Create Connection by Sharing Student Expertise

March 13, 2023

By Jenna Fournel, Director of Teaching and Learning

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.

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For the past few weeks we’ve been talking about school connectedness, that vital force that meets our human need for belonging. However, according to the research, far too many students aren’t experiencing school connectedness right now. This week I had the opportunity to visit three very different school settings. In every one there was something wonderful going on: students were sharing their expertise, one of the hallmarks of the Inspired Teaching approach. It turns out that sharing student expertise can go a long way toward creating school connectedness. Here are some key takeaways from my school visits, along with questions to get you thinking about trying such things in your own school context:

1. Bring the community into the classroom.
In Inspired Teaching’s Real World History class on Tuesday, students shared a meal, and their summative oral history projects, with elders in our community. In this course they were tasked with finding someone who moved to DC during the Great Migration, interviewing that person about their experience, transcribing that interview to be archived in the DC Public Libraries, and then creating a final project inspired by what they learned. In this particular gathering, students were sharing their work with the elders they’d interviewed; and the joy in showcasing their learning was palpable.

How might you bring the community in to learn from your students?

2. Display process and product.
On Thursday, the Inspired Teaching Demonstration School held its Learning Showcase where families get to come and see student work displayed throughout the school. (We’ll share more about this process and take you on a virtual Learning Showcase tour next week!) What stood out from roaming the halls and classrooms covered with student work was how powerful it is to read and talk with students about the process involved in these demonstrations of learning. When students get to share HOW they figured something out, they’re articulating their own journey toward expertise and connecting with you as a learner.

What are some ways students can showcase the learning process in your classroom?

3. Create space for peers to share expertise with one another.
On Friday I visited with one of our Speak Truth Fellows who was hosting students from four Montgomery County middle and high schools for a Speak Truth session on the topic of diversity. We’ll share more about this project in a few weeks, but here’s what stood out from the visit: a thoughtfully planned discussion, led by students, on a topic that matters to them can teach us as educators as much as it teaches them as students. Students used the discussion as a launch pad for a series of stories they will write and edit into a magazine. Sharing that expertise with one another proved to be an excellent catalyst for a next step in their learning.

How might your students share their expertise across classrooms and schools?

This week, as you think through your lessons, look for those spots where students can share their expertise – with you, with each other, with their families, with the broader community. This week’s resources include some great activities to help you accomplish this goal. Notice what connections get stronger when students share their expertise. And notice too, how you feel getting to observe your students sharing the incredible potential you’re nurturing along the way!

What We’re Curious About

Each week a member of the Inspired Teaching community shares something that’s currently piquing their curiosity. Maybe it will spark yours too!

Trying New Things

Jaqueta Abbey, Teaching and Learning Specialist

This week, I’m curious about trying new things. I moved to Mexico a few months ago, and at the invitation of a new friend, recently attended a belly dancing class. I belly danced for many years in the States, but the idea of joining made me nervous; it’s an advanced class scheduled to perform in only a few weeks and it’s been several years since I last danced. My Spanish skills are improving every day, but I was also worried that I’d miss important direction in this new language.

But, it turns out my ability to understand the choreography and instructions is greater than I thought — probably because I enjoyed myself so much! I left class feeling accomplished, proud of myself, and excited about the next one.

What happens when we revisit “old” hobbies in new ways? What else might we discover and enjoy if we set aside worry and anxiety about new things and instead… just try them?

Teacher Resources

Scribe’s Record

Class newsletters are probably a chore you’ve been managing all year long. This activity ensures student voice is at the heart of those messages. And at this point in the year perhaps your students can do the writing!

Interesting / Important / Useful

Our students are in school to learn, but they come to us with emerging expertise in many areas. This activity helps you connect that expertise with the content you need to teach.

Let Students Be Teachers

As we enter the spring and roar toward the end of the school year, it’s a great time to take advantage of the growth and expertise you’ve cultivated in your students all year long. This activity puts them in charge of the lessons.

Listen to This Issue of Hooray For Monday

InspiredTeaching · February 13, 2023: Moral Beauty

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.