recovery for a while. (thanks @profgabriele.com for the rec.)
I Cheerfully Refuse cover by Leif Enger
August 23, 2025 at 6:12 PM
johntrterry.bsky.social
I regret to inform you that I have found a new and creative way to separate myself from money
a "saint louis scented candle" featuring a toasted ravioli nestled in a pool of marinara sauce "mr rochester scented candle" featuring a ruin "anne of green gables scented candle" featuring a broken chalk board
August 21, 2025 at 1:38 PM
johntrterry.bsky.social
anyway here's me and @brianrosenworcel.bsky.social in 2004
Two handsome dudes after a guster concert in 2004
August 21, 2025 at 1:10 AM
johntrterry.bsky.social
The Andromeda Galaxy Is the Closest Galaxy to our Milky Way By Clint Smith The Andromeda Galaxy Is the closest galaxy to our Milky Way and it is the most distant object visible to the naked eye. It is 2.5 million lightyears away, which means that when we see it, we are seeing that galaxy as it was 2.5 million years ago, long before humans were ever part of this planet, long before you came into this world like a shooting star. We read this fact in one of your books about space and you ask me how it's possible to see something from so long ago, even if that thing is no longer there. I am far from a physicist, but I do my best to explain the speed of light by moving my hands back and forth in front of my face as quickly as I can. You are unconvinced by this incoherent explanation, and now my arms are sore. So instead, what I say is that when I look at you, it's like I am looking at my grandmother, a woman you never met but whose stardust is glimmering in your eyes. When I look at you, it's like I am seeing everything that came before, all the people I love who once lived, but who are no longer living, all of the history that has brought you here to me.
August 6, 2025 at 1:23 PM
johntrterry.bsky.social
took a stab at a first draft of a new AI policy for my classes this year (heavily leaning on @heymrsbond.com and @williamfleitch.bsky.social)
"Your job in this class is to become a better reader, writer, and thinker. Look around these days. We need more of you! To do this, you’re going to have to read, write, think, and talk . . . a lot. And my job in this class is to provide you with the information, support, and feedback to help you meet that goal. And guess what else? Writing is one of the most deeply human things you can do. It’s meaningful. It matters. I care less about your writing being “perfect” than about it coming from you, with your voice, using evidence you find compelling. Because of all this, the use of any AI tool (including Grammarly, sorry!) to produce any written work in this class is not permitted and will result in a score of 0 on the assignment. Here’s the deal: AI doesn’t generate. It doesn’t build. It doesn’t edify what we’re out here doing as human beings. It scrapes together what’s already there and pulls it together in a boring and formulaic way. It steals ideas, art, and phrases from real human people without proper citation. It outsources thinking and pollutes our planet. So we’re just not going to use it. I know this sounds a little scary, but this policy should encourage you to be the vibrant, curious, and badass thinker I absolutely know you are."
August 5, 2025 at 4:22 PM
johntrterry.bsky.social
IT'S FIG SZN BABYYYYYY
FIGS!!!
August 3, 2025 at 6:18 PM