July 14, 2025
By Aleta Margolis, Founder and President
Listen to this week’s Hooray For Monday podcast for the audio version of this newsletter.
I founded Inspired Teaching with the understanding that an engaging education is necessary for deep learning; and that much work needs to be done in order to ensure all students experience teaching that is high quality and engaging. Some of the first students I taught were high schoolers involved in the juvenile justice system. I saw first-hand the expectations—or lack thereof—for their achievement; and I saw first-hand the amazing things they achieved when they were taught in a way that centered their experiences and perspectives.
For the past 30 years, thousands and thousands of Inspired Teachers have proved that students thrive when school is meaningful and engaging.
We published our white paper, “Closing the Engagement Gap: A Social Justice Imperative” in 2019, and its message resonates even more today. The white paper offers three extensively researched and proven strategies for supporting students most in need of engaging learning and least likely to receive it.
I encourage you to read through the full document at the button below, and have included an overview here:
- Build strong relationships with students through an asset-based approach.In order for students to succeed in school and beyond, they must be treated as emerging experts with valuable perspectives to share, and not as problems to be fixed.
- Honor and center students’ funds of knowledge and ways of knowing.Successful teaching requires learning about students’ funds of knowledge and then harnessing and building upon that knowledge to help students learn more effectively.
- Engage students with learning experiences that are meaningful to them, that are relevant to their lives, and that bring them joy.Although compliance-based, “no excuses” schools are occasionally lauded for their high test scores, a number of studies have shown that such schools’ academic successes come from factors that have nothing to do with their harsh disciplinary practices. There is also evidence that no-excuses schools’ disciplinary practices seem to have negative effects on non-academic outcomes such as social-emotional skills, and intrinsic motivation.
I hope this white paper offers some inspirational summer reading—and a reminder that teaching students to be curious and think critically is a powerful and hopeful act, today, tomorrow, and always.
For additional insights, resources, and information on Inspired Teaching teacher and youth programming, subscribe to the Hooray For Monday newsletter!
Hooray For Monday is an award-winning weekly publication of Center for Inspired Teaching, a social change nonprofit organization that champions the power of curiosity and is dedicated to transforming the school experience from compliance-based to engagement-based. Inspired Teaching provides transformative, improvisation-based professional learning for teachers that is 100% engaging – intellectually, emotionally, and physically.
