Sparkchasers: Teaching Through The Creative Mindset

Ready to supercharge your arts integration efforts? Today, we're chatting about 5 BIG mistakes teachers typically make with arts integration and specific action steps you can take to sidestep these obstacles. Go to artsintegration.com/sparkchasers for all the show notes and resources from this episode.

Arts Integration Certification enrollment is now open for a limited time. Are you wondering if this is the right next step for you? Tune in as Dr. Typhani Harris and Susan Riley chat about this program and how it's impacted hundreds of alumni. For more information, visit ArtsIntegration.com/certification

Want to create a high-energy, action-packed learning experience in 2 weeks or less? Try a Pop-Up Lesson! In this week's show, you'll learn how you can use the ideas from Pop-Up Restaurants and Groups to build a purposeful learning experience for your students. Visit artsintegration.com/sparkchasers for the show notes and links to more resources.

If you've ever wondered how to have success with an online teacher business - whether it's a TpT side hustle or a full-fledged education business - this episode is for you. Today, we're getting real about becoming an empowered CEO teacher with Kayse Morris. Kayse Morris is the founder of the CEO Teacher, an online space dedicated to helping educators change their lives by learning how to market their online teacher businesses. She does an incredible job of breaking down the process of creating and selling teacher resources online, and then helping teachers build their mindset and their marketing muscles to create the life of their dreams. She’s a mama of 4, wife to a high school principal and just a wonderful down-to-earth woman. Ready to learn how you can take what you know and build a business that impacts teachers and students all over the world? Let’s dive in.

Wouldn't it be nice if our students could be as hooked into our classrooms as they are on their favorite social media platforms? They can, if we use a few core ideas from those platforms. In this episode, learn how to create your own "stickiness formula" to engage your students through media arts. View the shownotes and the free download from this episode at https://artsintegration.com/sparkchasers/

Do you ever have a voice in your head that sounds angry, anxious, or disgusted? That's the Madwoman in the Attic talking and there's a way to make it take a back seat. In today's episode, we're chatting about the importance of making our mental health as educators a priority. Tune in for this vulnerable conversation.

Today we're dipping into the mailbag! Over the last few weeks, we've received so many emails asking a wide variety of questions from listeners. Today, we'll be answering: What’s it like to work at IAS? (Marcie from Indiana) How do you teach STEAM virtually and in-person? (Cara from Washington) I love your graphics! How do you make them? (Janelle from Texas) How do you decide what are free trainings and what are paid? (Matthew from California) I’m nervous that arts integration will replace arts education. So many art positions have already been cut. Is that what you’re suggesting? (Kirsten from California) What do you do when people steal your work? I’ve seen some of your stuff on other people’s powerpoints during conferences. Just curious how you handle that. (Heidi from Florida) I want to make my classes more engaging with new media and podcasts. Do you have any suggestions? (Edna from Wisconsin) For show notes and to ask your own questions, please head over to artsintegration.com/sparkchasers 

Interested in a new job for the new year? In today’s episode, we’re going to explore the idea of flexing your job skills and how you can use that to pivot into any position you want. View all show notes at artsintegration.com/sparkchasers Your Job Skills are Elastic Think of yourself like a rubber band - each new skill helps to stretch out the band Elastic Skills have two components: information and communication Don’t pigeon hole your dreams. Vision Casting Brainstorm your vision by answering questions like “What life would I like to create for my family? What kind of marriage and family relationships do I want? What do I want to create financially? What would I like to create in order to influence the finances of other people in a positive way? How do I wish to be remembered? What will my legacy be?”  Consider if it’s possible. Can you make your vision happen with your current job, skills, or activities? Or do you need alternative skills, mindsets, or coaching to help you reach your vision? Commit

How can we honor introversion in the classroom? Here's a few tips for supporting our introverted students without trying to convert them to conform. View full show notes at artsintegration.com/sparkchasers

If you're looking for a culturally responsive way to honor all of the holidays and traditions of your students, try this Celebration Discovery Lab activity from educator Barb Sandstrom. View all the show notes at artsintegration.com/sparkchasers  

Are you a serial multitasker? If so, you might be getting LESS done and losing MORE time. In today's episode, we dive into the science of context switching and how you can avoid it in your day. View the full shownotes and links to resources at artsintegration.com/sparkchasers   What is Context Switching? So in computing, a context switch is when an operating system stores where you’re at so you can go back later. It essentially allows you to multitask. Now, multitasking can be great at certain times - like when your computer is trying to do multiple things for you at once. But it’s terrible for us as humans.  Multitasking never allows you to fully focus on one thing. Your attention is pulled in so many different directions that you’re not able to do any one of them well. So here’s where this becomes important to us. Context switching in humans is when we’re jumping back and forth between tasks all day, every day. And according to research, it actually eats up almost 80% of your time. Here’s what that migh

Find all the show notes and links to download resources at https://artsintegration.com/sparkchasers This is typically a time when students and teachers alike begin to get antsy. It’s increasingly difficult to keep our attention and particularly now, getting students to continue to be invested is hard. One of the things that has worked for me many times is tapping into the excitement of the season with a tangible project students can take home or use in some way. Many times, this involves the Design Thinking Process - but not necessarily in a traditional format. Today, I’m sharing with you my top 3 ways to rethink using Design Thinking Strategies for student engagement.   Get the Creative Juices Flowing Before anything else, we need to practice getting the creative juices flowing. Sometimes, we can get stuck. Creative thinking and creative mindsets are two sides of the same coin. Creative thinking encompasses skills and processes that lead students toward a creative mindset. A creative mindset is a practi

For full episode shownotes, visit artsintegration.com/sparkchasers I’ll let you in on a little secret. Today (the day this is being released) is the Tuesday before Thanksgiving and I’m not in my office. I’m actually at home, preparing my kitchen for the invasion of my team members - both in person and virtually. Today is our 2nd company playday and I couldn’t be more excited.  I learned about this idea of a Playday from the incomparable Brene Brown who shares research that taking a true break is incredibly important us in both our work and our personal lives. Today, I want to walk you through how we have chosen to set up our Playdays as a team, why we believe in this so much, and how you can build your own. Let’s dig in!   Playday Overview This whole playday experiment started because of a podcast I listened to from Brene Brown. She shared some incredible research on the power of play. Not just for kids, but for us as adults, too. This research shares that play helps our brains process, recuperate, and c

View all the show notes and links to resources at the Sparkchasers podcast page. On this episode of Sparkchasers, I'm thrilled to welcome veteran educator Betsy Potash. Betsy spent almost a decade teaching every level of High School English and now shares her creative thinking strategies for the classroom with others on her site, Spark Creativity. During our time together, Betsy's love for reimagining the possibilities for the classroom was obvious, but it was her dedication to authentic teaching that made me lean in.  In this episode, Betsy shares how she was shamed by other teachers for embracing creative methods, as well as how she overcame those naysayers to build a creative community of over 16,000 other creative educators. Here's some key lessons from our talk: Be True to Yourself as an Educator Betsy tried the traditional English teacher route for about 5 minutes, but it just didn't feel right to her. Once she embraced the idea of using creative thinking and project based learning to engage her stude

Visit ArtsIntegration.com/Sparkchasers for the full episode, show notes, and resources. As a teacher, I always found the holiday season to be both joyous and stressful in schools. Students have a long winter ahead of them with a lot of intense work. And we’ve just turned the corner of 1st quarter and getting settled in for the ride. Now, we throw in the holiday season and virtual/hybrid teaching and our students need an outlet more than ever before. They’re getting antsy and classroom management becomes a challenge. And we have all of the regular stressors of school, plus making sure we order our gifts so they arrive on time. We don’t have the energy to try and make something engaging. If that sounds familiar, then you’re going to love these 3 frames I’m going to share today. Think of these as a handy set of options that you can pull out of your bag of teaching tricks and immediately get students focused in a new way.    3 Frames Overview Now I’m going to let you in on a little secret: these frames don’t

Since 2014, I’ve been working either completely from home or have had the flexibility to work from home whenever I’d like. And in 2020, lots of you are now in the same boat. There’s this idealized “must be nice” kind of thinking about people who get to work from home. But now that we’ve all been forced into that scenario, it’s becoming so clear that there are some real downsides. Today, I’m hoping we can dig into the truth behind the challenges of working from home, as well as some specific tools I’ve learned that have helped me make this more joyful. My hope is that this conversation helps you know you’re not alone if you’re not happy about working and living in the same space, and that you leave our chat with some specific strategies to make it a little better. Let’s dig in. Lack of Boundaries Perhaps the biggest challenge I’ve faced working from home is a lack of boundaries. Every other challenge actually comes from this one. Because when you’re working and living in a single space, there’s no definitive

For the full episode and resource list, visit https://artsintegration.com/sparkchasers/ Today’s our first reader question segment and it comes from Sharron who writes: “I love the resources you share every week, but why isn’t more of your stuff free? Your audience is teachers and we don’t have a lot of money. I feel like I’m missing out on so many of your resources in the membership because I can’t afford the yearly fee.” So...does that question make you feel a little uncomfortable? Or maybe it’s a question you’ve been dying to ask, too. Either way, I’m SO happy Sharron sent this in because it’s something I’m really passionate about. So let’s get started, friends.   Free vs. Paid Content   So many people are nervous to talk about money, but I think it’s important because it’s one of the ways our world operates.  At the core of this conversation are a few key beliefs: the philosophy of sharing ideas, the mindset of teacher pay, and the uncomfortable idea that businesses are profiting off of underpaid

Visit Artsintegration.com/Sparkchasers for the full episode show notes, resources, and conversation. There’s a secret that writers use to instantly make their writing more engaging for the viewer or the reader. It’s called a Throughline. Essentially, a throughline is a connecting theme, plot, or characteristic. Today, I want to show you how to use Throughlines in your teaching to make it pop and help students deepen their learning. Key Ideas: A Throughline is a theme, plot, or characteristic that connects stories together.  Authors use Throughlines for stories that have a lot of elements going on. Example: Outlander, Lord of the Rings, Star Wars, TED Talks. These are for EPIC content. Throughlines help the viewer or reader do a few things: understand the theme/character better over time, layer experiences, make predictions, and become invested in the story. Throughlines help the author do a few things, too: chunk out a story so as to not overwhelm the viewer/reader, get deeper with a theme/character, ma

If you're feeling the effects of teacher burnout, you're not alone. In this episode, we chat about how to tell if you're experiencing burnout or surge depletion, how to use a 3-pronged approach to deal with it, and how to use burnout as a way to move forward.

In this episode, we're diving into the beliefs surrounding creativity: whether it's optional or essential, how to measure it, and exercises you can do to cultivate your creative habit.