Inspired Teaching announces new Executive Director

June 2, 2016

With the aim of expanding Inspired Teaching’s reach and impact, the Board of Center for Inspired Teaching is pleased to announce the appointment of Jane Dimyan Ehrenfeld as Executive Director, effective July 1, 2016.

Jane will lead Inspired Teaching’s work to prepare, train, and develop extraordinary teachers in Washington, DC and the region. Jane will oversee the organization in executing a multi-year growth strategy to create positive change in the ways teachers teach and children learn here and elsewhere in the country.

Aleta Margolis, Founder and Executive Director for twenty years, will assume the role of President and will continue to play a leadership role with Inspired Teaching. Aleta will focus on spreading Inspired Teaching’s core message to a local and national audience to shift the norm in education away from compliance-based education toward engagement-based education.

For two decades, Inspired Teaching has transformed the role of the teacher from information-provider to Instigator of Thought through programs for new and inservice preK-12 teachers. In 2009, Inspired Teaching launched a DC-State accredited teacher certification program. In 2011, the organization founded the Inspired Teaching Demonstration School, an award-winning DC public charter school.

The Inspired Teaching model transforms school from a place that prizes compliance to a place that celebrates engagement and the student as expert. Inspired Teaching has enjoyed support from thousands of individual, foundation, and corporate funders; won local, national, and international accolades; and earned special recognition from the Stanford Social Innovation Review, the Bridgespan Group, Education Week, National Public Radio, the LRNG Innovation Challenge, and the LEGO Foundation and Ashoka Changemakers’ Re-imagine Learning Challenge.

Jane Dimyan Ehrenfeld is an educator and attorney with a decade of teaching experience in the classroom. For the past year, Jane has served as Director of Teaching and Learning at Inspired Teaching, and she was a member of Inspired Teaching’s Board of Directors before joining the staff. Jane is deeply involved in the DC education community and serves as Board Chair of the Maya Angelou Public Charter School, where she has served since 2010. Jane taught in public elementary schools in Prince George’s County, Maryland and in the Roxbury neighborhood of Boston. Jane’s classroom was the focus of Jonathan Kozol’s 2007 book, Letters to a Young Teacher, and she has worked with Mr. Kozol on advocacy projects related to public education; she has also published education-related essays in a number of publications.

Jane received her JD, magna cum laude, from Georgetown University Law Center, where she was a Public Interest Law Scholar. Following law school, she served as Deputy Director of the Georgetown Center on Poverty, Inequality, and Public Policy; clerked for The Honorable Judith W. Rogers on the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit; and served as an attorney in the Office for Civil Rights at the US Department of Education. Jane is a Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Swarthmore College (BA, Sociology, Anthropology, and Education) and holds a Master’s degree in Anthropology and Education from Teachers College, Columbia University. Jane and her husband Michael are the proud parents of three daughters.

For further information, please contact:

Shelley N. Fidler – Board Chair, Center for Inspired Teaching:
202-298-1905; snf@vnf.com

Jane Dimyan Ehrenfeld – Executive Director, Center for Inspired Teaching:
202-462-1956; jane@inspiredteaching.org

Aleta Margolis – Founder and President, Center for Inspired Teaching:
202-462-1956; aleta@inspiredteaching.org

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.