The Spark Creativity Teacher Podcast | ELA
Betsy Potash: 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!
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!
Episodes
Mentioned books
Sep 26, 2018 • 45min
049: Get Creative with Google Classroom, with Matt Miller
In this episode of The Spark Creativity Teacher Podcast, learn how to leverage Google Classroom to create more creative, more organized lessons, and to make your feedback process faster and more effective. Matt Miller brings a wealth of expertise and experience to this conversation, so get ready to dive deep with how Google Classroom can help ELA teachers with their workflow and lesson 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!
Sep 19, 2018 • 15min
048: Reading Program Accountability that doesn't Ruin Everything
Keeping students accountable to some expectations while helping them fall in love with reading is not easy! I know you know. Reading logs or book reports are not the way to go. But that doesn't mean you're not allowed to check in with your ELA classes about their reading at all. After all, you want to hear about what they're taking away from their books so you can help them if they need you. In this show, discover four creative ways to check in with your readers in a way that won't make you feel like the book police. 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 6, 2018 • 32min
047: The Power of the Writing Makerspace, with Angela Stockman
Guiding students in using maker elements to build their arguments and ideas leads to greater complexity in their thinking and writing. Plus, it helps overcome writer's block! Their are sooo many ways to incorporate the writing makerspace in your writing curriculum, and Angela Stockman is here to help you get started! Get ready for more engagement and enthusiasm for writing in your ELA classes. 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 23, 2018 • 40min
046: Sketchnotes are Awesome, with Mike Rohde
Heard the buzz about sketchnote? Wondering how to incorporate this powerful strategy in your ELA classroom? Fabulous! Sketchnotes can help your students use their critical thinking as they listen to lecture, tune into podcasts, watch Ted Talks, and read or listen to books. They'll be more likely to remember the information they sketchnote, and the process is more fun than rote note-taking. In this episode, find out what sketchnotes are and why they matter to your ELA classroom as I interview Mike Rohde, the creator of sketchnotes. 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 16, 2018 • 26min
045: Classroom Memes and Interactive Notebooks
Do your students love memes? Want to learn more about the popular strategy, interactive notebooks? Wish you understood YA just a bit better? In this episode, I'm chatting with Tracee Orman about some of her favorite classroom strategies, and we'll be hitting on all of these fun ELA topics! Discover how to use memes to help your students connect to literature, when and why to use interactive notebooks, and the true power of YA fiction. 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 9, 2018 • 17min
044: 25 Creative ELA Assessments for Any Novel (Whoa)
Looking for more creative assessment options at the end of your novel units in ELA? Good for you! Goodbye multiple choice tests, hello engaging final English projects! Discover twenty-five new ideas in this episode, plus the secret sauce to keep them meaningful in terms of analysis. 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 25, 2018 • 19min
043: Tips for New English Teachers, with Kristy Avis
Are you in your first year or two? There's sooooo much happening! I remember it well, working until 11 pm and then getting up at 6 to do it again. Phew. It does get easier! But there are also some things you can do now to help make your first year smoother. In this episode Kristy Avis, the blogger behind 2 Peas and a Dog, shares specific ideas to help new ELA teachers make their first year more positive, effective, and fulfilling. 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 12, 2018 • 9min
042: My FAVORITE Theater Project (for any play)
When I took Shakespeare in college, my legendary professor Martha Andresen had us perform A Midsummer Night's Dream on campus. We split into groups, worked on our scenes all term long, and then performed them in order in various locations around campus. It was one of the most memorable projects I ever participated in, and you better believe I put it right into practice as a teacher! In this episode, I'll walk you through a few easy steps to split any play into key scenes and then have students perform them in a special showcase on the final day of your unit. You're going to love this great theater project! 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!
Jun 26, 2018 • 29min
041: Teacher Mindset & Happiness with Angela Watson
If you're feeling overwhelmed in your teaching life, and you'd like guidance with how to adjust your mindset, routines and goals to feel happier in the profession, this interview with Angela Watson will help you find your way. 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!
Jun 14, 2018 • 21min
040: Building a Creative Classroom Space
Planning the layout and components of your ELA classroom? It's so fun, right? But it can also be a bit intimidating. These days I wish I could have my first classroom to design all over again, because I did not know about all the amazing possibilities! My seating was not flexible, my bulletin boards were not layered, and the special fonts I used for my posters came from a CD Rom, not Canva. There are so many wonderful ways to create opportunities for creativity throughout the year through the way that you set up your space. Today on the podcast, get ideas for what to put inside your ELA classroom space to make it a great place to work and learn, for your students AND for you! 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!
