Hooray For 2023!
The resources you need to make every day of the year engaging and joyful!
Join us for interactive LIVE professional development every month!
January: Storytelling Across Disciplines
What role do stories play in learning?
In this Institute, we will:
- explore ways storytelling can be a tool for teaching a deep understanding of content and relationship building;
- learn to identify and center student interests in instruction;
- and practice activities that boost student voice including the process of gathering oral histories.
January
Begin 2023 with a sense of renewed optimism! Help your students — and yourself — rediscover and recommit to your goals for the school year. January has inspiring and practical resources for refreshing mindsets and building on what your students learned in 2022.
Speak Truth: Thursday, January 26
Join us for this virtual event, featuring guest speaker Helanius Wilkins. Helanius, a choreographer and performance artist, will share his insights on the power of “Talking Across Dividing Lines” and our student participants will take the lead in debating and discussing the importance of holding conversations with people whose perspectives differ from your own. As with all Speak Truth events, this will be youth-centered. Adults are welcome to observe as the students take the floor! Register to attend here.
Start your week with the insights, activities, and tools you need for inspiring enthusiasm for learning in the week ahead with these issues from the Hooray For Monday archive.
Finding Newness in Repetition
Aspirations and Contributions
What Inspired You to Teach?
No matter which grade level or subject area you teach, #Inspired2Learn has ready-to-go activities you can use to make deeper connections to lessons and spark conversations.
Watch it Grow – Exercising Patience
3 Ways to Check the Mood of the Room
Challenge yourself to strengthen your practice and sharpen your skillsets with the Instigator of Thought Challenge.
Let Students Be Teachers
February
Curiosity — about ourselves, our environment, others — is at the core of storytelling. Make February a month for curiosity and discovering (and rediscovering!) more about the world, your neighborhood, your classroom, and your students.
Start your week with the insights, activities, and tools you need for inspiring enthusiasm for learning in the week ahead with these issues from the Hooray For Monday archive.
Be Curious: Inquiry, the 2nd I
What’s Your Story?
Honoring Changemakers
Preserving Memories
Telling vs. Teaching
No matter which grade level or subject area you teach, #Inspired2Learn has ready-to-go activities you can use to make deeper connections to lessons and spark conversations.
Word at a Time Stories
Hands and Feet Stories
Seeing with Different Eyes
Listening with Someone Else’s Ears
Automatic Writing
Story as Witnessing
Start a News Show
Challenge yourself to strengthen your practice and sharpen your skillsets with the Instigator of Thought Challenge.
March
Just as we aim to instill in our students an enduring love of inquiry and exploration, we too should aspire to be lifelong learners. March’s resources provide inspiration for discovering new things about ourselves, our students, our practice, and our world!
Don’t miss this month’s Inspired Teaching Institute!
Start your week with the insights, activities, and tools you need for inspiring enthusiasm for learning in the week ahead with these issues from the Hooray For Monday archive.
Divine Dissatisfaction
Bring on the Challenge
Improvisational Mindset
Professional Learning as Self-Care
What Inspired You to Teach
No matter which grade level or subject area you teach, #Inspired2Learn has ready-to-go activities you can use to make deeper connections to lessons and spark conversations.
Finding the Zone of Proximal Development
Yes But vs. Yes And
Challenge yourself to strengthen your practice and sharpen your skillsets with the Instigator of Thought Challenge (an Anthem Award-winning resource!).
Let Go of Deliver
Make Praise Meaningful
Poster Analysis
Say Yes More
Track the Questions You Ask
What Drives You
April
April lends itself to moments of joy. It is the first full month of spring, and the longer days, warmer weather, and anticipation of summertime fuel excitement in the classroom. Now is the perfect time to rediscover and reinforce the importance of fun and nurture our connections to ourselves and to one another.
Don’t miss this month’s Inspired Teaching Institute!
Start your week with the insights, activities, and tools you need for inspiring enthusiasm for learning in the week ahead with these issues from the Hooray For Monday archive.
Create Connection by Sharing Student Expertise
Curiosity and School Connectedness
Our Capacity for Kindness
Motivated by Joy
The Healing Power of Laughter
Who Do You Teach
Happy That You’re Here
Collective Effervescence
Prioritizing Fun
Have Fun!
No matter which grade level or subject area you teach, #Inspired2Learn has ready-to-go activities you can use to make deeper connections to lessons and spark conversations.
Coloring Our Emotions
3 Ways to Check the Mood of the Room
Inside/Outside
Showing Kindness from a Distance: Words of Encouragement
Challenge yourself to strengthen your practice and sharpen your skillsets with the Instigator of Thought Challenge (an Anthem Award-winning resource!).
Emotion Continuum
Make Praise Meaningful
Track the Questions You Ask
May
We know our students well at this point in the school year. We can anticipate their questions, comments, and jokes. The classroom runs like a well-oiled machine. But while it’s commendable to be so in tune, you may be missing an opportunity to learn something new about or from your students if you operate on auto-pilot. Instead, use these last few weeks to really be curious; you may be surprised at what you discover!
Don’t miss this month’s Inspired Teaching Institute!
Clear+Vivid with Alan Alda: This podcast is worth a listen! Alan Alda, in addition to being a television star, writer, and director, is also an accomplished communicator. Every week, his interviews offer insights into building connections and communicating better, including the importance of real listening.
Start your week with the insights, activities, and tools you need for inspiring enthusiasm for learning in the week ahead with these issues from the Hooray For Monday archive.
Be Curious
Be Quiet
Children Will Listen
Who’s Doing the Talking?
Listening to Our Students
Talking Across Dividing Lines
To, Not, For, WITH
No matter which grade level or subject area you teach, #Inspired2Learn has ready-to-go activities you can use to make deeper connections to lessons and spark conversations.
Listening with Someone Else’s Ears
Story as Witnessing
Read Aloud Often and Together
How Vigorous is My Heart?
Do Just One Thing
Challenge yourself to strengthen your practice and sharpen your skillsets with the Instigator of Thought Challenge (an Anthem Award-winning resource!).
Don’t Speak
Let Students Be Teachers
Make Praise Meaningful
Prep to Music
Track the Questions You Ask
June
Summer is right around the corner! While these last days may feel like a mad dash to wrap up lessons, it is actually the perfect time to step back and reflect on what’s been accomplished this school year. What do your students, and you, remember from the earliest days of getting to know one another? What have you learned? What surprised you? These conversations illuminate progress made and reinforce the community built over the course of the year, giving students (and you) a strong foundation on which to build come September!
Inspired Teaching Summer 2023 Resource Guide: Keep your skills fresh this summer — and maybe learn a thing or two! The Inspired Teaching Summer 2023 Resource Guide is chock-full of information on our joyful programming and engaging tools for strengthening your teaching while school is out.
Start your week with the insights, activities, and tools you need for inspiring enthusiasm for learning in the week ahead with these issues from the Hooray For Monday archive.
Preserving Memories
Building Community
Essential Community Members
Being Intentional
What Are You Taking with You?
No matter which grade level or subject area you teach, #Inspired2Learn has ready-to-go activities you can use to make deeper connections to lessons and spark conversations.
3 Closing Activities to Connect with Families
5 Closing Activities to Reinforce Learning
Finding Smiles
Plan a Trip
Challenge yourself to strengthen your practice and sharpen your skillsets with the Instigator of Thought Challenge (an Anthem Award-winning resource!).
Ask “So What?”
Say “Yes” More
Take a Break and Move
Graffiti Board
Scribe’s Record
July
Making time for rest and relaxation in the summer is essential. It provides us with the necessary space to wrestle with the larger questions and issues we set aside during the school year, when more immediate demands hold our attention. Dedicating time for reflection allows us to step back and engage with deeper contemplations, to reconsider our purpose as teachers and the role we play in our students’ lives – and they in ours. As we settle into the season, enjoy the freedom of your summer schedule and the bandwidth to think big.
Start your week with the insights, activities, and tools you need for inspiring enthusiasm for learning in the week ahead with these issues from the Hooray For Monday archive.
The Importance of Rest
Divine Dissatisfaction
Trusting Our Ability to Make Change
Teaching the Truth
Is it OK to Hope?
A is for Autonomy
Essential Community Members
Vacation and Brain Incubation
No matter which grade level or subject area you teach, #Inspired2Learn has ready-to-go activities you can use to make deeper connections to lessons and spark conversations.
Finding Yourself on the Line
Finding Smiles
Zoom Out
10 Ways to Make a Walk a Learning Experience
Start a News Show
Documenting our Shared Experience
Challenge yourself to strengthen your practice and sharpen your skillsets with the Instigator of Thought Challenge (an Anthem Award-winning resource!).
Ask “So What?”
If You Want to be President
Poster Analysis
What Drives You?
August
The start of a new school year is a time for excitement and anticipation. Preparing our classrooms and lesson plans for a group of new students is our chance to set the tone for the year ahead. There will be standards and objectives to teach, of course, but in this flurry of creation, we must also make space for exploring curiosity, building community, and thinking critically. Inspired Teaching has programming, resources, and insights to support you in all three!
The ABCDE of Learner Needs Guidebook: A detailed, research-based, standards-based, treasure trove with specific guidance and concrete action steps for teachers, school leaders, parents, and all thoughtful adults who want to make sure the children in their care can thrive. Whether you are an administrator, teacher, student, or caregiver, we all need Autonomy, Belonging, Competence, Developmental Appropriateness, Engagement, and Fun in order to learn and thrive. We CAN meet these needs in schools and we don’t need to go to extreme measures to do so. This Guidebook includes links to classroom activities, printable reflection and planning sheets, posters for your classroom walls, and a whole section designed to be shared with families. Download your copy today!
Start your week with the insights, activities, and tools you need for inspiring enthusiasm for learning in the week ahead with these issues from the Hooray For Monday archive.
The Power of Might
Curiosity and School Connectedness
What Inspired You to Teach?
Time Traveling
Beyond Box-Checking
Is it OK to Hope?
No matter which grade level or subject area you teach, #Inspired2Learn has ready-to-go activities you can use to make deeper connections to lessons and spark conversations.
20 Ways to Start School Days In this booklet from the September 2022 Inspired Teaching Institute, you’ll find an array of resources for getting the year – and each day – started with enthusiasm, from how to welcome students in the door to exercises for connecting greetings to the day’s lessons.
What would make you look forward to coming to school?
Watch it Grow: Exercising Patience
Challenge yourself to strengthen your practice and sharpen your skillsets with the Instigator of Thought Challenge (an Anthem Award-winning resource!).
September
This month, the new school year will be in full-swing. The days will undoubtedly fly by as you get to know your students, they get to know one another, and everyone acclimates to new routines. It can be easy to lose the forest for the trees as lessons and assignments begin to replace the community-building activities of the earliest days. But creating meaningful, lasting connections in the classroom requires intentional, year-round attention. September’s Hooray For 2023 resources can help!
Start your week with the insights, activities, and tools you need to inspire enthusiasm for learning in the week ahead with these issues from the Hooray For Monday archive.
Making Good Mistakes
We Learn Better When We Are Known
Building Relationships
Aspirations and Contributions
We All Need Belonging
No matter which grade level or subject area you teach, #Inspired2Learn has ready-to-go activities you can use to make deeper connections to lessons and spark conversations.
Coloring Our Emotions
Finding the Zone of Proximal Development
What’s in the Bag?
What Would You See in a Museum of Me?
Challenge yourself to strengthen your practice and sharpen your skillsets with the Instigator of Thought Challenge (an Anthem Award-winning resource!).
Don’t Speak
Let Students Be Teachers
Lunch Date
Scribe’s Record
Take a Break and Move!
October
You’ve used the beginning of the school year to help students build relationships and set the tone for your classroom. You’ve established routine and rhythm in your instruction and likely have an assessment or two helping you understand your students’ strengths and where they may need some additional support. It’s the perfect point in the school year to be intentional about empowering students to take further ownership of their learning and classroom community!
If you teach or otherwise know high school students in DC, tell them about the kick-off event for the 2023-2024 Speak Truth season! Join Inspired Teaching on Friday, October 20 at 10am – 1pm at the MLK Library for a screening and student-led discussion on the film The First Step. Learn more and register here.
Start your week with the insights, activities, and tools you need to inspire enthusiasm for learning in the week ahead with these issues from the Hooray For Monday archive.
Students as Teachers
Chaos as Curriculum
Be Quiet
Who’s Doing the Talking?
You’ve Got This
Students as Owners
No matter which grade level or subject area you teach, #Inspired2Learn has ready-to-go activities you can use to make deeper connections to lessons and spark conversations.
Finding the Zone of Proximal Development
Start a News Show
What would you see in a museum of me?
Watch it Grow – Exercising Patience
Challenge yourself to strengthen your practice and sharpen your skillsets with the Instigator of Thought Challenge (an Anthem Award-winning resource!).
Don’t Speak
Graffiti Board
Let Go of “Deliver”
Make Room
What Will They Learn?
November
By this point in the school year, your classroom is running like a well-oiled machine. You know your students – and they know you and one another – well. While there is great satisfaction and benefit to this familiarity, you may be missing out on new discoveries by assuming you know what’s coming when one student raises their hand, or the other turns in a writing assignment. Use this time in the school year to expand your understanding of what may be possible!
It’s time! Request your FREE Hooray For 2024 desk calendar today!
Start your week with the insights, activities, and tools you need to inspire enthusiasm for learning in the week ahead with these issues from the Hooray For Monday archive.
Hitting the November Slump Early
Finding Newness in Repetition
Bring on the Challenge
Imagination: The Third I
The Right Kind of Challenge
No matter which grade level or subject area you teach, #Inspired2Learn has ready-to-go activities you can use to make deeper connections to lessons and spark conversations.
5 Closing Activities to Give You Feedback
3 Ways to Check the Mood of the Room
Finding the Zone of Proximal Development
10 Ways to Make a Walk a Learning Experience
Challenge yourself to strengthen your practice and sharpen your skillsets with the Instigator of Thought Challenge (an Anthem Award-winning resource!).
Graffiti Board
If You Want to Be President
Lunch Date
Scribe’s Record
See With Fresh Eyes
December Resources
Where did the year go!? We hope you’ve enjoyed every month of Hooray For 2023, and that the words of Justice Brown Jackson inspire you in December! Use this time to both reflect on all the new things you learned and accomplished in 2023 and plan for the many new things to learn and accomplish are ahead in 2024.
Speaking of which… order your Hooray For 2024 calendars today! With a focus on the ABCDE of Learner Needs, this calendar is a wonderful resource for keeping track of the days and for bringing Inspired Teaching’s award-winning framework into classrooms all year long.
Inspired Breathing for Inspired Teaching: Educators near Bethesda, MD are welcome to join Inspired Teaching at PureFire Yoga! This workshop, designed specifically for teachers, will provide a framework for understanding learner needs and specific improvisation, movement, and breathing techniques for grounding yourself to meet them.
The session will be led by Catherine Dahlman, a neuromuscular massage therapist, Ayurvedic yoga specialist, and expert in bodywork and breathwork, and Aleta Margolis and Jenna Fournel, veteran teacher-educators with Center for Inspired Teaching.
Start your week with the insights, activities, and tools you need to inspire enthusiasm for learning in the week ahead with these issues from the Hooray For Monday archive.
Divine Dissatisfaction
Bring on the Challenge
The Importance of Rest
Finding Newness in Repetition
Reach Toward What is Next
The Right Kind of Challenge
The Freedom to Wonder
No matter which grade level or subject area you teach, #Inspired2Learn has ready-to-go activities you can use to make deeper connections to lessons and spark conversations.
Making Re-Solutions
5 Closing Activities to Reinforce Learning
Do Just One Thing
What Stories are Hiding in the Junk Drawer
Challenge yourself to strengthen your practice and sharpen your skillsets with the Instigator of Thought Challenge (an Anthem Award-winning resource!).
Lunch Date
Say Yet
See with Fresh Eyes
Share Questions with Families
Download the digital version of Hooray For 2023
Monthly inspiration and classroom resources on any device!
Learn More About Inspired Teaching
Watch the below video for more insight into Center for Inspired Teaching’s Approach, our resources for teachers and school leaders, and a peek into an Inspired Teaching Institute.
Like our teaching colleagues, we’re doing our best to accept missteps with grace and humor, while simultaneously working to improve. And we’re celebrating the learning and growth along the way.
