Change More than the Calendar: Hooray for Monday

December 28, 2020
By Aleta Margolis, Founder and President, Center for Inspired Teaching

Hooray for Monday is a weekly blog filled with questions, ideas, reflections, and actions we can all take to remodel the school experience for students.

In four short days, the calendar will read 2021. Hooray! January 1 will arrive no matter what we do! Many of us are breathing easier, relieved that this year is nearly done and hopeful about the new year.

However, if we want more than the date to change, there’s work to be done. And as teachers and changemakers, we have the power to help make 2021 a year of authentic, positive change.

A cornerstone activity of the Inspired Teaching Institute involves challenging teachers to grapple with the question:

What is in my control and what is outside of my control?

So much of what has happened this past year has been outside of our control. We have found ourselves teaching in front of screens filled with a combination of our students’ faces and blank squares, and in in-person classrooms with some of our students seated at desks six feet apart and some participating remotely. We have reinvented instruction over and over in order to meet our students’ needs within constraints we could never have imagined a year ago. Much of the reinvention was necessarily reactive; it happened in response to changes forced on schools by the pandemic.

This moment in time, when we can catch our collective breath and reflect on the past year, offers an opportunity to make some changes proactively, to do what Inspired Teachers do: be intentional in creating learning experiences for and with students, in elevating student voice and supporting student agency, in centering anti-racist teaching practices, and in building meaningful, caring relationships with students and their families.

School needs to be reworked. We can’t afford to wait and hope it will happen. We need to make it happen.

While that may sound daunting, it’s doable if you start, as Inspired Teachers do, with questions. Here are some to get you going on your 2021 changemaking journey:

What did I do this past year that I want to keep in the coming year?
Maybe it’s more inventive ways of building relationships with students and their families or regular check-ins with students or involving students in lesson planning.
- What are my concrete plans to maintain these things, and incorporate them into my teaching?
What did I do this past year that I want to change? Maybe it’s being more proactive and less reactive or striving to make school more human or helping students see the joy in learning science.
- What are my concrete plans to let go of old ways of doing things? What will I do instead? How will I make sure I have the supports to make these changes?
What do I want my students to be curious about in the coming year? Maybe it’s how a vaccine works or how to understand and combat racism or how our brains learn and change every day or why we inaugurate our presidents on January 20.
What rituals and routines will I put in place as school starts up again to establish a positive experience for my students and myself? (Tune in next week for more on rituals and routines.)
How will I support my students in telling the story of 2020 – from the perspective of our country, our city or town, our school, their families, or themselves as individuals?
How can I advocate for meaningful, engagement-based teaching and learning in my school and beyond?

In addition to tackling these questions yourself, consider posing some or all of them to your students. And put students in charge – of collecting responses, and of proposing plans to incorporate those responses into the classroom experience.

As Gandhi wisely said, “Be the change that you wish to see in the world.”

We can’t wait and see if 2021 will bring positive change. We have to create it. All of us at Inspired Teaching will be right beside you, supporting you and engaging in our own changemaking work, at the classroom, school, and systemic level. Together, we can make school a place of joy, belonging, and learning for everyone.

Here comes 2021! Let’s make it a truly happy New Year!

Micaiah Anderson

Community Outreach Specialist

As a Community Outreach Specialist, Micaiah is responsible for program promotion and outreach support for Inspired Teaching events and workshops. Micaiah has a passion for collaborating with community members to build-power and connect. She is an educator with a heart for youth and has experience supporting students fight injustices within their schools and communities. She has a BA in Political Science from, the real HU, Hampton University & anticipates graduating in May 2024 with a Masters of Arts degree in Educational Policy Transformation from Georgetown University.

AUTONOMY

"I want to have a say in what happens to me."

Autonomy is the need for independence; the ability to make choices, to create, to explore, and to express oneself freely; to have sufficient space, to move around, and to feel unrestricted with opportunities to exercise free will.

Brady Maiden

Outreach Coordinator

As the Outreach Coordinator, Brady helps maintain Inspired Teaching’s social media presence and supports the organization’s mission to connect with DC community leaders, educators, and parents. Brady has her Master’s in Public Policy from George Mason University and her BS in Political Science from Northern Arizona University. She is passionate about community, equity, and coalition building recognizing that learning and growing with the community at large is how we continue to be impactful.

What brings you joy in life?

I find joy in spending time with my friends and family and meeting new people. I like going to concerts and festivals, and finding new books to read.

The Learner’s Cycle, Wonder-Experiment-Learn, and the Teacher’s Cycle, Observe-Plan-Instigate, comprise Inspired Teaching’s approach to engaging students in inquiry-based learning.

When they are engaged in the Wonder-Experiment-Learn Cycle, students are immersed in learning. They take the lead in designing authentic learning experiences around their own interests and their school’s standards of learning. Each discovery leads to a new question which in turn leads to more wondering and more learning. In the Wonder-Experiment-Learn Cycle, Learn is not a destination or an endpoint; it is a deeper understanding, leading to a deeper wondering and new possibilities that create new entry points to further exploration. The cycle continues because what students have learned generates more wonderings that require more experiments that foster more learning – and on and on.

The Observe-Plan-Instigate Cycle is the work of an Inspired Teacher. While a student is expected to follow the Wonder-Experiment-Learn Cycle, the teacher joins them on the learning journey while following their own cycle of Observe-Plan-Instigate. This cycle ultimately serves to ensure an inquiry-based atmosphere is at play in the classroom.

Jaqueta Abbey

Teaching and Learning Specialist

Jaqueta is the Teaching and Learning Specialist for Inspired Teaching. In addition to her current role with Inspired Teaching, Jaqueta is a first-grade teaching assistant. Her background features a variety of traditional and non-traditional experiences in the field of education, including working as an adjunct professor, teaching summer reading programs to children and adults, and tutoring children in the foster care system. Jaqueta earned a B.A. in Communication Studies from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and an M.A. in Interactive Media from Elon University.

What brings you joy in life?

Creative self-expression! In addition to my passion for storytelling, I love dancing of all kinds. I've studied belly dance, bachata, and Brazilian Zouk among other styles. I also enjoy glass fusing, crocheting, photography, and cross stitching. These art forms allow me to express myself and build connections with other people at the same time. I think life would be a lot less vibrant without artists and storytellers!

Michelle Welk

Communication & Marketing Specialist

As Communications and Marketing Specialist, Michelle is responsible for finding and creating new ways to highlight Inspired Teaching and promote its programs in order to expand and deepen the organization's impact. Michelle has worked in communications in an array of settings, from creative agencies to state politics to national nonprofits. She has a BA in Journalism from Temple University in Philadelphia and is passionate about education, access, and equity.

What brings you joy in life?

My son, the beach, making a persuasive argument and good food!

Max Peterson

Real World History Assistant Teacher

Max received his Bachelor’s degree in History and African American Studies from Boston University in May 2016. He has worked in museum curation at the Museum of the White Mountains in New Hampshire and the Smithsonian National Museum of American History. Max has worked with young people of varying ages from young children to young adults transitioning to college.

Feedback and Accountability

We grow through feedback and an understanding that the quality of our work is a reflection of what we are learning, but the shift to remote learning this spring disrupted a lot of the tools teachers were used to using to evaluate student growth. How might we do things differently this fall? Participants in this workshop will explore ways to bring meaningful assessment into the virtual and/or socially-distanced classroom and approaches to student feedback that strengthen motivation, and build relationships and achievement.