Adrian's Top Five
Five of my favorite pieces from 2025
The final week of a year is always full of year-end lists. Whether movies, music, television shows, books, or politics, everyone loves rank-ordering the past year. One of the reasons I started Adrian’s Top Five is because I, too, love making lists of all kinds: grocery lists, playlists, To Do lists, etc. As I write this, I am seated at my desk surrounded by bullet-pointed lists on index cards. I especially love Top Five lists. It’s probably due to my affinity for John Cusack as a music fanatic, Rob Gordon in High Fidelity, creating Top Five musical lists that always generate argument/conversation.
I have now been writing Adrian’s Newsletter for two-and-a-half years. And while I make an Adrian’s Top Five list every month, this is the first time I have dug through my archives to pick out some my favorite posts from the year. So, now that we are five days into 2026, allow me to share five of my favorite pieces I have written in 20251.
5. Dear White Educators
One of my favorite reads from 2025 is From White Folks Who Teach in the Hood edited by Dr. Christopher Emdin and sam seidel. It is a collection of essays written by white teachers about their experiences teaching neo-indigenous students in urban schools. As I read each essay, I listened to the corresponding episode on their podcast. At the end of each episode, Emdin or seidel asks their participants to freestyle a love letter to white educators with their thoughts, wishes, or what they want them to know. The only rule is that they speak from their heart, off the cuff, and begin their letter, Dear White Educators… I decided to write my own letter. I kept the process spontaneous, writing stream of thought in one sitting. The result is a very raw and passionate love letter to my fellow white educators working in public schools with students of color.
4. Finding a Path Instead of Forging the Road
I wrote Finding a Path Instead of Forging the Road, upon returning from winter break last year. During my two weeks off, I read Wendell Berry while listening to my father-in-law’s great, great, grandfather’s clock tick. This pace suits me. I enjoy sleeping in, having slow mornings with nowhere to rush off to, drinking tea, and reading books. Returning to school in January is a jolt because the pace is the complete opposite. Writing this piece, I wrestled with the question, Is it possible to disrupt this hurried cycle and find a path toward a slower and more thoughtful pace? A year later, I still try to disrupt the workday frenzy and wander with deliberation, not follow the pacing guide.
3. An Open Letter to My Son
2025 was a big year for me personally. My oldest son graduated from high school and joined the Marine Corps. This letter came from a place of parent grief, as I said goodbye to my son and watched him enter the very grown-up world of the Marines. This letter is probably my most personal and vulnerable piece. Annie Dillard says,
One of the few things I know about writing is this: spend it all, shoot it, play it, lose it, all, right away, every time.
That’s what I did. I gave my son whatever meager advice I have accumulated in my 45 years. I wrote the letter not knowing what would be on the other side of bootcamp: would my son be a different person? Probably. How different?
He has since graduated and is now training for his Marines Occupational Specialty (MOS). I am grateful to have been able to spend a couple of weeks with him in between Christmas and New Year’s discussing his experiences in boot camp and my experiences with toxic masculinity.
2. The Sanctity of Literacy
I have always had a love-hate relationship with reading. Not until my own children were diagnosed in elementary school, did I learn that I was dyslexic. Growing up, reading was a non-event; I never saw my parents read. I am sure they did read, but reading as sacrosanct, did not exist in my family. It was not until I met my late father-in-law, Mike, did I experience the magic and sanctity of reading. Since then, I have been trying to make up for lost time, reading as much as I can. Once I became a teacher, I felt a responsibility to pass on this magic to my students. For over 20 years, I have worked to give my students opportunities to engage with literature. So, when Marcus Luther asked me my thoughts on the Science of Reading, a floodgate opened. I make no claims to be a literary scholar or literacy expert. I take serious my responsibility to protect the humanities so that my students can cultivate a sacred literacy practice of their own. I wrote this piece to address the American literacy crisis in a way I feel is more sustainable than High-Quality Instructional Materials.
1. The Redress of Teaching
When I first read Seamus Heaney’s quote in The Redress of Poetry, I immediately knew I had to write something about the paradox present for both poets and teachers.
The poet who would be most the poet has to attempt an act of writing that outstrips the conditions even as it observes them.
I had already explored the convergence of roles between poets and teachers in a piece titled, The Poet and the Teacher, asking What would a classroom look like if it was created as a poetic space instead of a standardized learning space? I love reading and writing poetry, and so I am always thinking about how I can view life through a poetic lens. Heaney’s quote pushed me to acknowledge that in order to create a classroom learning environment as a poetic space, teachers need to simultaneously live and work in reality while transcending it in service to their students. The great poets observe the conditions of their reality and re-imagine them to create "fully realized poetry." Great teachers do the same to create fully human classrooms.
As a teacher, I am continually trying to counterbalance the pressures to standardize my pedagogical practice and homogenize my classroom experiences in the name of higher test scores. I enjoyed writing this piece, but more importantly, I needed to write this piece because I had to better understand the battleground of public education in 2025. Heaney believes that poetry is a redress of the world’s imbalances. I am trying to redress the current state of teaching and learning in public schools.
What were some of your favorite pieces I wrote in 2025? I’d love to hear from you about what moved you, inspired you, or helped you out throughout the year. I hope to write a lot more in the upcoming year!
Have a great week! Here’s to a hopeful and more human 2026!
— Adrian
Resources
As a kid, I always wondered how Billboard determines its year-end chart. Growing up in the 80s and 90s, the Billboard charts was the definitive ranking of the year’s music. While this video is a few years old, I love learning about how the ranking is determined. If, like me, you always jump to the Number 1, here is a list of every Hot 100 Year-End Number 1 Song (going all the way back to 1958).
All the Top Five Lists from High Fidelity
Just in case you were interested in some pretty incredible Top Five lists.
Austin Kleon has been sharing his Friday “10 things worth sharing” newsletter since 2013. It is my favorite thing to read every week. If you don’t already subscribe, hurry up and type your email in the above Subscribe box!
At the end of every year, Kleon shares his 100 things that made my year. It is an incredible list with tons of great resources!
Tim Ferriss' “5-Bullet Friday”
Another weekly email that I enjoy is Tim Ferriss’ 5-Bullet Friday. Every Friday, he shares five cool things he has found during the week. Sometimes it includes books, gadgets, albums, articles, or new hacks/tricks he is experimenting with.
This site has tons of lists. Don’t agree with what you see? Sign up to create your own Top Ten list!
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Want some more of Adrian’s Top 5? Check out a few of my archived posts.
According to Substack, these are my top posts based on likes, comments, and restacks.