Gretchen
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offgridteacher.bsky.social
Gretchen
@offgridteacher.bsky.social
•Edu MA • Teach Plus Fellow Alum • Peace Corps 🇸🇳 in Agro-Forestry • Veteran Wife + Caregiver • Stay At Home Mom
I talk about education, running, nature, caregiving, California, cats, and health.
Reposted by Gretchen
Zillow has removed climate risk scores from over a million real estate listings after realtors complained that information such as how at risk a home is from wildfires was causing them to lose sales.

Zillow now provides a link to get the information instead of listing it directly.
Zillow drops climate risk scores after agents complained of lost sales | TechCrunch
The move is a loss for homebuyers, who through Zillow had ready access to a property's climate risk scores from First Street.
techcrunch.com
December 2, 2025 at 10:55 PM
Omg I think this is real.

When I worked at the entrance gate to Yosemite, I was proud to welcome visitors from across the world. Our National parks are truly a jewel that deserve to both be protected and shared, not turned into some sort of nationalistic totem.
December 2, 2025 at 9:14 PM
Reposted by Gretchen
If we can’t watch The Holiday together in a quaint cottage in front of a crackling fire whilst sharing hot cocoa and a plate of freshly-baked gingerbread cookies during a raging snowstorm, then what’s the point?
December 2, 2025 at 5:28 PM
Reposted by Gretchen
Lol, Zillow tried to rate the climate risks facing individual properties. The real estate industry *hated* it, precisely because it worked -- it made selling risky properties more difficult. So they rebelled & Zillow caved.

Don't look up!
Zillow Removes Climate Risk Scores From Home Listings
www.nytimes.com
November 30, 2025 at 8:04 PM
Everyone else is getting their kids the hottest new toys for their birthday, I’m getting my daughter a collection of Mother Goose stories illustrated by Gyo Fujikawa (former Disney illustrator).
November 30, 2025 at 9:31 PM
👇🏼👇🏼👇🏼
One hard part of the literacy problem in the United States is there are a lot of people -- some of them with college degrees and beyond -- who don't realize that they are bad at reading

I don't know how to reach those people
November 30, 2025 at 8:41 PM
Reposted by Gretchen
The New Deal wasn’t built on a promise that there would be “no ceiling” for the richest Americans.

Quite the opposite, in fact. FDR knew its politics could only work if he singled out the rich as villains and knew that its policies could only work if the rich paid their fair share in taxes.
November 30, 2025 at 4:51 PM
Baby girl is turning two. I didn’t know who to invite, so we’re just having a small family dinner with her cousins. Everyone keeps talking about how they found their “mom village” but it doesn’t include me.
November 30, 2025 at 4:58 PM
Reposted by Gretchen
Imagine if they just subsidized newspapers and magazines the way they’re subsidizing this slop
"All of this falls apart if humans don't adopt the tech. This is why you've seen Meta cram its lame chatbots into WhatsApp and Instagram. This is why Notepad and Paint now have useless Copilot buttons on Windows. This is why Google Gemini wants to "help you" read and reply to your emails."
Analysis: OpenAI is a loss-making machine, how can it survive?
Don't call it a bubble! Loss-making monster OpenAI is on the hook for $1.4 trillion (with a T) in compute commitments. How can this go on?
www.windowscentral.com
November 30, 2025 at 12:35 PM
I want to be here:
Alone in the woods under the aurora
November 30, 2025 at 3:54 PM
My sister in law is a wellness coordinator through the county mental health department, but located at a school. She found out this week that half of the coordinators are getting let go because of funding cuts, and we get to hope that she keeps her job since she’s still undergoing cancer treatment.
November 30, 2025 at 12:19 AM
Well that’s it, we just heard Last Christmas.
a person standing on top of a wooden fence covered in snow
ALT: a person standing on top of a wooden fence covered in snow
media.tenor.com
November 30, 2025 at 12:15 AM
Reposted by Gretchen
Google DeepMind has been testing AI tutorbots in English classrooms and suggesting they help teachers outperform "human-only" teachers. So now big commercial tech companies are modifying schools into live testing sites for their marketable products. >> www.businesswire.com/news/home/20...
www.businesswire.com
November 29, 2025 at 10:35 PM
Reposted by Gretchen
What's left of the Dept of Ed de-professionalizes all the helping professions. @nancyebailey.bsky.social has a fine analysis of why this happened, and how it will impact life in America: nancyebailey.com/2025/11/26/t...
The Elimination of the Professional Status of America’s Helpers! - Nancy Bailey's Education Website
On this Thanksgiving, please remember the professionals who lift us throughout our lives. The helpers in the caring professions, nurses, teachers, counselors, speech-language pathologists, and many ot...
nancyebailey.com
November 29, 2025 at 3:53 PM
Reposted by Gretchen
A brief bluetorial about VAERS (Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System)

Self-reported data about adverse effects occurring contemporaneously with vaccinations are useful but have many limitations
a cartoon says hey everybody an old man 's talking while bart simpson looks on
ALT: a cartoon says hey everybody an old man 's talking while bart simpson looks on
media.tenor.com
September 12, 2025 at 8:43 PM
Reposted by Gretchen
Did you know that Benitoite is the California state gem? Benitoite can occur in rich blue crystals that are as striking and flawless as the finest sapphires. Gem quality benitoite is found only in a small area of San Benito County, California. 🧪 ⚒️

www.conservation.ca.gov/cgs/Document...
November 29, 2025 at 3:58 PM
Reposted by Gretchen
Lindsey Graham sponsored the Afghan Adjustment Act: “This is the right thing to do. The people who were there with us in the fight who are here in America need to stay. This will be their new home. We have a moral obligation to these people and they will make great citizens.”
November 29, 2025 at 1:24 AM
We’re in trouble:
An issue we're seeing at all levels of university is that many students are simply refusing to do *anything*. They aren't reading the syllabus, aren't following assignment guidelines, aren't engaging with material, ignoring deadlines. And this might seem like old news, but it truly has ramped up.
November 29, 2025 at 2:11 AM
Since there’s a bunch of scientists here, what is going on with our backyard? There’s some sort of slime growing in one small section section of the yard, that mostly just has bark in it.
November 29, 2025 at 2:08 AM
Introduce yourself with 5 animals you have seen in the wild:

Hippo
Cougar
Mountain Goat
Chimpanzee
Manta Ray
Introduce yourself with 5 animals you have seen in the wild

Wolf
Moose
Pine marten
Elk
Cougar
Introduce yourself with 5 animals you have seen in the wild

Fox
Coyote
Red-tailed hawk
Wild turkey (strutting with his tail feathers fanned out, even)
Box turtle
November 29, 2025 at 12:22 AM
I realized at my extended family Thanksgiving that we are an extreme inverted triangle. There were 5 kids running around - one of them being my daughter. We’re in trouble- who is going to take care of all of us?
November 28, 2025 at 4:35 AM
Reposted by Gretchen
Happy Chompsgiving!
November 27, 2025 at 6:22 PM
Reposted by Gretchen
As you’re preparing for your Thanksgiving meal, remember the skilled work it took to get that food to your grocery store.

Tell us your favorite Thanksgiving dish, and we can share some of what we know about the work behind the ingredients.
November 26, 2025 at 6:03 PM
This means home.
November 27, 2025 at 2:16 PM
Reposted by Gretchen
Humans are about 10 million times larger than viruses, yet they kill us regularly.

We can’t see them. We can’t outrun them. We can’t destroy them with our guns.

And yet we continue to disrespect them.

Vaccinate.
November 24, 2025 at 3:38 PM