John Downes-Angus
@johndownesangus.bsky.social
Public HS English Teacher in NYC.
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
Something ordinary people understand that powerful people/ideologues can’t: what we do with kids in school should be determined democratically
November 22, 2025 at 9:06 PM
Something ordinary people understand that powerful people/ideologues can’t: what we do with kids in school should be determined democratically
It’s cool when organizer events have childcare—going to one in December. Don’t know if this is just something that teacher-organizers think about—this is a teacher thing—but it’s a nice thing to do.
November 22, 2025 at 2:52 AM
It’s cool when organizer events have childcare—going to one in December. Don’t know if this is just something that teacher-organizers think about—this is a teacher thing—but it’s a nice thing to do.
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.
Has been fun talking to parents tonight (parent teacher conferences) about their memories of reading the same stuff their kids are now reading—something cool about that
November 21, 2025 at 12:48 AM
Has been fun talking to parents tonight (parent teacher conferences) about their memories of reading the same stuff their kids are now reading—something cool about that
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/...
People who respond to grade inflation with increased accountability measures show me how easy it is to coast along in life knowing nothing about what the past 20 years have done to schools
November 19, 2025 at 7:25 PM
People who respond to grade inflation with increased accountability measures show me how easy it is to coast along in life knowing nothing about what the past 20 years have done to schools
Talked to the teens today about why I think the sentence “In his blue gardens men and girls came and went like moths among the whispering and the champagne and the stars” is really good—some of my best school memories are of teachers unpacking favorite sentences/moments. It’s nice to share w them.
November 19, 2025 at 7:14 PM
Talked to the teens today about why I think the sentence “In his blue gardens men and girls came and went like moths among the whispering and the champagne and the stars” is really good—some of my best school memories are of teachers unpacking favorite sentences/moments. It’s nice to share w them.
Reposted by John Downes-Angus
ideas are for everybody. history is for everybody. art is for everybody. including the working young people of new jersey.
November 18, 2025 at 8:49 PM
ideas are for everybody. history is for everybody. art is for everybody. including the working young people of new jersey.
Think people on the left have a coherent enough vision for broadening material wellbeing to feel okay pushing back against efforts to make schools the lever for prosperity, and to instead make the case for them to be little thinking utopias of learning, self discovery, etc for everyone
November 18, 2025 at 9:33 PM
Think people on the left have a coherent enough vision for broadening material wellbeing to feel okay pushing back against efforts to make schools the lever for prosperity, and to instead make the case for them to be little thinking utopias of learning, self discovery, etc for everyone
Reposted by John Downes-Angus
As a former public school teacher & current public school parent, I want our schools to be able to do more with more.
That's why I'm fighting back with Iowa CCI's Public School Strong campaign and working between now and Dec. 5th to raise $500 to support this important work headed into 2026. 👇
That's why I'm fighting back with Iowa CCI's Public School Strong campaign and working between now and Dec. 5th to raise $500 to support this important work headed into 2026. 👇
Help Nick raise $500 for thriving Iowa public schools! | Iowa Citizens for Community Improvement PowerBase
How can you help? Donate here!
iowacci.ourpowerbase.net
November 17, 2025 at 8:43 PM
As a former public school teacher & current public school parent, I want our schools to be able to do more with more.
That's why I'm fighting back with Iowa CCI's Public School Strong campaign and working between now and Dec. 5th to raise $500 to support this important work headed into 2026. 👇
That's why I'm fighting back with Iowa CCI's Public School Strong campaign and working between now and Dec. 5th to raise $500 to support this important work headed into 2026. 👇
Imagine you’re at work waiting for one of these guys in the mail. Like I seriously think penguin classics would kill with a serialized subscription thing—little old book doses like they’re meant to be
November 18, 2025 at 6:54 PM
Imagine you’re at work waiting for one of these guys in the mail. Like I seriously think penguin classics would kill with a serialized subscription thing—little old book doses like they’re meant to be
Kids are performing Oedipus adaptations in class tomorrow and we’re bringing in judges and declare a winner so we can emulate the experience of working in the theater of Dionysus—homework passes are at stake, wish them luck
November 18, 2025 at 12:45 PM
Kids are performing Oedipus adaptations in class tomorrow and we’re bringing in judges and declare a winner so we can emulate the experience of working in the theater of Dionysus—homework passes are at stake, wish them luck