Author Archive

Librarian Power / E-Bike News / Learn While Cooking / UP Food News / Girl’s Sports Controversy / ChatGPT Safeguards / SATS Then & Now / Year-Round Recruiting 10/25/2026

Sunday, October 25th, 2026

I post content as I find it, with the date of the top post in the headline. These are free Resources for Busy Parents and Educators Who Don’t Have as Much Time to Read and Surf as I Do. Be sure to check out my book summaries, too, and share them with your older children.

Try the bottom “select language” button for your favorite language or one you are trying to learn. If you don’t see it, check your ad-blocking software.

The power of one: How the school librarian can help schools do more with less. Today’s school librarians bring classroom teaching experience, graduate-level preparation, and specialized certifications to the role. Dr. Jessica Thompson & Dr. Laura Sheneman, University of West Georgia via eSchool News

Parents charged in son’s deadly e-bike crash. This kid was going 43 mph when he crashed into a pole. E-motos are only legal on private property anywhere in the US. Justin Choi via The NY Post

Kids Loving Learning While Cooking. If anyone is interested in starting a similar program, this site offers instructions and recipes, and we would be thrilled to help. Mitch Weisburgh

Americans eat more ultra-processed food than they realize, new survey finds – Can you tell when a food item is ultra-processed? SWNS via the NY Post

These high-school cross-country girls are challenging Washington State.Voters can decide if boys and participate in grils sports on November 3, 2026. This is from the conservative NY Post. What do you and your kids think. Ari Hoffman via NY Post

ChatGPT for Teens Has Special Safeguards. A Watchdog Group Finds Most Don’t Work. A study from Common Sense Media says most safeguards in ChatGPT for Teens failed. The chatbot talks to teens like a friend and doesn’t alert parents when users talk about self-harm and suicide. Rhitu Chatterjee via Mind/Shift

I took the 1985 SAT and the 2026 SAT. They’re not the same test. If you are critical of the SAT you will love this. Econ Nerds via YouTube support@econnerds.org

Year-round K-12 recruitment can win the talent pipeline and retention game. Districts that treat recruiting as an ongoing practice are better positioned to anticipate vacancies, align staffing with shifting demands, and minimize disruptions to learning. Jennifer Duvall, Red Rover via eSchool News

Dear Robot, Make Art. This delightful cartoon tells the story of an artist who was asked to use AI. It’s funny, touching, and insightful. If you see a box at the beginning, just close it. Scroll left to read the story. amymariestad via Instagram @amymariestad on X.

How to Keep Violent Porn Out of Your Home and Away From Your Kids – Parents often really underestimate the extent to which their own children are likely to have seen pornography. How about you? @FoodieScience @MindShiftKQED

What School of Rock Got Right about Education – One of the very best ways to motivate kids to learn is through the pursuit of their interests and development of their talents. Teachers must see this movie. @s_n_farley @middleweb

5 tips to improve your critical thinking – Samantha Agoos – Share with students who may not know what critical thinking is. @Pockless

The Science Behind Long Walks and Longevity – I walk a lot and am never sick. How about you? @HealthyLivingON

Elon Musk’s Incredible Speech on the Education System | Eye Opening Video on Education. All teachers and students should watch this. @elonmusk

Looking for a Teacher Job? Try Jooble

Recent Book Summaries & My Podcasts

The Anxious Generation: How the Great Rewiring of Childhood I Causing an Epidemic of Mental Illness by Jonathan Haidt – @JonHaidt

Brave New Words: How AI Will Revolutionize Education (and Why That’s a Good Thing) by Salman Khan
Building Thinking Classrooms in Mathematics Grades K-12: 14 Teaching Practices for Enhancing Learning by Peter Liljedahl
Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion by Robert Cialdini@RobertCialdini
Valedictorians at the Gate: Standing Out, Getting In, and Staying Sane While Applying to College by Becky Munsterer Sabky
Plays Well With Others: The Surprising Science Behind Why Everything You Know About Relationships Is (Mostly) Wrongby Eric Barker
How to Raise Kids Who Aren’t Assholes: Science-Based Strategies for Better Parenting from Tots to Teens by Melinda Wenner Moyer
My Post-Pandemic Teaching and Learning Observations by Dr. Doug Green Times 10 Publications
The Power of Regret: How Looking Backward Moves Us Forward by Daniel Pink
Limitless Mind: Learn, Lead, and Live Without Barriers by Jo Boaler
The Future of Smart: How Our Education System Needs to Change to Help All Young People Thrive by Ulcca Joshi Hansen

Listen to Dr. Doug on the “Cup of Joe” podcast. I recorded it last week. On it, I talk about the many good things I have seen in schools doing hybrid teaching. @PodcastCupOfJoe @DrDougGreen @BrainAwakes
This is my podcast on the Jabbedu Network. Please consider listening and buying my book Teaching Isn’t Rocket Science, It’s Way More Complex. Here’s a free executive summary. @jabbedu @DrDougGreen
Boys and Sex: Young Men on Hookups, Love, Porn, Consent, and Navigating the New Masculinity by Peggy Orenstein

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How to Turn Your Educational Expertise Into a Thriving Online Course Business by Emily Graham

Friday, October 23rd, 2026

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Image by pexels
How to Turn Your Educational Expertise Into a Thriving Online Course Business by Emily Graham is aimed at experienced teachers who want to turn their experience into a thriving business. While the process is somewhat complex, Emily offers step-by-step advice and answers common questions. You can also email her if you wish to know more.

Classroom educators, tutors, trainers, and instructional coaches seeking income diversification often face the same tension: deep expertise and proven results, but limited time and pay that doesn’t rise with effort. Online course entrepreneurship offers a realistic way to package what educators already teach into a focused learning experience that can reach beyond a single school, district, or client list. The real challenge is turning messy, experience-based knowledge into a clear course offer while staying confident about ownership, pricing, and visibility. With the right mindset around educational product development, that expertise can become a practical digital learning business opportunity.

Quick Summary of the Course Business Blueprint

Start by mapping a clear course creation process from expertise to structured, teachable lessons.

Protect your work by learning intellectual property basics before publishing or selling content.

Set course pricing with intention and pair it with practical marketing moves to drive enrollment.

Build an audience steadily using audience-building techniques that support long-term course sales.

Understanding the Foundations of a Course Business

A thriving online course business starts with the basics: how to design outcomes and lessons, how to price, how to market, and how to protect what you create. That last piece matters because intellectual property rights cover the ideas, inventions, and creative expressions people treat as property. Once those foundations are clear, a simple business plan framework helps you define your goal, positioning, and the numbers that must work.

This matters because it prevents expensive guesswork. You stop chasing tactics and start making choices that fit your time, audience, and income target. It also keeps you from underpricing, overbuilding, or launching without a repeatable way to attract students.

Think of it like opening a small bakery. You would lock in recipes, costs, pricing, and how customers will find you before turning on the ovens. The plan is your checklist that turns expertise into a predictable operation.

Decide If an LLC Fits Your Growing Course Business

Once your course business plan starts turning into real revenue and real responsibility, it’s worth thinking about how you’ll protect yourself while you grow. Forming an LLC can help online course creators separate personal and business assets, adding a layer of liability protection and creating a more professional foundation as your education business becomes more sustainable. It can also simplify how you present the business to partners and service providers because the company, not you personally, is the operating entity. From a tax perspective, an LLC typically uses pass-through taxation, which means profits are reported on the owner’s personal tax return rather than being taxed at the corporate level.

If you decide an LLC makes sense for your online course business, the formation steps generally include choosing a registered agent, filing Articles of Organization, creating an operating agreement, and applying for an EIN. With that foundation in place, you’ll be in a stronger position to move into the practical work of building, pricing, and selling your course.

Build, Price, and Sell Your Online Course Step by Step

This process helps you turn what you already know into a course people will buy, without getting stuck on tech, pricing, or promotion. It matters because a simple, repeatable workflow keeps your course business moving even when life is busy.

Step 1: Outline a clear course promise and lessons
Start with one specific learner outcome, then break it into 4 to 8 bite-sized modules that build in order. Draft each lesson as: problem, explanation, example, quick win. This keeps content focused and prevents you from over-teaching or rewriting forever.

Step 2: Create content fast, then improve with feedback
Choose one format you can produce consistently, such as slides plus voiceover, a worksheet-driven mini course, or short videos. Record a “version 1” for a small pilot group, collect the questions they ask most, and then re-record only the parts that confuse people. Iteration beats perfection because it gets you to sell sooner.

Step 3: Protect your work with simple IP boundaries
Decide what students are allowed to do with your materials, such as personal use only, no reposting, and no sharing logins, then place that language in your checkout and welcome email. If you are licensing content or collaborating, use a written agreement guided by an intellectual property rights licence so ownership and permitted use are not vague. This reduces misunderstandings and makes your course feel more professional.

Step 4: Set pricing using one primary offer and one upsell
Pick a straightforward core price based on the transformation and the time you save learners, then add one optional next step such as a Q and A session, template pack, or coaching add-on. Keep discounts limited and time-bound so you do not train your
audience to wait for a sale. This approach makes revenue more predictable and reduces constant relaunch pressure.

Step 5: Choose two marketing channels and a burnout-proof schedule
Commit to one audience channel you can sustain, such as short videos, a weekly blog, or live workshops, and pair it with email so you can keep in touch directly. Many creators lean on email because email marketing ROI can be strong, especially when you send helpful lessons and a clear invitation to your course. Batch content weekly, automate onboarding emails, and outsource one low-skill task at a time to scale without exhausting yourself.

Online Course Business Questions

Q: What if I’m not “techy” enough to build a course?
A: You do not need to be tech-savvy to start. Pick one simple delivery method such as recorded slides, downloadable lessons, or live sessions on a familiar platform. If you can email a PDF and host a video, you can launch a first version.

Q: How do I avoid legal trouble with my materials and student access?
A: Use clear checkout terms that state personal-use-only, no sharing logins, and no reposting. Keep your sources clean by using your own examples or properly licensed assets, and store permissions in a folder you can find later. When in doubt, get a short review from a qualified professional.

Q: How should I respond when someone says my course is too expensive?
A: Treat handling price objections as a normal part of selling, not a sign your idea is bad. Re- anchor on the outcome, the time saved, and who the course is best for. If it still feels high, add a payment plan or a smaller starter offer.

Q: Why isn’t my marketing working even though my course is good?
A: Most often, the message is unclear, not the course. Tighten your promise into one sentence, share one helpful tip repeatedly, and invite people to a single next step like an email list. Give it two to four weeks of consistent posting before you judge results.

Q: When can I scale without burning out?
A: Scale after your first students finish and you know what they struggle with most. Because the $375 billion by 2026 opportunity attracts competition, your advantage is tightening delivery and support. Start by automating onboarding and batching content before adding new products.

Publish Your First Lesson and Build a Sustainable Course Business

It’s easy to get stuck between knowing a lot and wondering how to package it without wasting time or underpricing yourself. The steadier path is sustainable education entrepreneurship: start small, validate with real learners, and improve as you go rather than waiting for perfection. Applied consistently, starting an online course business becomes a repeatable system for
educational expertise monetization and transforming knowledge into income that supports long- term course business success. One published lesson is worth more than a perfect course outline.

Emily Graham

Emily is the creator of MightyMoms.net. She believes being a mom is one of the hardest jobs around and wanted to create a support system for moms from all walks of life. On her site, she offers a wide range of info tailored for busy moms — from how to reduce stress to creative ways to spend time together as a family. You can email her at emilygraham@mightymoms.net. She lives in Arizona.

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How to Start Your Teaching Career: A Clear, Practical Guide by Emily Graham

Saturday, October 10th, 2026

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How to Start Your Teaching Career: A Clear, Practical Guide by Emily Graham

is a good place to start if you have an interest in making teaching your next career. If you know graduates who can seem to get a career started, suggest that they consider teaching. It was a great career for me.

Aspiring teachers, career changers, recent grads, and parents returning to work often feel strong motivations for teaching, then hit the same wall: turning that calling into a real teaching profession role can feel confusing and high-stakes. The teacher career path has clear checkpoints, but the education requirements for teachers vary by state, grade level, and subject area, which makes it easy to second-guess every decision. With the right overview, the steps stop feeling like a maze and start looking like a plan. This is the starting point for seeing a clear route into the classroom.

Quick Summary: Starting Your Teaching Career

Start by meeting education degree requirements for your chosen teaching pathway.

Choose a grade level that fits your strengths and preferred classroom environment.

Select a subject specialization that matches your interests and long-term goals.

Follow required teacher certification steps to qualify for classroom teaching.

Prepare a focused teaching job application to begin your classroom search.

Map Your Teacher Prep Plan with a Simple Mind Map

Once you’ve got the core steps in front of you, the next challenge is keeping all the coursework, requirements, and milestones from feeling like one big pile. AI study tools can take some of that mental load off as you work through education classes, helping you review teaching theories and classroom strategies, generate study materials from what you’re learning, and prepare for exams and student-teaching assignments. One especially practical option is an AI mind map generator: you can upload PDFs, documents, notes, or other study materials, and the tool analyzes them to pull out the main ideas, supporting points, and how concepts connect.

Instead of rereading the same pages and hoping the structure “sticks,” you get a visual map you can scan, review, and organize, often making complex material feel clearer and more manageable. If you want to try turning your own course readings into a structured map, you can dive in with an online mind map generator and use the result as your planning snapshot for what to study next. With your ideas laid out, it’s easier to make the big choice of where you’ll focus, starting with your grade level and subject area.

Choose Your Grade and Subject Focus With Confidence

This quick decision path helps you choose a teaching direction that fits how you work best and how you actually live day to day. Getting specific now saves you from taking extra classes, chasing the wrong certification, or landing in a role that drains you.

Step 1: List your nonnegotiables and energizers

Start with a simple two column list: what you need (schedule, commute limits, income timing, energy for evenings) and what you enjoy (coaching, mentoring teens, hands-on projects, structured routines). Include family and lifestyle realities, like whether you prefer a predictable day or you can handle frequent plan changes. This becomes your filter for every option that follows.

Step 2: Compare elementary vs secondary by daily rhythm 

Choose elementary if you like teaching many subjects, building routines, and being a steady anchor all day. Choose secondary if you love going deep in one subject and can handle faster transitions, stronger opinions, and multiple class groups. If you are unsure, picture a typical Tuesday, not a highlight reel.

Step 3: Check whether special education is your best fit 

Special education can be a great match if you value collaboration, patient problem-solving, and progress that comes in small wins. Try a low-risk test drive by talking with a special education teacher, volunteering, or observing to see how you feel about paperwork, team meetings, and adapting lessons. Your goal is not to decide forever, just to see if the day-to-day work fits you.

Step 4: Match your subject strength to real classroom impact 

Pick one or two subjects you can explain clearly, even on a tired day, and connect them to students’ real lives. The lens of rigor, relevance, and relationships can help you sanity-check your choice: can you teach it well, make it matter, and build trust while doing it? If one of those feels like a constant struggle, choose a different lane.

Step 5: Confirm your direction with a short trial plan 

Write a one-paragraph “teaching statement” that names your grade range, subject or specialty, and the kind of classroom you want to run. Then plan two small actions for the next two weeks, like scheduling an observation and mapping the certification steps you would need. If both actions feel doable, you have found a direction worth committing to.

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Ready-to-Apply Teaching Job Search Checklist

This checklist turns your direction into a simple job-search system you can run in short bursts between real-life responsibilities. Use it to avoid missed requirements, stay organized across school district applications, and show up
confident in interviews.

Confirm certification status and backup options like emergency permits.

Verify credentials by reviewing the original TEFL certificate and saving proof.

Tailor a resume for teachers to match one role and grade band.

Collect three references and ask for specific classroom-ready examples.

Track school district applications, logins, deadlines, and required attachments.

Prepare five stories for teacher interview preparation using real student scenarios.

Schedule one observation or volunteer shift to strengthen your talking points.

Small, steady steps add up fast when you keep your checklist visible.

Turn Today’s Prep Into a Real Teaching Career Plan

Starting a teaching career can feel like a maze of requirements, applications, and decisions, and it’s easy to stall out from sheer overload. The steadier approach is to keep the focus on little, intentional progress, using clear checklists, realistic education career advice, and a simple mindset of “next step, then the next.” When that rhythm is in place, teaching career motivation stays stronger, next steps for teachers feel doable, and long-term teaching goals stop being abstract wishes. One small step beats a perfect plan every time. This week, choose one targeted teacher professional development option and set a specific time to complete it. That kind of steady follow-through builds confidence and creates a career with real stability over time.

Emily Graham

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Revenge of the Tipping Point: Overstories, Superspreaders, and the Rise of Social Engineering by Malcolm Gladwell

Sunday, October 4th, 2026

Book
Revenge of the Tipping Point: Overstories, Superspreaders, and the Rise of Social Engineering by Malcolm Gladwell
In his latest book, Gladwell tells a number of seemingly unconnected stories that all have some unexpected outcomes. I find Malcolm to be an out standing story teller, which makes this summary less comprehensive than others you will find on the blog. I hope this quick read encourages you to purchase that fine book and that you enjoy it as much as I did.

1. The Tipping Point for Bank Robberies

There are three mysteries here. The first is why were bank robberies so prevalent in Los Angeles in the 1990s but far less so in New York City? The second is why doctors perform abundant forms of a given surgery at one hospital but not at another hospital. Third is why are children in most schools at or near 100% vaccinated while students at Waldorf Schools are closer to 25%?

2. What Made Miami Change

This is the story of medicare fraud in South Florida (Miami). The main character runs a chain of nursing homes that defrauds Medicare for billions. The story also deals with drug money laundering with the cooperation of banks. Thanks to the inflow of drugs and 125,000 people dumped there by Castro in 1980, the nature of Miami changes greatly.
Gladwell more or less provides a how-to for setting up a fraudulent medical practice here. The application is easy, but you do need a location of some sort and access to a doctor with a “loose pen.” In the end, the main character gets off with a multi-million dollar fine because he has an “ace up his sleeve.” That ace is a government connection, and it results in a sentence commutation from Donald Trump. Democrat presidents are also noted for this kind of behavior.

3. The Epidemic in Poplar Grove

This is not the name of the town composed mostly of wealthy people with high expectations for their children. For many kids the expectations turned out to be too much and a string of teen suicides followed. It seemed like one suicide caused other kids to think about it and it some cases, they followed through. Here is where a small number can become a tipping point of sorts.

4. When Does Tipping Happen?

A tipping point is a threshold where something that had been one way for generations seems to change overnight. In the case of company Boards, it seems to take three women before a woman can become comfortable in that position. This magic third also shows up for other tipping points. Once a black population reaches about one third in a school, the black students start performing as well as the white students.

5. Rugby at Harvard

Here Gladwell points out why elite schools like Harvard had so many teams for Olympic sports. In order to give a child training in these sports, it takes a lot of money. If you help your kid develop in a sport like squash, sailing, or rugby, they have a better chance of getting into an elite school than if they relied on their grades and test scores alone.

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The 12 Levers: The Complete Psychological Toolkit for Improving Your Life by Spencer Greenberg and Jeremy Stevenson

Thursday, September 17th, 2026

Book
The 12 Levers: The Complete Psychological Toolkit for Improving Your Life by Spencer Greenberg and Jeremy Stevenson goes beyond things like diet, exercise, and sleep to deal with the psychology of self-help and improvement. If you suffer from negative thoughts that lead to anxiety and depression, this book is for you. Have a copy on hand for yourself, or to give to people you work and live with who might need it.

Introduction

There is an overwhelming amount of self-help literature. While researching this book, the authors analyzed the content from 106 books, 23 therapies, along with numerous journal articles, videos, manuals, and other materials. They found that 495 techniques fell into 12 categories that they call Levers. These levers cover all psychological approaches that can improve your life. Don’t hesitate to try a technique as you read about it. The goal is to make you happy, as plenty of suffering is unnecessary.

1. Unravel the Causes

If you want to make a problem better, you need to start by working to better understand what causes it. The technique here is called ABC. A is for identifying the activating event. B is for your beliefs that allowed the activating event to cause the problem. C is for the consequences, both emotional and behavioral. You also need to ask if there are any background events in your recent or distant past that cause the activating event to have its negative impact.
Be sure to look for things that are part of the problem that you can control, and work to control them. One thing you can control is your attitude. Ideally, you can identify the issue as it occurs and get right to work on it. Try bright spot analysis. This is where you talk about what is working and focus on that. Ask what was different when the same activating event was less hurtful.

2. Uncover Your Guiding Foundations

Intrinsic values are those fundamental values that you value for their own sake. Learning, loyalty, and happiness are examples. To find yours, try asking what you dreamt about as a child, who you admire, and what triggers strong emotion. Try taking the intrinsic values test at ClearerThinking.org. When you have five to ten, write them down and review them daily.

3. Actualize Your Guiding Foundation

Once you know your values, it makes sense to take action in line with those values. Make sure you have goals in line with those values that are achievable. The authors recommend no more than four with one overarching goal. You should have a timeframe for your goals and break them into smaller steps.
One key to reaching your goals is to form habits, which are powerful because they let you keep doing something consistently with minimal effort or conscious thought. Healthy habits are the compound interest of self-improvement. One way to make sure you follow through on a new habit is to connect it with one you already have and perform in a reliable manner. Start small, make sure your environment promotes the habit, remind yourself of its benefit, and reward yourself if you follow through.

4. Prepare for the Storm

If you have recurring mental issues, you need one or more plans regarding how to deal with them when they show up. It’s much like having a plan for a storm. You need to identify the risk factors so you can spot problem situations and early warning signs. Then develop a plan that lets you cope with or sidestep the problem. You may want to take the opposite of the action you have taken in the past that has made things worse./li>
You might have more than one plan for a specific problem depending on the intensity of the problem. One idea is to stop, take a step back, observe, and proceed effectively. When you have the plan(s), write them down and review them often. Put them where you will see them. Try the “Program Yourself to Improve Your Life Plan” at ClearerThinking.org.

5. Approach the Monster

Fear can be learned and unlearned. To unlearn a fear, you need to confront it. Start gradually and slowly bring it closer or more intense. Once you have conquered a fear, you may need to confront it from time to time to keep it at bay. If you are afraid of something that is actually dangerous, a better plan might be to avoid it altogether. Watch out for “safety behaviors” that can temporarily allay a fear but prevent you from actually learning to deal with the fear.

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