The Spark Creativity Teacher Podcast | ELA – Details, episodes & analysis

On this week’s mini-episode, I want to talk about learning names, and my easy trick for mastery. It took me many years, but finally, after a year in which I had a Kalina, Karina, Ekaterina, and Katrina, I figured out a plan that really worked.  

I hate not knowing students’ names. It stresses me out, big time. Maybe you’re the same? The worst is when I think I know someone’s name and then it’s actually someone else’s name, so I feel like I betrayed them both. 

So finally, after about five years of teaching, I stumbled upon the idea of name tents. I printed everyone’s name in big block letters on a different color of cardstock for each class, and I set them out on day one before students came in. They sat with their name card, I read the card every time I wanted to talk to them. Bingo. 

But it was still hard. I didn’t know their names when I saw them at lunch, or in the hall, and they had to sit in my random seating chart every day which wasn’t always ideal. 

Then one year I decided I would have them decorate the name tents. They added favorite quotes, activities they liked, books or authors they loved, and drawings. This helped me get to know them better and gave me starting points for pre-class banter. It was a step forward in the name-learning evolution. 

But then came the moment I struck gold. I had my camera in class for taking a first day class photo, since one of my favorite first day activities was to challenge students to choose a place on campus and create some kind of fun class pose for a photo I would then print for our room. And yes, it was an actual camera, before I had a smartphone. I noticed my camera while students were decorating their name tents, and I asked if I could take their pictures holding up their name cards. Though some kids joked around about it feeling like a mug shot, no one really minded once I explained how it would help me memorize names quickly. 

In two minutes I circled the class, giving myself an easy way to study each student’s face with their name and some of their top interests. That night I scrolled and practiced, repeating any name I didn’t get the on the first try over and over as I went back and forth from picture to picture. After a couple of sessions, I had every name down, and I walked in the next day with happy confidence. It made a huge difference to me to be able to focus on getting my classes up and running without worrying about memorizing names. I kept the name tents out for a while so everyone could learn each other’s names and interests, but I didn’t rely on them any more. And I repeated the same process in every class for the rest of my time in the classroom. 

This week, as many folks return to school around the country, I highly recommend you give this strategy a try. The combination of name tents and photos (assuming you’re allowed to take photos at your school) is a name-learning match made in heaven.

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Jason Reynolds' website headline reads "Here's What I Do: Not Write Boring books." How great is that?

As with everything he does, he seems to be speaking directly to the young people he's always trying to reach. There's a reason The Library of Congress chose him as the national ambassador for young adult literature.

Last year I created an Instagram series all about Jason's incredible work, and different ways you might use it in the classroom. But I've heard from a number of folks who aren't on Instagram, or who'd just like a deeper dive, so today I've decided to walk through that series here on the podcast, explaining everything I know about Jason Reynolds' arc of work and how you can use it in your classroom. As always, I will share my recommendations here with the caveat that you know your students, parents, and community best, so you should preview content before sharing it in class.

Ready to dive in? I'm excited!

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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 presentation that you love is great, if that works for you, but if you’d prefer to go interactive, why not try stations? It takes a lot of pressure off you, and it’s easy to repeat in session after session without losing your voice or sweating through your fancy schmancy parent meeting clothes. 

With stations, you can get parents up and moving around your classroom, get them the information they want, and even create a chance to chat and answer questions informally.

If you want to try this method, here’s how I’d break it down. 

Have your stations set up around the room before parents enter. Throw a welcome slide up on the board with your name, a fun photo (or collage) from classes past, and your contact information. Once parents are all inside, welcome them and invite them to move around the room to the different stations, letting them know how much time they have to move around so they can pace accordingly.

At each station, they should find an obvious sign telling them what to do, as well as any supporting papers they need to pick up or fill out. 

Here are some ideas for stations:

#1 Info Sheet + Q & A With you: At this station, parents can grab a paper with your name, course description, contact information, and a QR code that takes them to any website or LMS you’d like them to have access to. You can hang out here and chat with them, answering questions and getting to know them a bit. 

#2 Slideshow + Examples of Student Work: At this station, set up a computer or iPad to run a digital slideshow of student work from past years. Scatter a few great projects here too. This will give parents a sense for the type of work their kids will do in your class. 

#3 Tour the Library: Invite parents to browse the shelves in your library. Maybe they’ll find a title they once loved and it will inspire them to talk books with their students. By focusing on this important space in your classroom, they’ll realize that reading is going to be an integral part of your class.

#4 Learn how to Support Students: If there are certain things you wish parents would do, like set their kids up with a library card, ask them what they’re studying, remind them to leave their cell phones in their lockers, etc., create a station with these tips. Then leave out some post-its and invite parents to add their suggestions of what has worked well for them in supporting their child’s learning. 

#5 Write a Note: At this station you could go one of two ways. Invite parents to write a note of encouragement to their child that you can then share at a key moment. Or invite parents to write you a note letting you know how they feel you can best reach their child. That might mean telling you about a project their child loved in the past, about their favorite books, about their favorite subjects, about important events in their lives that are impacting their school time, etc.

You can always add more stations or choose just a few of these. You could also pair the stations with a short talk from you at the beginning. There are lots of recipes for a successful parent night – just choose what makes you feel comfortable and confident introducing them to all the wonderful work their kids will be doing. Back-to-School Night can be stressful, but this week I just want to highly recommend you create an experience that makes you feel relaxed and confident.

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This week I want to share a fast-paced and fun podcast for middle schoolers, The Unexplainable Disappearance of Mars Patel.

It's a peabody-award winning mystery podcast, stuffed full of cliffhangers and featuring a full cast of professional actors - most of them middle-schoolers. The plot unfolds in bits and pieces as we follow a group of middle school kids who don’t quite fit in, and don’t know why their friends keep disappearing one by one. The show is frequently broken up by “announcements” from the show’s eccentric (fictional) billionaire sponsor, Oliver Pruitt, with his take on things or with commercials for his “special” school, Pruitt Prep. 

This show would make a great text for middle school - there’s so much you could talk about from a podcasting perspective  in the way that it builds suspense, incorporates plot layers through the asides with Oliver Pruitt, and weaves in sound elements. But it could also make for great writing prompts, listening skills practice, and discussion or debate fodder. 

I highly recommend listening to just one episode to see what you think, and I bet you won’t want to stop there! 

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So you want to share your favorite books with your students to help them love reading. Excellent! But maybe you lack the budget to keep up with their growing love of reading. Maybe you're wishing you could order about 25 different graphic novels (that waiting list for Heartstopper isn't getting any shorter) or your best Jason Reynolds and Kwame Alexander Titles keep disappearing. I hear you! These problems are only a sign that you're doing great things with your choice reading program.

But what can you do, besides add to your Amazon Wishlist and apply for grants?

Well, you can get your students connected to electronic books and create recommended reading digital shelves for them. And it's actually so much fun. Today on the podcast, I'm walking you through the step-by-step, nitty gritty details so you can start building your shelves immediately. I've had a lot of questions around this strategy, and my goal is to answer every single one so you can feel confident in your success.

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This week I want to share two quick ways to make back-to-school night in your English classroom something you can enjoy this year. 

In today's episode we're talking about how to take the pressure off back-to-school night with stations, and how to use QR codes to quickly and easily share anything that needs to happen online, whether that's signing up for an app, sharing a class website, or giving interested parents your Amazon class wishlist. 

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So you've assigned a book you love (or maybe a selection of several) to your students for the summer, and soon enough they'll be back to share their takeaways. But maybe this year you want to hear from them through a form other than the traditional summer reading essay. You want to kick things off with creativity, and also push them to think beyond any internet summary and commentary they may have perused alongside the book. Today on the podcast, I'd like to share four easy alternatives to an in-class essay.

Each activity can easily be completed in a day, and can also lead into a larger class discussion of the text. Plus, they're more fun to grade than a stack of 100 essays. Is an in-class essay on the summer reading a valid choice? Sure! But if you'd like to change it up, here are some ideas.

The Open Mind Characterization Project

Hexagonal Thinking

Theme One-Pagers

Silent Discussion

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This week I want to share one of my favorite recent reads - Alone, by Megan E Freeman.

I picked up this book after hearing what a smash hit it was with Caitlin Lore’s seniors back when I interviewed her for our episode about verse novel book clubs. If a ton of seniors loved it AND it was middle school appropriate with a younger protagonist, I figured it was a must-read! 

I knew coming in that it was a survival story, set in a dystopian future, and that it was a novel-in-verse.

I read it in two days, and loved it just as much as I expected. It’s compelling, dramatic, and lyrical, and it manages to maintain suspense without being too frightening. 

I’ve often seen it compared to Hatchet, but for me it felt quite different. Much more familiar. While the main character in Hatchet crashes a plane onto an island where he has to survive alone in nature, 12-year-old Maddie must survive in her own city when she wakes up to find every other citizen has been evacuated for some kind of mysterious national emergency, and she was accidentally left behind. It’s easy to start imagining what you would do in the same situation as you read. 

Besides loving the book, I appreciated the notes from Megan Freeman at the end. Particularly the way she shared a section of the book written in prose and then its makeover into verse. This could easily become the basis of a creative writing project for kids working through any novel-in-verse or novel-in-verse book clubs. 

So if you’ve got a couple of hours and a hammock, beach, or cozy couch available this week, I highly recommend reading Alone, by Megan E. Freeman and thinking about how to incorporate it into your book clubs, First Chapter Friday program, or choice reading library. 

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Today on the podcast, I’m glad to welcome Kareem Farah, founder of the Modern Classrooms Project. As a teacher in Washington D.C., Kareem faced problems that many teachers can relate to - students missing class all the time, and classes made up of students at hugely varied levels. He wanted to try something new, because he felt the practices he had been taught were not working.

Together with his friend Rob Barnett, he created a new instructional model that took into account the fact that students were approaching the materials from different levels and often, on different days following absences.

He now shares his methodology through his non-profit, The Modern Classrooms Project, in use by 58,000 teachers in over 150 countries. In this interview, Kareem and I talk about the blended learning approach of the MCP and how to try it out for yourself, and dig deep into how to combine this approach with creative practices and projects.

Watch Edutopia's wonderful video about the MCP

Grab the free course and resources here.

Check out the non-profit website here.

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This week I want to share a quick push for trying book clubs this year. If you haven’t jumped on this trend yet, I want to give you a few quick reasons why I hope you will! 

Book clubs allow you to give students...

• more choice in their curriculum
• more diversity in the voices you share
• a deeper exploration of a theme or genre (since they end up hearing about so many different books from their peers)

Book clubs allow YOU...

• to consolidate required texts to make room for other options
• to bring in a wider variety of authors you want to share
• to find helpful routines that take stress off lesson planning

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