Hey babe, I see you with those 478 standards to cover, 29 tabs open, dusty novels in the book closet, and still staring at the blank Google Doc for Monday...
Kick English teacher decision fatigue to the *metaphorical* curb and turn planning for every single freaking standard into one simple, repeatable system.Â
Real talk:
Literature. Informational text. Poetry. Argument writing, narrative writing, research writing. Grammar. Vocab. Speaking and listening. (Wouldn't it be nice to be a math (ew) teacher and have a REAL "teach this on Monday" guide!?)Â
And you canât teach theme once in September, check the box, and call it a day. Every text is different, so every skill needs a comeback tour.
If youâve been...
Opening your ELA standards doc, Google Drive, and "fun hs English activities" Pinterest board at 8 p.m. andddd *promptly* closing them at 11 with nothing but 19 new tabs and a headache....
Dragging your class through the same novel about 17th-century Puritan baby daddy drama (aka Scarlet Letter situationship...) while they slowly melt into their desks, and you count bathroom passes like theyâre your step tracker.
Spotting phones in laps (like, why is your lap glowing brighter than your ACT score at this point?) and ChatGPTÂ tabs on Chromebooks, thennn playing test-prep drill sergeant when youâd rather just be... yourself (super freaking cool English teacher).
You don't need another stack of "contemporary poems students like" or a random PDF unit plan for Lord of the Flies that you found in a FB group. More activities wonât fix a planning problem, and spoiler: the Sunday scaries donât graduate.
Lit, informational text, poetry, writing, grammar. No more wondering where poetry fits (or if you forgot it (not that I would ever do that)... again).
When the plan feels random, kids check out and the AI shortcuts multiply. You donât need to keep patching together what your teacher bestie down the hall shared with you 2 PLCs ago. You need a smarter system that works with what you already teach.
But thereâs a better way...
Hi, Iâm Dr. Gates, a reluctant reader turned high school English teacher with a PhD in literacy. And for a long time? My class was boring. Even I was bored.
My students asked for the bathroom every ten minutes, and I could see the glow of phones hiding in their laps. So I hunted for the perfect set of activities to fix it. Spoiler: it never showed up.
Then, on a fateful October day over a decade ago, it hit me as I was dressed & teaching literature as Cardi B on Monday and Pocahontas on Tuesday. (Yes, it was spirit week...)Â
I didnât need more ideas. I needed a better way to organize the ones I already had. So I started planning my week like spirit week. Every day got a theme, every theme got a job, and every single day connected back to our anchor text.
Thatâs the secret sauce.
Now I plan with confidence, my students actually show up to think, and reading finally doesnât suck. (Their words, not mine...)
Â
I packed everything I figured out the hard way into three bite-size modules and called the magic: Streamline Your Semester.
âThank you for inspiring this 27 yr. English teacher vet to try new things that make my job so much easier!â
- L.R.
THE RESULTS / THE RESULTS / THE RESULTS / THE RESULTS / THE RESULTS / THE RESULTS / THE RESULTS / THE RESULTS /
1Know exactly what youâre teaching every day of the week.
2Hit every ELA strand without the spreadsheet panic.
3Watch students use their own brains instead of sprinting to ChatGPT or Google orrrr their bestie who had you 1st period.
4Be yourself in class instead of playing test prep drill sergeant.
5Keep your weekends without worrying about Pinterest-ing together what the heck you're going to teach on Monday. Yes, the whole thing...manicure, taco dinner date, TJ Max browsing (paradise)
â â â â â
"This has been the BEST PD I've done all year..."
Kim, English teacher
â â â â â
"U da real GOAT Dr. Gates"
(I couldn't *NOT* include this stellar student review of the way I structure his HS English class. đ)
â â â â â
"Dr. Gates, you breathe life and creativity into the way you conceptualize lessons! It inspires the super veterans like me!"
Hal, 29 year veteran English teacher
â â â â â
"I was so impressed by the quality of this. Itâs clear that it was created by someone who understands the realities of the classroom."
Samantha, 9th grade English teacher
of high school English teachers helped
bite-size modules
hour to plan a whole quarter
Three modules. One smarter way to plan high school English. Understand the shift, learn the system, and watch it work.Â
3 Bite-Size Modules
Plan a Quarter in 1 Hour
Templates Included
Aka the breakup. Find out why the chapter-by-chapter, standard-by-standard approach leaves you drowning, and grab the spirit week mindset that turns a mountain of standards into one clear path.
Aka the secret sauce. Get the exact theme I give each day of the week, see how each one hits lit, informational text, poetry, writing, and grammar, and plug in resources you already own. Predictable for you, never boring for them.
Aka the main event. Come plan a whole quarter with me in one hour. Yes, really. Watch me decide what goes where (and what gets the boot), then plan next semester before grades are even due.
You also get my exact planning templates. Plug in your texts, your standards, and your kids (hehe). Done.
See why planning feels impossible, and why the spirit week concept fixes it.
Get the secret sauce: a theme for every day of the week = a way for you to consistently plug + play to hit ALL of the standards
Watch me werrkkkk & attempt to plan a whole quarter with the Streamline Your Semester system!
one payment of $27
THE TL;DR:
So what are you waiting for?
Letâs make next semester the one where you stop drowning in tabs, stop playing drill sergeant, and start teaching like you again.
Yep. I built every piece of it around the beautiful chaos of high school ELA: lit, informational text, poetry, every flavor of writing, grammar, vocab, speaking, and listening. No kindergarten crossover episodes here.
Nope. The system works with your texts, your standards, and the resources you already have.
Not quite, and thatâs a good thing. I teach you how to plan so you never feel stuck again. You also get my planning templates to make it easy.
Welllll....in my humble opinion, thatâs exactly why you need it. This course shows you where all those activities actually fit.
Three bite-size modules. In Module 3, we plan a whole quarter in one hour. Module 1 takes around 15 min. and Module 2 has a 20-ish min. video!
Instantly! Watch at your own pace, forever. <3
one payment of $27