April 18, 2022

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.

Back in December 2020, when the pandemic was still relatively new and my colleagues and I were still learning to teach our improvisation-based teacher workshops through a screen, Inspired Teaching hosted an online Institute on the topic of Joy. We debated the relative wisdom of offering a program on this topic, given that we were in the midst of a very painful pandemic. But we decided to go forward. With over 50 teachers in attendance and many more on the waiting list, it was one of the most important sessions we ever ran. Even in the depths of struggle, Inspired Teachers know that Joy is a must.

Joy is the fourth of Inspired Teaching’s 5 Core Elements, and it means students and teachers know they are valued and feel a sense of belonging in school. As Inspired Teaching’s full definition articulates, we believe joy should be an important component of the everyday experience of going to school.

This week I had the great pleasure of speaking with Dr. Sundai Riggins, Head of School at the Inspired Teaching Demonstration School – a school that embraces, and helps spread, the Inspired Teaching approach. I spoke with Dr. Riggins in the middle of a particularly stressful day, as she navigated the many challenges that come with leading a school during the third year of a pandemic. And yet, within moments of beginning our conversation, Dr. Riggins radiated joy. See for yourself, by watching Dr. Riggins describe how she finds joy in the everyday business of leading a school.

Joy, according to Dr. Riggins, “honors student voices” and offers students “voice, choice, and agency in what they’re learning.” She sees joy as an end product, achieved by asking compelling questions and opening up space for students to ask their own questions while exploring their natural curiosity about the world around them. Dr. Riggins’ guidance builds upon the insights I shared last week in my interview with my mentor Judy White, around keeping students in the driver’s seat of their learning.

To that end, Dr. Riggins spoke about the connection between Joy and students’ social-emotional learning. “We focus on affirming the students, on greeting them every day. That’s important,” she says, but she challenges teachers to go further and ask themselves, “Are we listening to them?” She recommends surveying students as a means of including their voices not only in the creation of the environment around the school building, but also in academic instruction. Dr. Riggins reminds us that, while standards and curriculum are important, we must keep students front and center: “If student voice doesn’t live in the curriculum, if you’re not asking students about their experience, then which stakeholders are we serving?”

Dr. Riggins has put structures into place in her school to ensure that joy and student agency remain central. She describes an iterative process of planning, teaching, and revising, that reflects Inspired Teaching’s Observe-Plan-Instigate Cycle for teachers. She insists that joy and high expectations go together, and warns that the “hyper-structured environments” that some schools put into place in an attempt to raise expectations, can actually become “joy smashers” that decrease a student’s chances of becoming a lifelong learner.

Dr. Riggins challenges her fellow school leaders to look for, and model, joy – especially “in the fog of all…that is happening with the pandemic.” This can mean:

Inviting teachers to share something that’s recently brought them joy.
Taking a walk around the school building searching for examples of joy.
Listening authentically to a student or a colleague.

The first step is “repositioning yourself to be able to see [joy]…taking the glasses and wiping them and cleaning them so you can see.” Dr. Riggins believes her job as a school leader is to “clear the fog” for her teachers, her students, and sometimes even herself.

May her words help us all see a little more clearly this week.

Resources

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.