Expect Unexpected Engagement When you try Hexagonal Thinking in ELA

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Thank you so much for your interest in Flexibly Planned! The joining period has now ended. 

Feeling panicked about how to deal with a fall landscape that seems to change on the daily? 


Tired of lying awake wondering how you’re going to build community and engagement with new students you might not even get to meet on the first day?


I get it.


If you’ve been feeling frustrated by the lack of leadership in your district, worried about how to plan for an uncertain fall, and exhausted by even imagining where to start, you’re not alone.


I’m hearing it everywhere. There doesn’t seem to be a district in America with a clear and helpful plan, supported by PD and tech implementation.


What the heck? Why are our national and state leaders waiting till the last minute to make any useful decisions?


But here’s the deal, you don’t have to wait for them. 


It is possible to start taking charge over your own teaching this fall, starting right now. That’s right, no more waiting. No more tapping your foot in fury in the middle of the night, wondering how and what to plan, who you’ll be teaching and where.


You CAN connect with your students right away, and begin building relationships and community from day one in any scenario.


You CAN begin to plan out your first units, preparing creative lessons flexible to online and in-person learning.


You CAN craft units that allow you to teach students in a blended model without designing multiple lesson plans for every single day.

When you join Flexibly Planned for the month of August, you’ll finally have a leader with solutions to share. You’ll get community-building curriculum for any scenario, help for planning blended learning units, support for launching programs that can succeed despite the uncertainty, and more. We’ll be tackling this crazy time together, and you’ll be helping me help you, sharing your feedback and questions along the way in our Facebook group.

You’re ready to approach fall feeling confident, full of ideas to share in department meetings and comfortable with the fact that you may teach in several different scenarios as circumstances in our nation shift. But how? 
Here’s what’s coming inside our creative community:

Help for the first week of school, with editable syllabus templates focused on blended learning and icebreaker activities you can use in any scenario. ($10 value)

Creative curriculum to help you build connection and community in the first few weeks, no matter your model. Get students creating digital bulletin boards and infographics about themselves, interviewing family members for a podcast about their own lives, choosing and illustrating their one word to guide the year, writing six word memoirs, and more. ($15 value)
Guidance for using consistent programs like First Chapter Fridays and Genius Hour to build a flexible curriculum that adapts easily to classroom and distance learning. ($10 value)
Plug-and-play writing curriculum that’s easy to use in or out of class, and doesn’t require a text. You’ll get access to my full real-world argument writing curriculum AND fifteen level-up writing lessons with practice that you can use in any scenario. ($10 value)
Case studies with recommendations for creating flexible blended learning units that don’t require outlining multiple lesson plans for every day, plus community conversation about how to implement the ideas in different schools. ($20 value)

Tips for how to schedule your weeks, plus information about using templates and batching to speed up your workflow in this busy season. ($10 value)

+ A community pursuing the same goals as you, and my coaching and support along the way. 

 A Quick Tour of Flexibly Planned




Inside our Facebook community, you’ll find four units laid out, one for each week. Every Monday, I’ll fill them in for you with explanations, Google Links, and helpful tips. Then I’ll share a blended learning case study to give you ideas for how to fit our flexible planning concepts into different scenarios. You’ll also have a chance to ask your questions and talk everything over with me and the other creative English teachers in our membership.
Take a peek at an example week. 



Now here’s the full plan.


Now here’s the full plan, though we may add and tweak along the way based on the needs of our community inside. 


Week One: Planning a Positive First Week of School
Community Building Curriculum, Syllabus Templates, Welcome Postcards, Case Study
Week Two: Creative Programs you can Rely on for Any Scenario
First Chapter Fridays, Genius Hour, Project-Based Learning, Case Study
Week Three: Plug-and-Play Writing Curriculum, no Text Required
Real-World Argument Curriculum, 15 Writing Lessons with Practice, Case Study
Week Four: Planning Smoothly: Templates, Schedules, Batching
Tips and Explanations, Batching Challenge, Weekly Plan Template, Case Study
Are you ready for support in tackling the challenges this fall will bring? 

Maybe you’re wondering if this community is the right fit for you. 
You might be thinking that you don’t have time for this. But that’s why I’m keeping it clear and simple. On Mondays, pop into the group for a little while to learn our newest strategies and pick up any curriculum. Then you can choose to engage in discussion around the case study and ask questions during the week if you wish, but you don’t have to! You can choose your own adventure. 
You might be wondering if there’s really anything you can do to make such a tough situation better. These are hard times, there’s no doubt about it. But I’ve spent the last four months designing curriculum, producing podcasts, guiding discussion in Creative High School English, and writing blog posts to help make it easier. There are options, solutions and possibilities, and I’m looking forward to sharing them with you in the clearest way I can. 
Testimonials

 In case you’re wondering if you can trust me as a guide, let me share a few nice things folks have said along the way. 

Your Ticket
Are you ready to invest in a more confident return to school? Ready to leave the anxieties of having no guidance behind? Membership in Flexibly Planned is just $33. 

If for some reason you dive into the group, explore the resources and case studies, and discover it’s not the right fit for you, simply email me at betsy@nowsparkcreativity.com by September 1, 2020 for a full refund. I’m confident you’re going to find help. 
Did I mention the bonuses?
Everyone in the group will have access to the bonus unit with three special add-ons.  

First will come ideas for social-emotional support activities you can use to check-in with your students during the stressful time of COVID-19. ($20 value)

Next up, I’ll be sharing a curated list of my top podcast episodes to help you as you plan for this school year. You’ll get my top 10 recommendations that can make this fall smoother for you from over 90 episodes. ($17 value)

Yep, I’m diving right in. If you’ve got young kids at home, and might be teaching at one desk while they play at a table or on a carpet right next to you, I’m here with some helpful ideas. I’ve got a four-year-old and an eight-year-old and we discovered some winners in the spring that I’m happy to share. ($17 value)
About Me: Betsy Potash
I’m a former high school English teacher turned blogger, podcaster, and curriculum-designer. You can find my work in California English, We Are Teachers, Cult of Pedagogy, Teachwriting.org, Independent School Magazine, and of course, here on my website. I founded the collaborative online community Creative High School English, where over 14,000 English teachers work together to bring creativity to their classrooms. I love what I do! Oh, and I also love chocolate cake, rollerblading, photography, and travel. Next year, my family and I are taking a leap and moving to Bratislava, Slovakia for the next chapter of our adventure.



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