Surviving the First Month of School: 7 Reads for Teachers

Year twenty-eight started this month. I wrote the first newsletter from my old Lazy Boy, too tired to keep my eyes open.

Notebooks over chatbots. The messy lab instead of the tidy worksheet. Seventy miles into a headwind. There seems to be a common theme that bubbled up this past month: the harder way is usually the right one.

Here's everything from September in one spot, for teachers, administrators, and all STRONG Humans.

Highlight

If you only read one thing from September, make it this.

Teacher Recovery Can Look Like Adventure (Not a Beach Chair)

This is the only piece this month that didn't land in your inbox, so there's a good chance you missed it. It's six summer trips pulled from the Teacher Gone Wild series: a float plane into Ontario, a tent that nearly lost its roof, my dad's 81st birthday in Oregon, and a lot of cheese curds. None of it looked like self-care while it was happening. But these adventures did set my brain up for a good start to the school year.

Everything Else From September

From the newsletter

• The First Day, Twenty-Eight Years Later — Plan with care, then let go of what you can't control. A John Wooden quote and a fire drill that ate twelve minutes of class.
• The Well That Refills Itself — For anyone who hit week three feeling flat. Creativity doesn't run out like a tank. It sits still like a well.
• Enough With The Wind Already — Why "have a good year" isn't a goal, and what rest stops every fifteen miles taught me about getting through a long ride.
• Do One Scary Thing — The Gummy Bear Lab, my first livestreams, and ten small ways to get uncomfortable on purpose.
• Head Down, Get It Done — What cyclists know about pacelines, and what an 85-year Harvard study says about the people in yours.

On the blog

• Why Interactive Notebooks Still Matter in the Age of AI — Students can get an essay from a chatbot in eleven seconds. The case for paper, plus free templates and rubrics.

On YouTube

• A STRONG reflection, live — Me, a camera, and thinking out loud about this work in real time.
• The Teacher Gone Wild playlist — Every adventure from the summer, unpolished.

Harvest

At mile forty of the Door County ride, the wind was winning. I made it because of two things: a rest stop every fifteen miles, and a few friends riding close enough to block some of it. September in a classroom works the same way. The hard way is usually the right way. The notebook, the messy lab, the creative risk when you're tired. Nobody said you have to take the hard way alone. Break it into stretches you can actually finish, and find a wheel to tuck behind.

Hiccup

I started doing YouTube livestreams this month, and they are uncomfortable. Talking to a camera with nobody in the room feels a lot like being an eighth grader reading aloud for the first time. Some of what I said came out wrong. I'm keeping at it anyway, mostly because I just spent a whole newsletter telling you to do one scary thing.

Horizon

October brings more livestreams and something new: short how-to videos for teachers, starting with Google Classroom. Practical, quick, and built to give you back a few minutes of your week.

New This Week

The STRONG Teacher 4H Reflection is free for subscribers. Four questions at the end of the day: Highlight, Horizon, Hiccup, Harvest. About five minutes. It's the same structure this post is built on. If you want thirty days of guided prompts, the 4H Reflection Journal is on Ko-fi in printable and fillable versions.

With Gratitude,

Jeremy

P.S. Who's in your paceline this fall? If one name came to mind while you read that, send them a text today. And if Why Edify has been part of your September, you can support the work on Ko-fi.