The Creative Classroom with John Spencer
I want to see teachers transform classrooms into spaces of creativity and wonder. So, here's where I explore what it means to make this a reality.
- Update frequency
- every 13 days
- Episodes
- 16
- Years Active
- 2025
10 Creative Risks to Take With Your Students This Year
As the year begins, we are all thinking about the idea of building a classroom community. Although I am no longer at the K-12 level, I am reminded of the power of community as I think about the cohor…
Tue 02 Sep 2025
How Deeper Learning Can Address Summer Learning Loss
Every year, we hear news reports about the “summer slide,” or the summer learning loss. Students arrive to school behind where they left off in May or June. This is a real challenge. But there’s more…
Fri 22 Aug 2025
How Will AI Transform the Teaching Profession? Four Trends to Consider
Machine learning is changing our world in profound ways. It will impact the way we learn and the way we teach. In today’s article and podcast, I want share a few big ideas on what that might look lik…
Fri 08 Aug 2025
Back to School in the Age of AI
Throughout this summer, I’ve had the opportunity to lead professional development on ethical AI integration throughout the United States. In some cases, it’s been a keynote and customized sessions. I…
Tue 29 Jul 2025
Six Ways to Empower Students to Own the Classroom Community
When AJ Juliani and I co-wrote the book Empower, we focused on the ways that students could own the learning process. It’s the core idea of shifting from being teacher-centered toward being more stud…
Thu 17 Jul 2025
The Slow Work of Great Teaching – Why Speed Can’t Be the Only Metric for Student Success
When I was a student, I thought I was a top tier reader. My teacher didn’t do numbers for our reading groups. She chose large cats. But I knew that it was better to be a Lion than an Ocelot. I knew m…
Wed 02 Jul 2025
Deeper Learning is a Better Path Forward
Teaching has always been challenging, but right now it feels heavier. In this piece, I share a conversation with Mike, a fifth-grade teacher who’s feeling the weight of tech distractions, AI-written …
Wed 04 Jun 2025
Teachers Are the Champions of Depth in a Culture of Distractions
In classrooms across the country, something subtle but powerful is taking shape. Amidst the distractions, the surface-level shortcuts, and the pressure to speed everything up, I’ve seen students quie…
Thu 22 May 2025
Why Deeper Learning Is a Critical Advantage in the Age of AI
The future is unpredictable. So, when we try to design learning experiences that “prepare students for the future,” we have to recognize that we don’t always know what they’ll need. In this article, …
Wed 30 Apr 2025
In a World of AI, Content Curation Is More Important Than Ever
Content curation is a vital part of the creative process. In this blog post and podcast, we explore why curation matters and how we can help students learn how to engage in the curation process. List…
Tue 22 Apr 2025
Sam Marsden on the Value of Improv Games to Spark Creative Thinking
In my latest podcast episode, I interview Samantha Marsden, who shares how drama and improve strategies can help students gain creative confidence, improve their communication skills, and engage in i…
Wed 16 Apr 2025
We Want Students to Be Creative, But How Do We Assess This?
We know that creativity is vital for student learning. We also know that we tend to value the things we assess. However, when we assess creativity, we can unwittingly cause students to become risk-av…
Tue 08 Apr 2025
Centaurs, Cyborgs, and Coffee-Bearded Logos – Seven Ways AI Is Changing Creativity
About a week ago, ChatGPT rolled out a major update to its image generation and suddenly my feed was flooded with AI-generated images in the style of Studio Ghibli. While the results are impressive (…
Wed 02 Apr 2025
Ten Ways to Use AI for Deeper Learning and Mastery
We often hear about AI and student cheating. This is a valid concern. But I’d like to highlight ways that we can use AI for deeper mastery. In this post (and podcast), I explore how we can move beyon…
Wed 26 Mar 2025
Ten Traditional Teaching Practices that Still Belong in a PBL Unit
While it’s easy to reject traditional teaching practices as “less authentic” in PBL, we explore why these ten strategies actually belong in PBL unit plans. Listen to the Podcast If you enjoy this blo…
Thu 20 Mar 2025
Lynn Cashell on How She Integrated AI into Genius Hour
In this latest episode, Lynn Cashell shares how she integrated AI into her student Genius Hour projects. Listen to the Podcast If you enjoy this blog but you’d like to listen to it on the go, just cl…
Thu 13 Mar 2025
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are the property of John Spencer ([email protected]). This content is not affiliated with or endorsed by eachpod.com.