Radio and PodcastLive Radio & PodcastsOpening Radio and Podcast...
Radio and PodcastLive Radio & PodcastsFetching podcast shows and categories...
Radio and PodcastLive Radio & PodcastsFetching podcast episodes...
This podcast is full of creative teaching strategies, classroom ideas, and inspiration for middle and high school English teachers. Betsy Potash from Spark Creativity presents new ideas for...
Years ago, Teri Lesegne wrote a book called Reading Ladders, about meeting readers where they are and then guiding them to new heights. It's...
The countdown started yesterday in my kitchen, as my daughter flipped the calendar forward for something and realized she had less than thir...
When my daughter was a baby, she was a terrible sleeper. I spent many early morning hours trying to find advice online from research, expert...
Earlier this month we started to explore creative poetry activity options for National Poetry Month (and any time!). But there were just too...
Recently an invite dropped into my inbox - did I want to swing by a school in my city to talk about teaching ninth grade English for them ne...
Maybe you weren't taught poetry with joy and pizzazz, and you don't incline to writing it yourself. Which perhaps describes, what do you thi...
Welcome to another episode in our occasional series of short "Highly Recommended" episodes, in which we dive into a quick idea, resource, or...
I loved the Bread Loaf School of English program at Middlebury College. It's a unique summer program leading to a Masters in English, cateri...
I'm in a book club right now, for the first time ever. (Yeah, I know, gasp. But I've always had so much to read for so many reasons that I'v...
When you boil down the essentials of so much writing, what you get is the need for vivid, original detail. In a college essay, the story com...
This week would be my Dad's birthday. If he was still here, spice cake with thick caramel frosting would be in order, and a beautiful cross...
Today on the podcast we're digging into student agency and the lessons Dr. Annalies Corbin has learned from her work pioneering microschools...
A few weeks ago I shared my dream American Lit curriculum here on the pod, and soon after I heard from a British Literature teacher who was...
The word audience conjures up a crowd, perhaps people watching an opera late at night at the Santa Fe outdoor amphitheatre, as the moon rise...
American Lit has the potential to be an engaging, broadening, fascinating course. We're in what I consider an in-between era, where many sch...
Let's talk about an incredibly adaptable project in which students experiment with creative ideas across modes. It's easy to plug into a var...
The more time you spend writing, the more you know that revision is everything. Let me cite writing superhero John Green on this one, who di...
We know we want kids to have choice. As much choice as possible in creating the education that is meaningful and helpful for them. That choi...
I bet you know your favorite way to learn something. Maybe it's by listening to a podcast, skimming a couple of articles on the topic, readi...
Dickens' A Christmas Carol stands out strongly from his other works, but not because it's so different, really, in what it hopes to accompli...
According to research by Stanford Professor Bob Sutton , innovative businesses need to generate about 4,000 ideas to come up with two or thr...
It's easy to think of hexagonal thinking as a big event, a full-class activity that you set up and run for a whole period. But once your stu...
You know how some spaces just make you feel excited to DO something? Whether it's a Cricut getting your wheels spinning with what-ifs, beaut...
The other day I found myself walking through a parking garage stairwell in Iowa City, and I realized they were using the same scent design a...
Imagine you and I were about to make a dinner together. Now, I bring a love of baking to our project, and a decently strong roast chicken ga...
My first classroom was a little blue trailer on the edge of the soccer field. Every morning, I got my shoes clogged with mud hiking across t...
The first time I had much use for poetry came in college, freshmen year. My professor assigned each of us to memorize a poem and recite it i...
I've got more and more respect, these days, for the humble webquest. Slash hyperdoc. Slash game board. Slash immersive digital multimedia ex...
Recently I had to learn APA citation. Oof. It was a heavy lift, after a few decades with MLA. It gave me a refreshed sense of how overwhelmi...
If you teach American literature, chances are you're touching on the theme of the American Dream somehow, through book clubs, a poetry unit,...
I worked at the cutest little bookstore coffee shop last week. In that small space, the collection had to be heavily curated, with just one...
We know employers want creative thinkers. We know creative thinking is necessary to solve the problems we see everywhere in our world. We kn...
When it comes to teaching grammar, the research is clear. Drill and kill is not what we're looking for. You don't want to march through a se...
Think of your favorite book. Now think of your favorite food. Now match those two together - your favorite book and your favorite food - int...
Have you been hooked by the idea of book clubs lately? Wondering how you can integrate book clubs with essential questions, supplementary sh...
Today's request for "Plan My Lesson" is from a teacher searching for a first week project that helps students get to know each other AND int...
If there's one thing I want for your first day of school, it's for the pressure to be off you. You've got enough to worry about without need...
A summer reading lesson is a nice chance to start off the year with a creative tone, while creating some of the norms you want to establish....
Students need to be able to make a great argument to find success at school, and in many professions. They need to come up with an idea, fin...
There's a lot of conversation happening lately around student reading stamina. Rose Horowitch's Atlantic article, "The Elite College Student...
Ken Liu's short story, "The Paper Menagerie," is an easy and powerful add to your curriculum. Not only does it explore family relationships,...
It's a rare curriculum book that inspires NO negative comments. Ever. To hear, month after month, year after year, that a certain book turns...
Trevor Noah's Born a Crime is trending, and for good reason. I'm seeing the evidence everywhere. This spring, as I ran our curriculum book c...
I never met a short story I liked back in high school. If I was going to read, I wanted to READ. I wanted to get caught up in the plot, get...
Last year, at this time, I was preparing to move from Bratislava to California when I released the episode we're revisiting today, all about...
A few engaging review activities for ELA come in handy around this time of year, as the calendar takes over and students pop off to random a...
When it comes to evidence in their argument papers, students have a tendency to mic drop way too soon. "Here's my evidence, BOOOOOOOM!" you...
Sure, there's no one right way to write an argument paper. It can be three paragraphs, nine, or even seventeen. It can be loaded with resear...
I have to admit my kids have got me fully invested in "Is it Cake?" At some point in England last year, someone begged for us to watch the s...
I miss the Eras tour. Even though it hasn't been that long. My daughter is requesting Wicked songs and Katy Perry in the car all of a sudden...