417: Graduate Programs for English Teachers (Help to Launch your Search)
The Spark Creativity Teacher Podcast | ELA
Release Date: 03/18/2026
441: 4 Ways to Help Early Finishers Thrive in ELA
The Spark Creativity Teacher Podcast | ELA
We've all had the experience of planning a detailed activity meant to take thirty or forty minutes, and then watching a student close their book or notebook after five. It's confusing. It feels obvious that they couldn't have done a good job, and yet it's often not the best use of teacher time to litigate this individually with each early finisher. And yet, preparing a plan for what to do is tricky, because there's not a one-size-fits-all approach to students finishing early, because it looks different in different situations. Sometimes students finish early because they rushed, but...
info_outline
440: ELA Classroom Design: Come Tour with Me
The Spark Creativity Teacher Podcast | ELA
I've been the first one to school a lot lately, and I'm spending a lot of quiet moments in my classroom, thinking about what's working well, what I can tweak, and how I can best use the spaces I've set up. Rounding the bend into week three feels very different than the summer what-if energy, so I'm in a position now to tell you what's working, what's a work-in-progress, and what I still need to work out. I wish I could swing by and see your classroom too - wouldn't it be fun if there was some way we could run a vast YouTube channel with just 90 second videos of classrooms all over the world?...
info_outline
439: How to Play Genre Trashketball (A Lesson + A Game)
The Spark Creativity Teacher Podcast | ELA
"What's this?" I was crouched alongside a student on the first day of school as she filled out her reading profile. She pointed her pink highlighter at the section of genres, unsure how to proceed. I wanted to know if she liked scifi or romance, dystopia or suspense or YA. She wanted to know what they were, and she wasn't the only one to ask. So I pushed back my plans for the next class a bit, and made time for a lesson on genre instead. And it was such a blast, I want to share it with you today, in case your students are asking the same questions as mine. Today I'll walk you through a...
info_outline
438: Experiments in Ungrading: What does it look like to Decenter Grades?
The Spark Creativity Teacher Podcast | ELA
There are so many ways to grade students. You can avoid zeros, use a standards-based approach, allow iteration, tweak your late policy, experiment with different categories and percentages. What works best? That’s hard to say. But today’s guest, Dr. Brittany Dillman, wanted to try something different. She’s an expert in educational psychology and educational technology, and directs several online masters programs at Michigan State University. She decided, with her colleagues, to step away from traditional grading and its many remixes altogether, and pursue an alternative known as...
info_outline
437: 16 Graphic Novels for your Classroom Library
The Spark Creativity Teacher Podcast | ELA
Recently I listened to Daniel Wilingham's book, Why Don't Kids Like School?, about how we can use what we know about how the mind works to make school work better for kids. And I found myself nodding along in chapter two as he talked about reading: "Do whatever you can to get kids to read, but it's not enough. People sometimes ask whether graphic novels count, or whether audiobooks do. The answer is an emphatic yes." I couldn't agree with Wilingham more. Sure, I've heard the argument that students need "rigor" at school. The canon. The classics. But I would certainly side with Penny Kittle...
info_outline
436: Highly Recommended: This Free Vocabulary Tool
The Spark Creativity Teacher Podcast | ELA
You know how I love to share a great find, and this week I've got a real winner for your vocabulary program. On this episode of "Highly Recommended," I'll tell you about a new tool I just found and why it's so high impact for helping kids learn new words. Let's dive in. Word Dissector App Link: Go Further: Explore alllll the Episodes of . Get my popular Join our community, , on Facebook. Come hang out on . Enjoying the podcast? Please consider sharing it with a friend, snagging a screenshot to share on the ‘gram, or tapping those ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ to help others...
info_outline
435: Start the Year with these AI Conversation Stations
The Spark Creativity Teacher Podcast | ELA
If you joined us for Camp Creative last week, you know we spent one of our days focused on AI. I shared a variety of activities to help students consider, discuss, and write about how AI affects them and their learning. Because I received so much positive feedback about these activities, I want to share them here too, in case you missed Camp. So today, let's talk about how to dig into one of the big questions facing our profession right now, with your students, right from week one. Because I hope there's a middle option between going entirely to paper and staying digital but playing the role...
info_outline
434: What I'll be Doing on the First Day of School
The Spark Creativity Teacher Podcast | ELA
My first first day of school, as you probably know, did not go well. Unless you count laying on the floor of my office crying at the end of the day "going well." It was the first time I ever realized you could be thinking one thing while saying something completely different. "Take a look at the syllabus," said my mouth, while my brain said, OH NO, they hate this! They're looking at the clock! And you have nothing else planned! And you have to do this with three more classes! Since then, "going over the syllabus" is not in my first day playbook. Nope, the last thing I want on day one is to...
info_outline
433: The Uncrackable Justification for Choice Reading
The Spark Creativity Teacher Podcast | ELA
So here's the thing. I know I talk a lot about reading. It's pretty important to me. But all week I've been trying to prepare a different podcast, one NOT about the uncrackable justification for choice reading. But recently I heard from several teachers over in CHSE about thriving reading programs they had going, only to get shut down by folks who felt like reading in class was a waste of time. And then I kind of ended up in a rabbit hole, as I am wont to do. It's like researching the justification for choice reading became my guilty pleasure, sucking up all my time. I listened to...
info_outline
432: ELA Classroom Design: What to Put on your Walls this Fall
The Spark Creativity Teacher Podcast | ELA
I'm not going to lie, the prospect of getting to set up a classroom space after years of dreaming about that very task is one of the reasons I'm headed back into the classroom this fall to teach one section of freshmen English. I just believe SO HARD that secondary spaces matter as much as elementary school ones. Heck, I'm an adult, and the space around me matters enormously to my productivity and pleasure in work. How could it not matter to teenagers? So today, I want to share a quick look at some of the resources and recommendations we'll be diving into at the end of the month inside our...
info_outline
I loved the Bread Loaf School of English program at Middlebury College. It’s a unique summer program leading to a Masters in English, catering almost entirely to English teachers. So the class conversations are literary, but somehow it’s all infused with teaching ideas, since it’s almost all teachers in every room. Through this program, I spent two summers in Vermont, two in Santa Fe, and one in Oxford. I’d be happy to talk about it here, in today's episode on masters programs, but I already shared a complete review, from my perspective, of The Bread Loaf School back in episode 223, so I’m going to direct you over to that episode if you’re looking for a masters in English right now that you can do in person while you teach.
But then there’s the other option for an English teacher - a masters in the field of education. There are soooo many possibilities that it’s a bit hard to know where to start. So here I’m going to round up some top candidates that I considered when I recently decided to go back and get a second masters. They all appeal in different ways. In the blog post, I’ll let you know the name of the program, the format, the length, the description as given on the program website, and the current deadline to apply that they have listed for the nine programs I considered. In the podcast version, I'm going to zoom in on my personal top candidates. I'll also share links in this blog post and the podcast show notes to the many ongoing conversations on masters programs always taking place in Creative High School English, and to the U.S. News and World Report Rankings for top programs.
All the Links!
The Masters in Teaching & Curriculum at Michigan State University (all online): https://online.msu.edu/programs/teaching-curriculum
The Master of Arts in Education from Arizona State University (all online): https://asuonline.asu.edu/online-degree-programs/graduate/masters-in-education/
Learning Design, Innovation and Technology Program (in person):
- At Harvard: https://www.gse.harvard.edu/degrees/masters/program/ldit
- At Stanford: https://ed.stanford.edu/ldt
Interested in a Masters in ENGLISH? To learn about a summer in-person program for teachers that I did and loved, check out Episode 223: The Bread Loaf School of English
Want to read the most current conversations about masters programs in Creative High School English? Here they are: https://www.facebook.com/groups/256927044749038/search/?q=masters%20program
The U.S. News and World Report ranking for best programs in Curriculum & Instruction: https://www.usnews.com/best-graduate-schools/top-education-schools/curriculum-instruction-rankings
The U.S. News and World Report ranking for best programs in Secondary Instruction: https://www.usnews.com/best-graduate-schools/top-education-schools/secondary-teacher-education-rankings
Go Further:
Explore alllll the Episodes of The Spark Creativity Teacher Podcast.
Grab the free Better Discussions toolkit
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!