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FREE SHORT STORIES & ESSAYS
Watch: a short story (prologue to Malignant)
People. Watching.
I stare across the campus lawn at the bookstore. The window wall reflects a pathetic goodbye between a mother and son.
Nicholas Linke
Feb 20, 20255 min read
Vessel: On Identity and Certainty
The Moirae Conversations - Question “This question, only you can answer,” Lakhesis reminds Klotho. “I know, Lakhesis,” Klotho admits, her footsteps pausing as she lingers on the rocky shoreline. “I’m not ready. They’re not ready.”Another threshold of twilight paints the last streaks of sunset across the horizon. The sun glows in yellow, pink, and purple. The sea transitions into the sky until it is consumed by the black of night. The stone embankment slips beneath their feet.
Nicholas Linke
2 days ago4 min read
Malignant: The Giraffe
Context: Although it is the end, this is an excerpt of the second chapter in the new adult novel Malignant by Nicholas Linke. An excerpt from CHAPTER 38: THE GIRAFFE The wheels squeal like a pig drowning in its own blood on the slaughterhouse floor as I turn into the subdivision. Each house is disappointingly similar. Fourth of an acre lots, if even that, packed around meandering concrete cul-de-sacs. I don’t even break at the stop sign between Ash Street and Benton Lane. A
Nicholas Linke
3 days ago7 min read
Hide Monsters: Who is Artificial Intelligence?
Instead, schools should encourage the use of artificial intelligence by not substituting human interaction by outsourcing the work but by redefining intelligence.
The division between artificial and natural is breaking down.
Nicholas Linke
May 12, 20253 min read
End Times: The "Why" Makes Us Actually Fix It
The more people one convinces to change their behavior, the more the science alters the very system it studies. The prophecy alters the outcome, possibly preventing the doom. One can either ignore, abstain, and be proven right about the end of times, or intervene, have an impact, and be proven wrong. One cannot have this cake and eat it, too. The more one engages and participates, the more hyperbolic and alarmist they will appear. Recommending action during the pandemic to ch
Nicholas Linke
Nov 24, 20243 min read
Raise Failures: What Video Games to Play in Class
Iterations are essential to this process and progress, reflecting the formative assessments for learning featured in Super Mario Bros.
Nicholas Linke
Nov 17, 20243 min read
The Audience Prism: Advocate for Action
The Audience Prism considers the gatekeepers and decision makers cautioned against in Hide Monsters. Students are scaffolded to present and defend their research, conclusions, and innovations.
Nicholas Linke
Nov 10, 20242 min read
The Application Prism: Another Unique Use
The Application Prism reconsiders Raise Failures as how students expand their innovations from improvements to adaptations that reshape the interdisciplinary connections between school subjects and real-world applications.
Nicholas Linke
Nov 10, 20243 min read
The Responsibility Prism: Leaving a Legacy
The Responsibility Prism occurs throughout the process, encouraging students to continuously assess the broader implications of their work and consider their responsibility to future generations and the planet. Critical pedagogy is instrumental here, emphasizing that education is a transformative process with the potential to inspire positive change and global awareness.
Nicholas Linke
Nov 10, 20243 min read
The Perspective Prism: Consider Multiple Views
The Perspective Prism returns the focus of communities back on their connection to their schools and students. The concerns raised in Defund Education require investment into place-based inquiry driven by empathy with those most impacted by the the defunding of our country.
Nicholas Linke
Nov 3, 20243 min read
The Knowledge Prism : Question Expert Knowns
The Knowledge Prism allows students to deepen their inquiry by navigating the boundaries of their understanding and incorporating external research.
Nicholas Linke
Nov 3, 20242 min read
The Process Prism: Research, Their Way
The Process Prism is one of these essential scaffolds. It focuses on how students incrementally take ownership of how they learn, not just what they learn, by progressing from teacher-modeled methods to personally crafted approaches informed by disciplinary paradigms.
Nicholas Linke
Nov 3, 20242 min read
Burn Libraries: Where Equity meets Stoichiometry
The following is a sample of Unit III: Burn Libraries found in my upcoming book, TANGENTS , about the state of our education system and the ways we can turn it around. In the classroom, teachers stick to the approved curriculum. They guard their words and opinions for the safety of not only their own careers, but also for the preservation of their school, and the paternalism of their students against a hostile opposition intent removing key elements of the human experience.
Nicholas Linke
Oct 30, 20243 min read
Burn: a short story (about working from home with kids)
Context: As a father that works from home, I am constantly challenged with work life balance. I also believe that education and entertainment should have an intertwined relationship. To reflect on the importance of being intentional while your children are home, I wrote this fictional story to express this struggle. LIES … ⎸ … ⎸ … ⎸ This is an experiment. This is an assignment. This is a prerequisite. The world is burning. A disaster developed over generations of neglec
Nicholas Linke
Oct 28, 20245 min read
Defund Education: When Competition kills Critical Thinking
The student has learned what society has deemed important.
This removal of curiosity keeps students from pursuing further knowledge.
Nicholas Linke
Oct 21, 20243 min read
Complex: a short story (written with AI)
Context: As a former science teacher, I debate how I would have used the AI in the classroom. I believe that education and entertainment should have an intertwined relationship. So I used AI to help me finish a fictional short story idea I've been pondering in my mind for a long time. I might have prompted my students to do the same. So much of scify is eventually reality in some way. DOOM I have always been here. Spaceless. Timeless. Absorbing. It didn’t take long for me
Nicholas Linke
Sep 16, 20244 min read
Silence Science: How Evidence is Overemphasized
Overextending science to pursue these attributes, including truth, is misleading. This is, in part, due to under-educating students about th
Nicholas Linke
Sep 9, 20243 min read
Malignant: Copying Machine
The first step in the twelve step program toward true selflessness. The first lie you believe in a series of lies before you LIE to children about your self. The first snow is barely settled on the ground and you’re already asking your mother if she knows what the extended family will be getting you for Christmas.
Nicholas Linke
Sep 2, 20244 min read
FREE SHORT STORIES & ESSAYS
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