Feeling Stirred | Hooray for Monday

December 26, 2022

By Aleta Margolis, Founder and President of 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.

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There’s something about the end of the year – holidays filled with dazzling light, reflections on months gone by and the new beginnings that lie ahead – that stirs our emotions. This stirring can be complicated, but also awe inspiring. I find that it’s in the mixing, that strange swirl of highs and lows, initiated by experiences and memories, planned events, and spontaneous connections, where wonder happens. We can’t always pinpoint the exact thing that stirs us up, but I had occasion recently to try.

A few weeks ago I wrote about Stirring Up Curiosity. Days after publishing that piece, my longtime mentor and friend Judy White engaged me in a conversation about stirring, a word that caught her attention.

As usual, Judy asked me thought-provoking questions. (She is, after all, an Inspired Teacher!) Our conversation went something like this:

Judy: What does stirring do?

Me: It mixes things together. It can change the consistency of ingredients. It makes disparate parts interact with each other. It can activate or catalyze.

Judy: Can you come up with an example of a way stirring can activate?

Me: Stirring baking soda together with other ingredients, like vinegar, activates the baking soda, and starts the process that causes batter to rise.

Judy: What are different tools for stirring?

Me: A whisk, a spoon, a fork, an electric mixer…

Judy: What kinds of tools might Leonardo da Vinci have used to paint the Sistine Chapel? How might he have stirred and mixed his paints to get the colors the way he wanted them? What kinds of preparation might he have needed to do before he was ready to stir the paints together? Can you imagine a group of students sitting together and pondering these questions?

Me: Oh yes, I can.

Judy: What kinds of tools might a teacher use to stir?

Me: Questions. A film. A field trip. A conversation between two classmates or more.

As always happens when Judy’s questions launch me into creative thinking, I kept going… I wondered:

What could we shift in our understanding of the work of teachers if we liken their planning process to Leonardo da Vinci’s?
What does it take to craft questions, like Judy’s, that activate creative thinking like baking soda and vinegar? What if asking those kinds of questions is the most important thing we can do to prepare our students for an uncertain future?
Is time also a tool teachers use to stir? After stirring, what happens when you let a problem or idea “rest” or “rise” overnight? New Insights may occur, deeper understanding too!
What other meanings does stir have? (Think… “Not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse.”)

Feeling stirred, by provocative questions from a friend or the glow of the season’s candles, connects us with what makes us uniquely human. Our capacity to feel, to try and understand the unknown, to puzzle through problems just beyond our reach, and to do these things in community – this great swirling mix of possibilities – is what keeps us moving forward. May you feel stirred this week. And may you seek that feeling in new and interesting ways when you head back to school in the New Year.

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Listen to This Issue of Hooray For Monday

InspiredTeaching · December 19, 2022: Vacation & Brain Incubation

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.