The Writers' Realm

08/21/2026

You never know what ads will pop up while you're trying to watch an instructional video! 🤦‍♀️

This not only blocks ads but also makes the video full screen and automatically repeats when the video is done.

What other teacher tips do you have?

08/21/2026

08/21/2026

There are really no words to adequately describe my overwhelming feeling of gratitude and humility.. 🙌🏼🙌🏼🙌🏼🙌🏼🙌🏼🙌🏼🥹❣️❣️❣️ . I'll come back in a couple of days, when I stop shedding these tears of PURE JOY..

08/16/2026

The weekly session is called Klassens tid, or "The Class's Hour," and every class in the Folkeskole (ages 6 to 16) is required to hold one.

Regular lessons stop so students can talk through personal or group conflicts, practice listening, and work out problems together in a space where nobody's being graded. Some weeks they just relax and bond, and there's even a "class cake" tradition to go with it.

It isn't a lecture about feelings. Kids practice the skill the way they practice arithmetic, one hour at a time, written into the national curriculum since 1993.

The results show up in the numbers: roughly 6 to 7% of Danish 13-year-olds report being bullied a few times a month, among the lowest rates on the continent. Empathy gets treated as a core subject, not a nice extra.

08/16/2026

Arday was 41, and just last week he'd stepped down as Cambridge's professor of sociology of education, saying the "personal cost" of the scrutiny had become "too great." Police found a man unresponsive at an address in Battersea on Friday afternoon and say his death is being treated as unexpected but not suspicious.

His 2023 appointment at 37, as Cambridge's youngest ever Black professor, was celebrated as a landmark. Only 1 percent of professors at UK universities are Black. He earned his PhD and rose through Durham, Glasgow, and Cambridge.

The row began when Nathan Cofnas, a self-described "race realist" who was sacked from his own Cambridge role in 2024, said he found instances of plagiarism in Arday's work. Arday denied plagiarism but admitted errors, saying some traced to his autism and his reliance on mimicry to process information. "I didn't murder somebody," he told the Times this month. "I think the cruelty that I've experienced and the positioning of me as this kind of liar and fantasist is totally unacceptable."

Liverpool John Moores University, which awarded his PhD in 2015, concluded he had not plagiarised. Cambridge had announced an independent review of his appointment days before his death.

Friend and fellow academic Kehinde Andrews told BBC Newsnight that Arday was "very down" after resigning, had stopped leaving the house, and had lost a lot of weight. Jolyon Maugham of the Good Law Project called the death "a tragedy" and asked "what the public interest was in continuing to hound him after he resigned."

Arday's memoir, Great And Unfortunate Things, was released in the US earlier this week and had been set for UK publication on August 27. Last weekend, he cancelled an event promoting it.

08/15/2026

A woman named Michelle Verdayo had come to the Providence Municipal Court to answer for four red light violations. She brought her 12-year-old son Arion, who is on the autism spectrum and has ADHD. Arion introduced himself the moment they arrived.

“I am Arion. A-R-I-O-N. I am 12 years old, I’m in the seventh grade.”

Judge Frank Caprio, already won over, asked what Arion wanted to do after school. The boy said he was still deciding, but that he definitely wanted to be successful. “It’s hard to decide,” he told the judge in a clip you can watch below. “When you’re at that age, you don’t know what you wanna do. At some points you wanna do what you wanna do but you don’t want to disappoint your family in any way.” Caprio looked at him for a moment. “You are speaking with the maturity of an adult,” he said.

Then they pulled up the footage.

As Caprio walked through each violation, Arion watched alongside his mom, offering live commentary. Some of the red lights, he allowed, seemed fairly minor. Then came the clip of his mom nearly hitting another car. Arion gasped. “How dare you!?” The courtroom broke.

“You think you know your mom,” he said, shaking his head, “and she goes out and blatantly does that.”

Caprio turned to Michelle with a grin. “You are being chastised right now, and rightfully so. You’ve got a great kid.”

When Caprio asked about Arion’s autism, Michelle was candid. It had been hard, she said, especially with his father out of the picture. As she spoke, Arion stepped in, not to deflect but to reframe it entirely. He told Caprio that despite being teased, he had never seen his diagnosis as a problem.

“I’m proud to have my autism because it makes me who I am now.”

Caprio paused. “I am so impressed.”

He invited Arion up to the bench, shook his hand, and asked for his verdict. The boy picked up the gavel, brought it down, and announced: “Case dismissed.”

08/15/2026

We need more teachers like this!

Kindergarten teacher Azel “Zel” Prather Jr. is making sure his students feel seen, loved, and celebrated.

Through his “Holiday Hook-up” self-care day, Zel brought together hairstylists, barbers, nail techs, and volunteers to pamper 40 kindergarten students at his Washington, D.C. school.

08/15/2026

08/15/2026

Development follows a sequence, not a schedule.