The Spark Creativity Teacher Podcast | ELA
Want to love walking into your ELA classroom each day? Excited about innovative strategies like PBL, escape rooms, hexagonal thinking, sketchnotes, one-pagers, student podcasting, genius hour, and more? Want a thriving choice reading program and a shelf full of compelling diverse texts?
You're in the right place!
Here you'll find interviews with top authors from the ELA field, workshops with strategies you can use in class immediately, and quick tips to ignite your English teacher creativity.
Love teaching poetry? Explore blackout poems, book spine poems, I am from poems, performance poetry, lessons for contemporary poets, and more.
Excited to get started with hexagonal thinking? Find out how to build your first deck of hexagons, guide your students through their first discussion, and even expand into hexagonal one-pagers.
Into visual learning? Me too! Learn about sketchnotes, one-pagers, and the writing makerspace.
Want to get your students podcasting? Get the top technology recs you need to make it happen, and find out what tips a podcaster would give to students starting out.
Wish your students would fall for choice reading? Explore top titles and how to fund them, learn to make your library more appealing, and find out how to be a top P.R. agent for books in your classroom.
In it for the interviews? Fabulous! Find out about project-based-learning, innovative school design, what really helps kids learn deeply, design thinking, how to choose diverse texts, when to scaffold sketchnotes lessons, building your first writing makerspace, cultivating writer's notebooks, getting started with genius hour, and so much more, from our wonderful guests.
Here at The Spark Creativity Teacher Podcast, discover you're not alone as a creative English teacher. You're part of a vast community welcoming students to their next escape room, rolling out contemporary poetry and reading aloud on First Chapter Fridays, engaging kids with social media projects and real-world ELA units.
As your host (hi, I'm Betsy), I'm here to help you ENJOY your days at school and feel inspired by all the creative ways to teach both contemporary works and the classics your school may be pushing. I taught ELA at the 9th, 10th, 11th, and 12th grade levels both in the United States and overseas for almost a decade, and I didn't always get support for my creativity. Now I'm here to make sure YOU get the creative support you deserve, and it brings me so much joy.
Welcome to The Spark Creativity Teacher Podcast, a podcast for English teachers in search of creative teaching strategies!
Latest episodes
Sep 29, 2020 • 22min
105: How to Creatively use T.V. Clips in ELA
Want to use T.V. clips as one of your options to inspire rigorous, creative activities in your ELA classes? Listen in to these wonderful clip/project pairings from Danielle at Nouvelle ELA. 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!
Sep 15, 2020 • 12min
104: Create a Hyperdoc in 6 Easy Steps
Hyperdocs are an easy answer to how to keep all students on track during blended learning. In this episode, learn how to create a hyperdoc for your unit in six easy steps. All you need is a Google Slide and a little creativity, and you're ready to rock and roll! 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!
Sep 1, 2020 • 17min
103: Off Screen Activities for Remote Learning in ELA
Trying to give your distance learners some screen breaks? Here are some ideas to help ELA students do productive work away from the glow. In the rush to embrace all the (wonderful!) new technology, let's not forget that real books, pens, and paper can still be creative tools to help kids grow while protecting their eyes and brains from too much screen time. 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!
Aug 20, 2020 • 13min
102: Taking your Literary Food Truck Festival Digital
Take your Literary Food Truck Festival online with the easy steps and free curriculum in this post and podcast from Spark Creativity. 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!
Aug 19, 2020 • 19min
101: How to Run Online Literature Circles in ELA
Do you love literature circles but worry they can't translate to a blended or virtual classroom? In this episode, find out how to bring them online. This is the second in this week's Back-to-School Blended series. 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!
Aug 18, 2020 • 16min
100: How to Run a Virtual First Chapter Friday
Want to get started with a First Chapter Friday program, but not sure how to do it with blended learning? Don't worry, this episode will show you how! Happy 100th episode! This is the first in a three-episode series called "Back-to-School Blended" coming out this week. Today it's virtual first chapter Friday, tomorrow it's virtual literature circles, and Thursday we'll dive into virtual literary food truck festivals. You can find the show notes here: http://www.nowsparkcreativity.com/2020/08/how-to-run-virtual-first-chapter-friday.html 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!
Aug 4, 2020 • 40min
099: How to Get your Students listening to Podcasts, with Ashley Bible
Podcasts are an easy, accessible, (FREE) and hands-free text option for students during blended learning. In this episode of The Spark Creativity Teacher Podcast, find out how to build a podcast unit, great podcast episode options for your ELA students, platforms to discuss podcasts together online, and more. We're talking with Ashley Bible from Building Book Love. 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!
Jul 23, 2020 • 24min
098: 5 Flexible ELA Unit Ideas
Wondering how to flip your classroom so you can teach two separate groups of kids in person and online? In this episode, discover five flexible ELA unit ideas that require no texts, and how to teach them to your in-person and at-home groups at the same time. 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!
Jul 21, 2020 • 22min
097: A Flexible Plan for Blended Learning in the English Classroom
As you plan for blended learning and shifting scenarios this fall, a flexible approach will allow you to be prepared without being attached to any certain schedule. Let me show you how to do it in your ELA classroom! In this episode, we're looking at four creative principles for flexibly planning your blended learning for English class and then taking a look at how to apply these ideas to a range of possible scenarios. Get ready to finally feel confident about your planning! 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!
Jul 7, 2020 • 31min
096: Summer Priorities in the Face of Fall Uncertainties, with Angela Watson
Teacher planning is hard this year with all the uncertainties of fall. Will you be remote teaching? Orchestrating blended learning? Both? In this podcast interview with Angela Watson, teacher productivity and mindset expert, discover strategies for using summer to reset, regroup, and plan for fall despite the uncertainties. 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!
