179: Highly Recommended: SBB's Baths vs. Showers

This week on Highly Recommended  I’m sharing a hilarious podcast episode you can use from Smash Boom Best titled “Baths vs. Showers.”  I discovered Smash Boom Best this year while I was on the hunt for great class podcasts. It’s a debate show, in which two guests come on and argue for their side of an argument topic suggested by kids. I’ve listened to shows on Dogs vs. Cats, Trick-or-Treating vs. Birthday Parties, Kung Fu vs. Tap Dancing, and Books vs. Movies. They’re pretty much all hilarious.  A student calls in as judge, and awards points in each round of argument, and you and your students can do the same. The first round is really well produced, with the debater using music, sound effects, and stories to complement their research and facts. It’s called the “Statement of Greatness.” The next round is something funny, like they have to imagine explaining their topic to aliens or making a movie trailer for their topic. The last main round is a sneak attack, where the contestants have to come up with some kind of specific pitch on the spot, like showing how great their topic is through words that rhyme with it.  I’m sure your mind is already spinning with ways you could use this show to help kids practice argument and have fun debates.  There are so many good episodes, but, as the student judge put it, the “fear-mongering” in the shower statement of greatness was incredibly effective (and sooooo funny). Listen in to find out why my family had serious trouble deciding who would win, and why your students will probably get a big kick out of this show. Go Further:  Explore alllll the Episodes of The Spark Creativity Teacher Podcast. 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!     

Om Podcasten

Want to love walking into your ELA classroom each day? Excited about innovative strategies like PBL, escape rooms, hexagonal thinking, sketchnotes, one-pagers, student podcasting, genius hour, and more? Want a thriving choice reading program and a shelf full of compelling diverse texts? You're in the right place! Here you'll find interviews with top authors from the ELA field, workshops with strategies you can use in class immediately, and quick tips to ignite your English teacher creativity. Love teaching poetry? Explore blackout poems, book spine poems, I am from poems, performance poetry, lessons for contemporary poets, and more. Excited to get started with hexagonal thinking? Find out how to build your first deck of hexagons, guide your students through their first discussion, and even expand into hexagonal one-pagers. Into visual learning? Me too! Learn about sketchnotes, one-pagers, and the writing makerspace. Want to get your students podcasting? Get the top technology recs you need to make it happen, and find out what tips a podcaster would give to students starting out. Wish your students would fall for choice reading? Explore top titles and how to fund them, learn to make your library more appealing, and find out how to be a top P.R. agent for books in your classroom. In it for the interviews? Fabulous! Find out about project-based-learning, innovative school design, what really helps kids learn deeply, design thinking, how to choose diverse texts, when to scaffold sketchnotes lessons, building your first writing makerspace, cultivating writer's notebooks, getting started with genius hour, and so much more, from our wonderful guests. Here at The Spark Creativity Teacher Podcast, discover you're not alone as a creative English teacher. You're part of a vast community welcoming students to their next escape room, rolling out contemporary poetry and reading aloud on First Chapter Fridays, engaging kids with social media projects and real-world ELA units. As your host (hi, I'm Betsy), I'm here to help you ENJOY your days at school and feel inspired by all the creative ways to teach both contemporary works and the classics your school may be pushing. I taught ELA at the 9th, 10th, 11th, and 12th grade levels both in the United States and overseas for almost a decade, and I didn't always get support for my creativity. Now I'm here to make sure YOU get the creative support you deserve, and it brings me so much joy. Welcome to The Spark Creativity Teacher Podcast, a podcast for English teachers in search of creative teaching strategies!