Spark Creativity

Looking for a ready-to-use teacher training workshop on independent reading? This digital professional development resource is designed to support middle and high school ELA departments in launching or strengthening their independent reading programs—perfect for a staff meeting, PLC session, or in-service day. This short, focused independent reading workshop shares practical, classroom-tested strategies for helping students fall in love with books, building a high-interest library, and maint

On the first day of school, we all want to engage our students, share a little about ourselves and our course, and start getting to know them. But how? These three simple activities will get your year started right, and save you the stressful experience of reading your syllabus out loud as students fidget and check the clock. I bet you're always looking for creative teaching ideas for your classroom. Share the journey in my free Facebook group, Creative High School English. Click the gree

Attendance is no one's idea of fun. Until now. With this one simple idea I switched the first two minutes of every class from a dull item to cross off our to-do list to something we all look forward to. You can do the same with this simple trick. Watch the video to learn how, then go download the free poster that makes it easy as pie to try this technique right here. Want to try ONE-PAGERS with your students? Learn how to do it successfully and get four free templates to guide even your art

If you'd like to start using escape rooms to engage your students and help them become more creative problem solvers, this video is your first step. In it, you'll discover what escape rooms are, how they translate to the classroom, why you don't have to spend money to make them good, and how to learn more. In the video, I reference three great resources if you'd like to continue learning more about escape rooms. The Spark Creativity Teacher Podcast Episode 017: ELA Escape Rooms The Ultimate

Teaching the embedded quotation is vital and tricky. Use this video to introduce the concept to your students at home and then work with them on it in class. It's a great chance to try a mini-flip in your classroom if you are dabbling with the idea of having students consume some of your course content at home. If you wish, you can follow up with my complete packet "Teaching the Embedded Quotation with Quotation Burgers." This popular packet has been downloaded thousands of times, and gives st

It's hard to learn students names in a snap at the beginning of the year. When you're focused on presenting an engaging first few lessons, memorizing dozens of names doesn't always come naturally. I struggled with this for a long time until finally I came up with a quick and easy solution. Now I'm able to memorize all my students' names in one or two days. I hope this video brings you some stress relief as the year opens! I bet you're always looking for creative teaching ideas for your cla

One-pagers are becoming increasingly popular as a way to help students process what they have read in one powerful activity. Like sketchnotes, they combine visuals with text to make ideas come alive in students’ minds and memories. But it’s easy for students to struggle with one-pagers if they are not naturally inclined toward art and have not previously been encouraged to represent their ideas this way. They may feel they are being graded unfairly on their artistic abilities. Some students wi