Blog - Page 17 of 50 - Spencer Education

Aug 25 2021

How a Free T-Shirt Helped Me Rethink Professional Speaking Attire

By John Spencer Creativity No Comments

I am an incessant doodler and constant illustrator. I tend to make sense out of ideas by sketching them in notebooks and whiteboards and random scraps of paper. However, when I first began this blog back in 2002, I hid my artistic side. I wrote…

Aug 18 2021

What Ted Lasso (And These Three Other TV Shows) Taught Me About Being an Educator

By John Spencer Creativity, Podcast, Teacher Life 2 Comments

I never cry while watching a drama. I can feel all the feels of a serious motion picture but it will never move me to tears. This isn't a hyper-macho "dudes don't cry thing." I'm a pretty sensitive guy. It's just a reality of my…

Aug 07 2021

Sometimes Student Choice Isn’t the Answer in Reading

By John Spencer Creativity, Empowered Readers, Podcast No Comments

In my previous articles, I've explored how we can empower students with voice and choice in reading. However, today's article provides some nuance. While we need to empower readers to own their learning and we need to create extended periods of choice-based independent reading time,…

Jul 26 2021

Less Work. More Reading.

By John Spencer Creativity, Empowered Readers, Empowering Students, Podcast One Comment

This is part of a series on empowering readers. If you're interested, I also have a self-paced course where I walk you through practical ways that you can empower your students in the reading process. Some people say that it's better to ask forgiveness than…

Jul 19 2021

There Is No Such Thing as a Reluctant Reader

By John Spencer Empowered Readers, Podcast 2 Comments

This is part of a series on empowering readers. If you're interested, I also have a self-paced course where I walk you through practical ways that you can empower your students in the reading process. The students filed into class discussing the latest TV shows…

Jul 12 2021

Empowering Readers from Day One

By John Spencer Empowered Readers, Podcast 4 Comments

This is the first article I'm doing in a summer series on Empowering Readers. If you want to take a deeper dive into the topic, I also have the Empowered Readers self-paced course that I co-created with literacy expert Bonnie Hamer. It officially launches today.…

Jun 24 2021

What will we take away from this year?

By John Spencer Creativity, Podcast, Teacher Life One Comment

Nothing about this evening fit the description of a dance recital. Not the parking lot or the lawn chairs or the sound of the cars whizzing past. I sat in jeans and a sweatshirt, eating a slice of pizza off a thin paper plate as…

Jun 11 2021

Finding Rest and Recovery After a Hard Year

By John Spencer Creativity, Teacher Life One Comment

Teachers have been amazing this year. Many of them taught virtually for the first time ever and spent their free time learning new strategies and expanding their professional knowledge. Despite the lack of physical space, they cultivated a positive classroom community and proved that social…

May 31 2021

Stephanie Higgs on How to Integrate Creative Thinking Into Daily Classroom Practice

By John Spencer Creativity, Podcast One Comment

In this latest podcast episode, Stephanie Higgs shares how she has integrated intentional creative thinking into her daily routine with students. She also shares her journey from from working at a museum school up to her current role as a gifted education teacher and coach….

May 25 2021

5 Ways Creative Work Is Like Working Out

By John Spencer Creativity, Podcast 3 Comments

Creative work is inherently fun. However, sometimes it's also frustrating, slow, and difficult. In other words, it's a lot like working out. We explore this connection in the following article and podcast. Listen to the Podcast If you enjoy this blog but you’d like to…