You want the last day of ELA to be special, but what does that mean exactly? And who has the energy to think up this special plan when you're juggling allll the end-of-year things? If you'd like a fast, easy solution to the last day of your ELA classes, today I'm proposing (ha ha, I just accidentally typed PROMposing) stations. Stations are an easy way to get whatever dots have to be dotted and Ts have to be crossed at the same time as you build in a few fun things and keep everything lively so the time flies. The goodbye speech can only last so long.  Grab the Summer Reading Bookmarks: https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/12waoiIk0gdYMVYZPM8DnU17_RgJZhLlFKofqy2oFjM4/copy  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! 

On this week’s mini-episode, let’s talk summer school. Because I know that if you ARE teaching summer school, you’d like it to be engaging. Memorable. Creative. Superfantasticaliciousexpialadocious. But of course there’s the issue of you’re tired. And so are your ELA students. And maybe they’re not that excited to be there.  So let’s run through two quick strategies for adding oomph and engagement to July. Here’s my top suggestion - change up your texts, and provide variety. Summer school is the perfect time to experiment in English class with graphic novels, novels-in-verse, podcasts, performance poetry, graphic essays, and contemporary pieces. Get audiobook access whenever you can. Connect kids to electronic books through your local library on Libby so they can translate when needed. Run book clubs, choice reading, mini-units on compelling quick reads.  Next, I want to suggest you try to provide real-world contexts for practicing the ELA skills you want students to develop. Develop units around blogging or podcasting, let them share research through infographics or Instagram-style carousels, dig into a Youtube unit and create video. Build your skill practice around the mediums you think are most likely to engage your students. You can teach argument through a video project in which kids recommend the best sneakers and hot chip brands. You can teach narrative through a suspense fiction podcast. You can practice rhetorical analysis by creating commercials for students’ favorite video games.  While summer school just doesn’t scream fun for most kids, this is your chance to kick that narrative in the teeth. Think of it as your innovative ELA learning lab, in which you and your students will approach the learning goals in new ways that YOU are excited about. It’s your chance to finally run those podcast clubs, teach that Youtube unit, and bring in that graphic novel you love. Free from the restrictions of the regular year, summer school is your chance to teach with your full creative self, and this week, I just want to highly recommend that you do! 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! 

As the sun rises a little earlier each day and the cherry trees in our neighborhood fill with fruit, our three years in Europe are coming to a close. With only a few weeks left of this European family adventure, I find myself thinking back over all that we've seen and done and learned. Highs like winter paddleboarding in Barcelona, nighttime tobaganning in Slovakia and hiking by herds of sheep along the south Coast of Wales together. Eating dark chocolate gelato with whipped cream in Rome and caramelized banana oatmeal in London. Watching Croatian fireworks explode above our balcony on New Year's Eve and Hungarian light shows at the Christmas markets in Budapest. Lows like croup in Nuremberg and COVID in Split, Scarlet Fever in Tuscany, a broken arm in Spain and a CAT scan in an Austrian emergency room. Lows of loneliness that could creep in unexpectedly, anxiety that could catch hold in that moment when I'd realize just how little backup was behind us if we hit a rough patch. So here we are, getting ready to say goodbye, and I just wanted to share a little of this life abroad. Maybe you're thinking of coming overseas yourself, or maybe you've tuned in a bit to our adventure, and you're interested to hear how the story ends. Today on the podcast, let's talk about the good stuff, the medium stuff, and the tough stuff. 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!   

Today I want to talk about a fantastic podcast for you to use in class if you teach Shakespeare. With dozens of intriguing episodes like "Shakespeare and Game of Thrones," "Shakespeare and YA Novels," and "Pop Sonnets," The Shakespeare Unlimited Podcast, by the Folger Shakespeare Library,  is a great way to bring in modern connections and relevancy to whatever play you're studying. Today I’ll give you a quick rundown on four fun episodes, and then I hope you’ll go exploring on your own to find more episodes that could help your students make connections between your chosen Shakespearean text and modern life.  In “Akala and Hip Hop Shakespeare,” Akala explores how the rhyme and rhythm of Shakespeare as well as the deep meaning  relates to the same components of hip hop. He talks about the traditions of music flowing out of Africa and into the diaspora, and also brings up questions of who education is for and how Shakespeare came to be associated with elite society.  In “Shakespeare and YA Novels,” two novelists talk about how they have used Shakespeare’s work to inspire their own, and how they felt connecting themselves to someone so renowned. In “William Shakespeare’s Star Wars,” one author  explains how and why he came to rewrite the Star Wars series in Shakespearean language. Bet you didn’t see that one coming!  And in “Pop Sonnets,” a popular online writer shares the story of how he came to rewrite pop songs as Shakespearean sonnets. And spoiler alert, they sure did become a sensation!  When integrating episodes like this into class, try giving students a sketchnotes template to provide a little loose structure as they listen. Let them know how you’ll be using the text moving forward, so they have a reason to pay attention. Maybe it’s going to lead into a writing activity, a silent discussion, or a mini-podcast project of your own!  Shakespeare can sometimes feel far away to students, but Shakespeare Unlimited helps bridge the gap. That’s why this week I want to highly recommend you hit follow on their feed and see what wonders you discover.  Links Mentioned: Explore the Shakespeare Unlimited Podcast: https://www.folger.edu/podcasts/shakespeare-unlimited/     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!   

Choice reading can sometimes feel like an out-of-reach dream. I recently heard from a busy teacher who wrote, "I love choice reading, but squeezing it in can be tough!" Yeah, I get that. There's so much going on in ELA. In today's episode, we're talking about how to squeeze more choice reading moments into your busy schedule. Even if you don't have time to hand over 10 minutes in class for reading regularly, you can still build your choice reading program with quick-and-easy additions like these. 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! 

Today I want to talk final exams, and specifically, one I’ve really enjoyed giving when I had the leeway to skip the sit-down exam. If you don’t have to involve any Scantron sheets in your final, you might love it too, so let’s dive in.  Maybe you’ve seen some of the great graduation speeches floating around the internet - maybe you even analyze some of them with your students when you’re teaching public speaking or rhetorical devices. I haven’t had time to dive in yet, but I hear good things about Jason Reynolds’ speech at Lesley University and Taylor Swift’s at NYU.  But for this project, the wisdom that will be on offer won’t come from celebrities. Nope, instead, your students will take the podium and give their own graduation speeches, based on the wisdom they can pull from what they’ve read in your class.  Have your students look back at your texts and themes  in the context of three out of the following four main ideas.   How literature helps people understand their own lives. How literature helps people understand the lives of others and empathize with other people. How literature makes it easier to understand history. How literature illuminates issues of morality. This little bit of structure makes it a lot easier to organize their final speech. What I love about this is that what we’re really asking them is: why do we read? Why did this class matter? For me, that’s a really important way to end the year, and I love hearing what they say.  I suggest you have your students present their speeches during the exam period. Meet outside somewhere, like the baseball bleachers, or reserve the library or a special room if you have that option. Then either have all the students read their speeches or divide into groups and have them read to their small groups. I like to give them a listening handout for this day, in which they nominate the best speeches and defend their nominations.  When it comes to exam time, I’m all for trying something that better reflects the goals of your course than a multiple choice exam. Whether it’s a graduation speech or something else, this week I just want to highly recommend that you reach out to your admin and request this option, if you don’t already have it!    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! 

Do your students think of the revision process as a combo of spellcheck and Grammarly? Tend to peer edit by scrawling a compliment and circling two sentences that are missing periods? Yeah, they're not alone. Honestly, I didn't really get the revision process as a student either. It sort of felt like I wrote the paper I was going to turn it in, then I'd "polish" it a little by fixing any tiny surface mistakes so I could turn it in. Students are busy people, juggling family, friends, sports, classes, jobs, the college admissions process, and a complicated world of digital social life that we probably only barely understand. So unless we can really spell out the revision process for them, they're likely to think the pretty good paper they felt they wrote in the first place is pretty good enough to turn in. That's why today on the podcast I'm going to offer you four blueprint options for helping them do better. Choose the one you love, or try all four. Before we get started, I want you to know that I’ll be running Camp Creative, The Easiest Roadmap to Student Podcasting, in June. Inside this (free) and fun PD, you’ll get access to the best models, easiest tech, and complete curriculum to get you and your students started with podcast projects. Everything arrives by email, so even if you’re busy the week of June 10-14, you can catch up whenever you get a chance. It just takes 10 minutes a day to go through the materials Links Mentioned: Snag your Copy of the Revision Challenge Cards:  https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/125AkbMNA_52WdNxbF2ryvc44UUOi5WOwkFF6CG45BvI/copy  Grab the Peer Editing Guides: https://nowsparkcreativity.com/2018/11/the-ela-teachers-quick-guide-to.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!     

Today I want to talk about a subject I’m sure you’ve thought a lot about - how much are you willing to do for your job? And what do you do when you’ve hit your wall? I want to start by taking you to the dusty steps of the duplex I shared during my first year of teaching. It’s dusk, and I’m crying. I recently won the award for excellence in new teaching at my school, receiving many hugs and congratulations, as well as a raise and kind compliments from my head of school. I should be feeling great, right? I had discovered so much that year in my quest to engage my 10th and 11th graders - how to run Harkness discussions, hold poetry slams, launch play performances, find the gold on the teaching shelves of the Los Angeles Public Library. I had given it everything, and truthfully it had given me a lot back. But I was thinking of quitting.  Utterly exhausted, I sat on those steps wondering if I could possibly continue in a career that took this much. Could I continue to work from 7 am to 10 pm? Could I continue to think about my job everywhere - in the car, with my friends, at the beach? Could I find love and family if I was always in my classroom, the dorm, or coaching on the tennis court?  Wiping my eyes, I ran up those dusty stairs and into my office to find a piece of paper. I made a list of 23 rules for myself. The boundaries I would have to hold if I wanted to continue in the career I loved. I took everything else off my bulletin board and put the rules in the middle.  Then, I stayed in teaching. And though honestly I’m not sure I was ever better at it than that first year when I made it my whole life, I found that my boundaries helped me enjoy my work as a creative teacher for many years. Until one night almost a decade later. It was nearly midnight and I had had THE WORST day. Up early to prep something or other, then racing from class to class all morning before taking my advisees out for a special lunch that had been requested by my residential life boss which made me late for a lunch meeting with my 10th grade honors students participating in the portfolio program that had been requested by my academic boss. Then more classes, coaching, a school dinner, an evening of working in the dorm and I was home at 11 with some work to do for the next day. I stared and stared at my computer screen as the rage built up in my mind and eventually led me into my email inbox to open a note to my head of school.  You can probably imagine it. I kind of wish I still had it. I just let allll my feelings out, which isn’t very common for me. I woke up to a response inviting me to a meeting right away.  My rage having subsided a bit, I felt awkward when I walked into that wood-paneled office in the administration building. Nothing helps you tap into how you really feel better than a 16 hour workday, and I told my head of school I wasn’t sure I could really capture it all again. He laughed a little awkwardly and said the email did a very good job. We talked for a while, and in the end, he took a huge part of my spring workload off my plate.  OK, so these are two very different stories about the same thing. Hitting the wall. Thinking about leaving the profession. I can’t pretend to know all the circumstances you’re facing right now, but I’m seeing a lot of folks in our community struggling. If you’re hitting a wall like I have, for reasons of your own, see if you can tap into your feelings and try to create a pivot point.  It could be personal - like my list of boundaries. Maybe instead of quitting, you radically change how you grade, refuse to give up your prep period, stop agreeing to join committees, only check email twice a day, and commit to taking weekends off.  Or it could be a line you ask to draw in the sand with your boss - like my midnight letter (though I suggest you approach it more coherently than I did). If you need a change, is it possible you could get one through a letter or a very serious conversation with someone at your school, rather than a new job? If you want to stay but you’re thinking of leaving, is it at least worth a try?  I want to see you enjoying your creative classroom and loving your work, and I know there are a whole lot of societal factors making that really hard right now. If you’ve hit a wall that can’t be overcome, I get that. Maybe you want to transfer your amazing skills to another path. But if you want to be in the career you’re in, but you too have cried in your own version of the dusty stairwell and questioned everything at the end of your own version of the unbelievably overwhelming day, maybe there’s a step you could take toward change. And this week I just want to highly recommend that you take it.  Sign up for Camp Creative Here:  https://sparkcreativity.kartra.com/page/camppodcasting2024   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!   

With exam season coming up, you're probably looking for some creative ELA review activities. Whether your school requires that students sit a traditional exam, or you have room for something like the graduation speech final or another type of final project, it's helpful to look back over the big concepts, themes, and texts you've covered as the year draws to a close. So what options do you have besides printing out a 20 page review packet and giving students time to study it? A lot, as it turns out. Today we're going to explore five of them, in hopes that you'll find a match that feels just right to you. Before we get started, I want you to know that I'll be running Camp Creative, The Easiest Roadmap to Student Podcasting, in June. Inside this (free) and fun PD, you'll get access to the best models, easiest tech, and complete curriculum to get you and your students started with podcast projects. Everything arrives by email, so even if you're busy the week of June 10-14, you can catch up whenever you get a chance. It just takes 10 minutes a day to go through the materials! Links Mentioned: Grab your Copy of the Review Quiz Game Here:  https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1s2HlNyX8Zh9_WYnJsZmTgbbLvGjewzhDnAn8aPgXg2U/copy  Sign up for Camp Creative Here: https://sparkcreativity.kartra.com/page/camppodcasting2024    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! 

Today, I want to highlight a useful tool Amanda Cardenas shared earlier this year on the show called The Sesame Street Quiz. It’s so versatile, so fun, and so helpful that I feel it deserves a show of its own, so here we go.  Amanda has already shared with us how these work, back in episode 267. Here’s a quick review:  A Sesame Street Quiz gives students four items. Three are connected and one is an outlier. For example, if you’re reading Chapter 2 of The Great Gatsby, you might give students the options: Daisy, Jordan, floating, red. Which three are connected and why? Which one is the outlier and why? Amanda lets kids use their book and notes as they respond. Now, think about this idea of a Sesame Street Quiz. It’s a great way to check in and see which kids are doing the reading, and understanding the reading. But how else might you use it? It could make a great bellringer or discussion warm-up. Have students make their decisions alone or with a partner, justifying their choices.  It could make for an intriguing way to review before a final exam. Invite students to consider the key texts of the term, and choose which ones go together and which is an outlier. It could lead into a fascinating one-pager assessment, with kids creating a visual representation of the three that group together and integrating quotations and analysis in their own words of why those three link. It could be a helpful exit ticket, to see how well students digested the material from the lesson if you’ve been deep diving into a text. I bet you can think of lots more uses as well! But however you use it, this week I just want to highly recommend that you give a Sesame Street question a try ASAP.    Related Links:  Episode 267, with Amanda Cardenas: https://nowsparkcreativity.com/2024/03/so-your-students-arent-doing-the-reading-heres-help.html  Explore more of Amanda's work: https://www.mudandinkteaching.org/     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!