The Spark Creativity Teacher Podcast | ELA

This week on Highly Recommended  I’m sharing a rather unusual strategy to help you create connection among your faculty.   Unless you've already found that magic teacher down the hall who turns into your best friend, teaching can feel pretty lonely, even though you’re surrounded by so many people all the time. Finding community among the adults at your school isn’t easy, especially with everyone juggling a ton of professional commitments with busy home lives.   In this short Thursday podcast, discover a simple - and maybe surprising - strategy for finding community with your peers down the hall. It all started when my fiance and I invited everyone who worked at our school over to play cards and eat popcorn. You might be surprised by what happened next.   Go Further:    Explore alllll the Episodes of The Spark Creativity Teacher Podcast. Join our community, Creative High School English, on Facebook. Come hang out on Instagram.  Enjoying the podcast? Please consider sharing it with a friend, snagging a screenshot to share on the ‘gram, or tapping those ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ to help others discover the show. Thank you!  

Celebrate AAPI month in your ELA classroom with a bright display I made for you, featuring bios and QR code links to the work of ten AAPI creators.  In this episode, discover easy ways to use the display for classroom activities in this busy month, as well as learning more about some of the authors and creators featured, like: Ken Liu Amy Tan Malala Yousafzai George Takei Gene Luen Yang SEE THE DISPLAY (and get your free copy of the display) Go Further:  Explore alllll the Episodes of The Spark Creativity Teacher Podcast. Join our community, Creative High School English, on Facebook. Come hang out on Instagram.  Enjoying the podcast? Please consider sharing it with a friend, snagging a screenshot to share on the ‘gram, or tapping those ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ to help others discover the show. Thank you! 

This week on Highly Recommended  I’m sharing one of my favorite strategies for saving time AND adding quality to daily work tasks. Doesn’t seem possible, right? Have you heard of decision fatigue? We make thousands of decisions every day, and it gets harder to make good ones as they stack up. That’s one good reason for having a set wardrobe you like - Steve Jobs-style - or always making tacos on Tuesdays. It’s also a great reason to use templates in your work. They save time and they cut the number of decisions you have to make in a busy school day. Plus, when you start the daily tasks you usually have to churn out in a hurry with a well-crafted template, you actually create higher quality work. In today’s episode, we’re talking about how to use templates for tasks like: Vocab Quizzes Handout design Emails  Rubrics And much more… As you make ANYTHING, think of how you can use it again with a simple tweak.   Go Further:  Explore alllll the Episodes of The Spark Creativity Teacher Podcast. Join our community, Creative High School English, on Facebook. Come hang out on Instagram.  Enjoying the podcast? Please consider sharing it with a friend, snagging a screenshot to share on the ‘gram, or tapping those ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ to help others discover the show. Thank you!

You've probably seen me amplifying Amplifier already this year, in the episode about featuring contemporary Indigenous voices in your ELA classroom or the one about spotlighting Black artists, activists and authors in your ELA classrooom. Amplifier.org is doing such powerful things with art. Empowering things. And I love it! That's why when I saw their new interactive poster series on wellbeing and mental health, I just had to put a big spotlight on it. Because this is a resource you can use RIGHT NOW, and it's completely free to download. So today join me for a conversation with Emily Goulding, executive director of Amplifier.org, about Amplifier's mission in the world and how it can help educators reach their students. We're talking about... why Amplifier exists how it uses art to spark conversation and provide inspiration how the new wellbeing series that Amplifier has created can make a difference in your classroom through the simple act of downloading their free poster set Connect with Amplifier Visit the Education Amplifier site here and sign up to be part of their educator community. Explore the Amplifier lesson plan bank. Go Further:  Explore alllll the Episodes of The Spark Creativity Teacher Podcast. Join our community, Creative High School English, on Facebook. Come hang out on Instagram.  Enjoying the podcast? Please consider sharing it with a friend, snagging a screenshot to share on the ‘gram, or tapping those ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ to help others discover the show. Thank you!   

This week on Highly Recommended  I’m sharing one of my favorite sources for writing prompts, Dr. John Spencer’s video writing prompts channel. Personally, I love his short, impactful videos for educators as well as for students. I like how they get to the point in three or four minutes, and how they incorporate sketchnotes - one of my favorite things - to help us as viewers to visualize the most important ideas John shares. The video prompts are organized into four categories, making it super easy to find the kind of writing you want your students to do. You can choose from creative thinking prompts, story prompts, persuasive prompts, and informational text prompts.  To give you an idea of what’s there, here are a few example titles: “You are a Real-Estate Agent for Magical Homes”  “Should Schools Ban Junk Food” “What are 5 Things you Want your Teacher to Know” “Create a Map of Your Life” You could easily make these prompts into a regular class activity this month or build them into one of your writing units. I also think any one of them could become the basis of a much larger project than a quick write. Go Further:  Explore alllll the Episodes of The Spark Creativity Teacher Podcast. Join our community, Creative High School English, on Facebook. Come hang out on Instagram.  Enjoying the podcast? Please consider sharing it with a friend, snagging a screenshot to share on the ‘gram, or tapping those ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ to help others discover the show. Thank you!  

Thinking about a trip overseas to Europe someday? Or in the mood for a little armchair travel?  OR, maybe you're thinking about teaching abroad, and you're curious about the travel part of living in a new place... I've been getting some fun requests for tips about travel to this region of Europe where I live now, and they make me so happy! I love sharing about the beautiful places we've been lucky to visit since moving to Bratislava, and since I've been listening to travel podcasts for the last fifteen years, I just can't resist the chance to try it for myself, just this once. So today we're deviating a bit from our usual focus on creative teaching. Because sometimes travel helps recharge creative teacher batteries! Plus, if you love travel, you can build it into your curriculum with a virtual travel research project, so really, this episode can count as curriculum research... right? Eastern Europe might seem - from a distance - to be somehow stuck in a gray post-Communist cloud, but boy-oh-boy, the part that I'm in sure isn't! So come with me today on a little tour of my family's favorite spots in this part of the world. And I hope someday they become some of your favorites too.  Areas we'll explore:  Prague (an amazing mix of old world and whimsical modernity) Budapest (my top recommendation for Christmas-y travel) Northwest Slovenia (my husband's dream destination) and Croatia (where I would love to live someday) Go Further:  Explore alllll the Episodes of The Spark Creativity Teacher Podcast. Join our community, Creative High School English, on Facebook. Come hang out on Instagram. Enjoying the podcast? Please consider sharing it with a friend, snagging a screenshot to share on the ‘gram, or tapping those ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ to help others discover the show. Thank you! 

This week on Highly Recommended  I’m sharing a hilarious podcast episode you can use from Smash Boom Best titled “Baths vs. Showers.”  I discovered Smash Boom Best this year while I was on the hunt for great class podcasts. It’s a debate show, in which two guests come on and argue for their side of an argument topic suggested by kids. I’ve listened to shows on Dogs vs. Cats, Trick-or-Treating vs. Birthday Parties, Kung Fu vs. Tap Dancing, and Books vs. Movies. They’re pretty much all hilarious.  A student calls in as judge, and awards points in each round of argument, and you and your students can do the same. The first round is really well produced, with the debater using music, sound effects, and stories to complement their research and facts. It’s called the “Statement of Greatness.” The next round is something funny, like they have to imagine explaining their topic to aliens or making a movie trailer for their topic. The last main round is a sneak attack, where the contestants have to come up with some kind of specific pitch on the spot, like showing how great their topic is through words that rhyme with it.  I’m sure your mind is already spinning with ways you could use this show to help kids practice argument and have fun debates.  There are so many good episodes, but, as the student judge put it, the “fear-mongering” in the shower statement of greatness was incredibly effective (and sooooo funny). Listen in to find out why my family had serious trouble deciding who would win, and why your students will probably get a big kick out of this show. Go Further:  Explore alllll the Episodes of The Spark Creativity Teacher Podcast. Join our community, Creative High School English, on Facebook. Come hang out on Instagram.    Enjoying the podcast? Please consider sharing it with a friend, snagging a screenshot to share on the ‘gram, or tapping those ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ to help others discover the show. Thank you!     

If you're currently seated dead center on the struggle bus, or your seniors are waving senioritis flags in your ELA classes, you're not alone. As summer beckons and the buildup of busy from the year weighs on you (and your students), the last six weeks can be a tricky time. I know you want to acknowledge that the end of the year is close, you want to do something a bit lighter and extra engaging, but you don't want to wag any flags of your own. Plus, you don't necessarily have the energy to invent a wheel and start riding it like an educational unicycle. Know what I mean? Today on the podcast, we're talking about unit and project ideas for the end of the year. Whether you need something to light up engagement for your students (and for you) for a week or for six, you'll find plenty of ideas. Plus, we'll get into why relationship building is still a key player in the buildup to the end. Basically there are going to be two key points - keep focusing on those relationships that can help sustain you and your students to the end, and teach something that you really enjoy, and that kids enjoy learning about! I've heard from so many teachers this week who feel their kids are checked out, their seniors are already in summer mode, and they themselves are exhausted. Go Further:  Explore alllll the Episodes of The Spark Creativity Teacher Podcast. Join our community, Creative High School English, on Facebook. Come hang out on Instagram.    Enjoying the podcast? Please consider sharing it with a friend, snagging a screenshot to share on the ‘gram, or tapping those ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ to help others discover the show. Thank you!   

Welcome to this week’s episode of the Highly Recommended Series. Every Thursday we take a quick look at something I think you’ll love. What will that something be? It might be a compelling book for your students, a power-packed activity to try ASAP, my favorite new episode of a podcast I think your class will love, a free resource you might have missed, or even a recipe for your next Monday night or a city here in Eastern Europe I want to share with you! This will be a fun, free-wheeling series that you can tune into with just a few minutes to spare.  This week we dive into a beautiful novel-in-verse, Starfish, by Lisa Phipps. This is a great one for the choice reading shelf in your ELA classroom or for middle grade novel-in-verse book clubs.  Check out Starfish at Bookshop.org.  Explore Alllll the Episodes of The Spark Creativity Teacher Podcast.  Join our community, Creative High School English, on Facebook.  Come hang out on Instagram.   

Looking for the "right" approach to AI in your English classroom? Find out how the New England Innovation Academy is working WITH students to design their approach, and how you can too.  Ben Farrell - our guest today- brings a wealth of experience working with students into our conversation. He’s been a dean, a head of school, an upper school director, and more, and in his current position at the New England Innovation Academy, he has the job of helping guide a program modeled on human centered design and thoughtful innovation. I’m excited for you to join us today to talk about how students feel about artificial intelligence, how we can work with them to design our approach to it, and why we can feel hopeful that artificial intelligence has the potential to bring more voices to the table in our world, not less. Visit the NEIA Website to explore Explore Alllll the Episodes of The Spark Creativity Teacher Podcast. Join our community, Creative High School English, on Facebook. Come hang out on Instagram.