Changemakers in Action: An Evening of Engagement and Celebration

Mara Duquette, our Director, Program Administration, oversees Center for Inspired Teaching’s Residency program operations, including managing residency partner sites and program stakeholders, recruitment and selection, and government reporting and compliance. She’s also responsible for creating a community of Inspired Teachers through her work with all of Inspired Teaching’s programs, alumni engagement, brand management, and event coordination.

Change itself may be inevitable, but positive change is a choice that we can make. Building on the best intentions, knowledge, and resources, we can be proactive about the change we want to see. That’s why Inspired Teaching loves the word changemakers, and that’s why we use it as a keyword to how we frame our mission.

On the evening of May 28, Inspired Teaching staff, Residency alumni, Real World History students, and members of our DC-area educational community gathered at the offices of Holland and Knight LLP for Changemakers in Action, a celebration of engagement-based education and Residency’s 10th anniversary.

We heard from three featured speakers: Ariel Weissburg, Director of Curriculum & Instruction at Sela Public Charter School; Saul Diaz-Cruz, a student from Capital City PCS and winner of the citywide National History Day contest; and Zachary Parker, Ward 5 Representative on the DC State Board of Education. We also celebrated the release of a new white paper titled Closing the Engagement Gap: A Social Justice Imperative.

Speakers for Change

Ariel Weissburg has the distinction of being a 2009 Inspired Teaching Fellow from the Residency’s inaugural cohort. She spoke about success as an individual and a teacher throughout her life, and about how the Inspired Teaching community helped her achieve it in so many ways. That success includes her current administrative role at Sela PCS.

Above: 2009 Inspired Teaching Fellow Ariel Weissburg shares her story as an Inspired Teacher.

Saul Diaz-Cruz is in Inspired Teaching’s Real World History program at Capital City PCS. He’s a first-place winner for individual websites in DC’s National History Day contest, which qualified him for the national contest. He shared an excerpt from his presentation about Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and the Chicago Freedom Movement. His articulation and passion spoke to RWH’s powerful engagement, and it was easy to see why this young man won in his category.

Zachary Parker, in addition to representing Ward 5 on the DC State Board of Education, also serves as Senior Director of School Support for The Achievement Network. He based his remarks that evening on the question, “How can the onus of learning be put on the student?” As a third-generation educator who’s been a leader in the fight against educational inequity for over ten years, in both New Orleans and DC, Zachary showed a keen understanding of student engagement as the key to academic success.

Real World History

Saul’s work and those of his Real World History classmates emphasized our daily connection to the historical resources that surround us. Other students in the program shared their National History Day projects as well as the work they’ve done at their internship sites across the city. We were fascinated to see the different ways that they connected with the “real world” through the course — and proud to see how Inspired Teaching’s RWH program had inspired so many students.

One student discovered that his next-door neighbor had been part of the Great Migration of African Americans from the South to the North and West during the early and mid-20th century, and he interviewed him for RWH’s oral history project. Another student interned at the Woodrow Wilson House, which happened to be displaying Helen Zughaib’s Migrations, an exhibit depicting the journeys of present-day Syrian refugees. This student was captivated to learn that Ms. Zughaib was reinterpreting Jacob Lawrence’s Migration Series, a set of prints documenting the journeys of African Americans between 1916 and 1970 that RWH students analyze each year in the course.

Another student shared his National History Day project about Fort Stevens. He chose this topic not only because his name was Steven, but because he lived near Fort Stevens and “never really knew much about it until now.” After presenting his exhibit at NHD, the Fort Stevens staff invited him to present it at the commemoration of the anniversary of the Civil War-era Battle of Fort Stevens.

Above: Zachary Parker speaking with a Real World History student about his National History Day project.

Social Justice and Action Research We also celebrated the release of a new white paper titled Closing the Engagement Gap: A Social Justice Imperative. This work reflects our long-held belief that how we teach students is a critical piece of educational equity — at least as important as policy, access, discipline, and other issues commonly associated with equity. Educators nationwide are starting to recognize that our schools must rethink education itself in order to promote equity. Closing the Engagement Gap gathers the research that we hope will shift this focus toward pedagogy.

This theme was supported throughout the evening, particularly when the 2017 Inspired Teaching Fellows presented action research from their classroom. Each had chosen a topic that was meaningful to them and their students, including:

Storytelling Story Acting in a Mixed-Age PreK Classroom: Impacts of Oral Language and Vocabulary Development
How Can Listening Sessions Impact Students’ Attitudes About School?
How Does Classroom Rearrangement Affect Student Learning?
The Effects of Teacher Self-Care on Student-Teacher Relationships

The Fellows noted that the research they did in the spring semester will directly inform their role as teacher next year, and that their results were directly actionable for their classrooms.

Above: 2017 Inspired Teaching Fellow Sophie Super shares her action research with guests.

In our world, this is what change looks like. And we were happy to celebrate our kind of change that evening in a roomful of changemakers!.

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.