Collective Effervescence: Hooray for Monday - Center for Inspired Teaching

July 19, 2021

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.

What does it mean to be together, learn together, do something together?

Earlier this week, my family hosted another family at our house for dinner. A year and a half ago, an evening like this would have been a common occurrence. But as we step softly out of quarantine, having a people over – cooking the food, cleaning the house, putting on pants – requires a kind of energy that’s been dormant for a while. In fact, after preparing for our friends’ arrival, I was so tired that I had to lie down and close my eyes, and I worried I wouldn’t be able to stay awake once they arrived. The doorbell rang, and I pulled myself together, hoping the night wouldn’t last too long. When our friends left four hours later, I realized I’d had such a wonderful time talking, laughing, and enjoying their company, that I’d lost track of time, and had completely forgotten about the exhaustion I’d felt moments before they arrived. Being in the presence of friends energized me. I’d forgotten about that wonderful part of the in-person experience.

This past year and a half, my colleagues at Inspired Teaching and I have had the opportunity to learn together with teachers and students from across the DC region, across the country, and around the world. It has been a joy to hear one another’s voices and see one another’s faces as we spoke and sang together, sharpened our observation skills together, and developed engaging lessons on all kinds of content together – all from our respective living wrooms, bedrooms, and basements.

And yet, there is something extra, something even more nourishing that happens when gathering and learning together happens in person.

The theme of this past week’s Summer Inspired Teaching Excursions was Experiment, the central part of our Wonder-Experiment-Learn Cycle.

In our in-person session at Rock Creek Park, teachers conducted a series of experiments to find out how different variables affect the stability of structures. The structures at the core of these experiments ranged from stacks of rocks to our own bodies. Teachers also experimented with new materials like light-sensitive paper and plant dyes and with the most versatile tool everyone has on hand – observation driven by all 5 senses. With each experiment new questions arose: How does light sensitive paper react to shadows? Why do I feel cooler when I stand still? Each question prompted discussion and discovery. There’s power in coming together in this way.

As this recent New York Times article illustrates, “Joy shared is joy sustained.” When people gather together and engage in activities that offer each person a chance to contribute to the group experience, we often experience collective effervescence, which Adam Grant, the author of the article, explains is “a concept coined in the early 20th century by the pioneering sociologist Émile Durkheim to describe the sense of energy and harmony people feel when they come together in a group around a shared purpose.”

This can happen online too, if we are intentional about creating opportunities for each member of the group to engage and contribute. We held an online version of this same Summer Inspired Teaching Excursion, and experienced the kind of joy that togetherness through a screen can offer. Our experiments in the virtual session included engaging in the dominant eye test and the Invisible Gorilla experiment, and coming up with findings on what constitutes an experiment. As we did in-person, we observed our surroundings using each of our senses to test the hypothesis that sharpening one sense would sharpen them all. And we exchanged reflections on the ways each of us had changed, and what we’d discovered, during the two hours of the workshop, and during the past year and a half. We supported each other in our plans to engage in these kinds of experiments and reflections with our students this fall.

Reconnecting with others, especially after a long time apart, can spark all kinds of feelings – from joy and comfort to anxiety and exhaustion. If we are intentional about engaging with our students and our colleagues with a shared purpose, we can bring more joy to the experience of reconnecting, and maybe even enjoy the positive energy and harmony of collective effervescence.

Whether you are coming together with others virtually or in person this summer, I invite you to turn your attention to how it feels to contribute to a group – to affect others and to let yourself be affected by them.

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.