On this week’s mini-episode, I want to give my answer to a question I see all the time in our  Facebook community, Creative High School English, and it’s this: What’s the best way to spend a teacher budget? So let’s dive into five great options. .  Classroom Poster Printing Over the years I’ve seen a lot of wonderful classroom poster creation from fellow educators and artists across the world. And they look beautiful in framed 8 1/2 X 11. But what if you took your digital download and went...

Today I’d like to share one of my favorite episodes from the Spark Creativity Teacher Podcast archives. In this special episode, I invited five creative guests to give their take on impactful classroom design. This back-to-school season felt like the perfect time to share it again. I’ll be back with a full episode on Thursday, but at the moment I’m in the throes of a 6,000 mile move with my two kids and our cat, and my office is basically a giant pile of boxes. So please forgive the change in...

On this week’s mini-episode, I just have a very quick idea for you and it’s this. As back-to-school hits, it’s easy to immediately become isolated in your classroom. You’ve got a million to-dos for your space and your students. But the school year is going to feel better if you feel connected to the teacher across the hall, the teacher next door, and the teacher upstairs. Know what I mean? So this week I want to recommend that you host your department for something this back-to-school season....

Back-to-School season is the perfect time to set up your reading program for success throughout the year. Heading into the school year with a well-organized library, a plan for routines like First Chapter Friday and Book Trailer Tuesday, a kickoff book tasting, an appealing book display, and a regular time to read will help so much in inspiring your students to read for joy throughout the year, and hopefully for the rest of their lives. Lately I've been thinking about a well-run...

On this week’s mini-episode, I want to answer a question from our community about lesson planning. Here it is: “How do you plan? I’m struggling to put together a series of lessons that culminate into a bigger assignment. For example, if I want my students to end up writing a persuasive essay, what would I plan to prepare them to write it? Do you go with a theme? Make it part of a novel study? I’m struggling!” OK, this is a big question, but I’m ready for it.  In today’s episode, we’re digging...

Maybe you've heard the story of how I almost quit teaching on my first first day of school. Despite the fact that I had spent three months preparing moment-by-moment lessons for fall. Despite the fact that I was wearing my super cool white embroidered top from Bass and carrying my first ever leather shoulder bag. Despite the fact that I had asked all my friendly, talented and kind new colleagues what I should do on the first day. I totally blew it, big time. And I want better...

On this week’s mini-episode, I want to share my top strategy for taking the pressure off you while delivering a great experience for parents on back-to-school night, stations.    Back-to-school night, like the first day of school, can be a stressful time. You’re trying to get a lot of information across quickly, and it can feel like the only way to get that accomplished is by talking fast and furiously for the eight or so minutes you have with your rapidly moving parents.  A colorful...

If I told you the elective we’re about to dive into has an “awkward party” unit, would you believe me? Well, it does, and I can’t wait for you to learn about it and start planning an awkward party lesson of your own. Today on the show, we’re continuing our creative electives series with veteran teacher Lisa Blake, who's been teaching for 33 years in Northern California. She's built a life skills elective to give her students confidence in how to learn new skills, not just to teach the...

On this week’s mini-episode, I want to answer a question from our community about reading in class. Here it is “ Hi all. Next year my middle school will be implementing a 45-minute every-other-day reading block for all students. All teachers (ELA or not) will be required to cover the class. I am wondering…what you do with it…” In today’s episode, I’m going to weigh in on how I would use a gift like this. If you give kids time to read in class, hopefully you’ll find some helpful ideas in how...

What would you do if you had nine weeks to help ELA students imagine the real-world use of ELA skills? Inside the unique elective wheel program at Lisa Jones' school, students explore each discipline for nine weeks before moving onto the next. To show them literacy in action, Lisa has crafted an elective with three real-world projects to help them imagine how they might use their ability to communicate across modern mediums. Listen (or read) on to dive into these three real-world projects...

This week let’s talk about careers. I don’t know if you can relate, but I graduated from high school with a general awareness of maybe six careers - law, medicine, teaching, ministry, science, and business. Let’s talk about how we can show our students a broader view of what’s out there - and build in some ELA skills to the process.  A fun way to start any careers unit is with a careers scavenger hunt,  an easy form of research students can do as they move through their days. Just ask your...

Today on the show, we’ll find out what happened when an administrator attended a student’s genius hour project presentation about a new elective she wanted to see proposed Teaching African American Literature. Spoiler alert, magic. We’re continuing our elective series today, and I’m delighted to tell you we're hearing from passionate veteran teacher Bethany Yuninger. She'll be sharing her African American Literature Elective, and wait til you hear the story of how this elective came...

On this week’s mini-episode, I want to answer a question sent in by a member of our community. Here’s what she writes: Hi Betsy, I have classes of 10th graders who are SO divergent in skill levels. Some are reading Murakami for fun, and some are reading at a 5th grade level. I am struggling to differentiate for them and provide challenge for the strong and support for the others.” Today on the show, I’m going to offer some ideas for this listener, and I hope they can help you too, if you find...

Today on the show we’re hearing from Valerie Boehm, who teaches a Dramatic Writing elective in Georgia as part of the state’s initiative to help more students find their way to good jobs in the film industry. So cool, right? This episode is part of our continuing series on electives, which has been SO MUCH fun to record. I hope you’re as excited to be hearing from all these wonderful teachers about the creative things they’re doing with their courses as I am! (Check out past elective...

Join me each week for innovative teaching strategies you can use immediately in your ELA classroom, from choice reading help to book clubs, project-based-learning to AI, student podcasting to genius hour, we cover the good stuff. Whether you're trying to figure out how to engage your eighth graders, trying to help your 11th graders through the college essay, or trying to shepherd you twelfth graders through to the end, you'll find help here! Follow along on Instagram @nowsparkcreativity or...

It's day four of Camp Creative - time to explore three types of student podcasting projects you might want to use next year! The book talk podcast, the life skills podcast, and the full PBL podcasting unit.  Remember, Camp Creative is my favorite event of the year, and I wanted to make sure that no matter how busy you are, you can just pop in some earbuds and follow along.  But you DO need to be signed up for camp to snag all the free resources (like all three of these podcasting projects),...

It's day three of Camp Creative, and today we're diving into how to create tiny podcasts with students. We'll also chat about NCTE's position statement on media education, a handy resource for helping expain why this type of project is important if folks at your school ask.  Remember, Camp Creative is my favorite event of the year, and I wanted to make sure that no matter how busy you are, you can just pop in some earbuds and follow along.  But you DO need to be signed up for camp to snag...

It's day two of Camp Creative, and we're exploring the easiest tech options for student podcasting! In today's show, I'll walk you through the best free recording tool I've found (no mic required), the best design tool for podcast covers (free for education purposes!) and the easiest way to put the audio and visuals together in class. Remember, Camp Creative is my favorite event of the year, and I wanted to make sure that no matter how busy you are, you can just pop in some earbuds and...

It's day one of Camp Creative, and we're diving into Podcasts as Texts! In today's show, I'll walk you through some of my favorite shows for class, listening activities to help kids focus, and the free resources waiting in today's camp materials (including the podcast clubs curriculum!) Remember, Camp Creative is my favorite event of the year, and I wanted to make sure that no matter how busy you are, you can just pop in some earbuds and follow along.  But you DO need to be signed up for...

Welcome to this special first ever limited-time series of The Spark Creativity Teacher Podcast.  It’s Camp Creative this week, my favorite event of the year, and I wanted to make sure that no matter how busy you are, you can just pop in some earbuds and follow along. Starting tomorrow, we’re diving into podcasts in the classroom - the best shows for your students, what to have them do while they listen, and how to get your students creating their very own podcast episodes.  Each day this...

On this week’s mini-episode, I’m remembering the moment my 11th graders asked me to please, please, please add a book to our curriculum that wasn’t so depressing. Maybe you’ve had a similar experience? Let’s talk about what to do when the curriculum is full of death and despair. We were moving towards spring the year my juniors asked me why all of our books were so glum. My first instinct was to say they weren’t! Then I thought about it for a second. Adultery. Check. Death. Check. Despair....

Last night I dreamed I was teaching in a new classroom, except it had layers of stuff on the walls from three other teachers across twenty years of teaching. I couldn't find anything, and I couldn't change the set-up because I didn't know what was important to my colleagues. It was awful. Am I the only one to ever have a classroom set-up nightmare? Maybe. But the thing is, where you teach and how it feels really does help shape your year. So what can you do right now, during this...

On this week’s mini-episode, let’s talk about my favorite online teacher tool, Canva. If you haven’t signed up for their free educator program yet, this summer is the perfect time! You can explore all the design tools this wonderful website has to offer, and be ready in the fall to start using it in class. Plus, I’ve got a free mini course ready to help you do it. Today, let’s do a quick rundown on why I think you should.   Did you know Canva began as a program to help make yearbook...

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...

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 the 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...