Inspired Teaching’s Impact

Center for Inspired Teaching has been transforming PreK-12 education through innovative, improvisation-based professional development for teachers since 1995.

Over nearly three decades, Inspired Teaching has taught more than 50,000 teachers in urban, suburban, and rural school districts across the country and around the world. We teach educators how to teach students to approach academic problems, social challenges, and other people from a place of curiosity and respect. Classrooms led by Inspired Teachers are classrooms where students and teachers thrive.

Click to learn more about Inspired Teaching’s impact in each of the below areas.

Motivated & Enthusiastic Students

Personal Fulfillment & Professional Growth for Teachers

School Connectedness & Belonging for Teachers and Students

Students Who Look Forward to Monday Mornings

How do students feel about their education when it’s rooted in the Inspired Teaching Approach? Look no further than the feedback from those who’ve experienced it!

Students find our approach more engaging than a typical class

Students say our Approach creates opportunity for respectful dialogue on complicated topics

“Speak Truth helped me learn new things from people from different schools and places. It helped me learn to be more open-minded, more considerate, and more of a listener to others.” – High School Student

Personal Fulfillment & Professional Growth for Teachers

Professional development doesn’t have to be boring! Inspired Teaching’s professional development for teachers is 100% engaging — intellectually, emotionally, and physically.

Teachers find our resources and activities engaging and relevant

Teachers report learning new teaching strategies to support their students' social emotional needs

Teachers say their students are more engaged and motivated

“Inspired Teaching workshops inspire me to connect deeply with my students, and as an administrator, to connect more deeply with our instructors and TAs. It’s the magic Inspired Teaching touch that is hard to explain but tangible!” – School Leader

Inspired Teaching Around the World

“Now I know that professional development can occur without slides and a laptop. That spoke to me in the sense that collaboration, and just having an open discussion and reflecting, and adding upon our ideas and thoughts, is more powerful. And it really was an example of what collaboration can be in the classroom.” – Elementary School Teacher

Stronger School and Classroom Communities

School Connectedness was identified by the CDC as one of the most important factors in combatting negative mental health outcomes for young people. Inspired Teaching supports teachers and school leaders in building this critical element through programming and resources that address gaps in students’ needs, empower educators during school transitions, and platform expert insights and advice.

Livestream Series: Conversations on School Connectedness

Award-Winning Resources: Engaging, Insightful, On-Demand Activities & Strategies

Internationally Recognized

Over nearly three decades, Inspired Teaching has seen the impact of our work in schools across the country and around the world. Our resources and programs are also consistently recognized on the international stage for their impact on the learning experience; here are a few highlights!

“The Inspired Teaching Institute activities are too delicious! Even after a long day’s work, I find myself looking within for new energies so that I can take part.” – High School Teacher

Inspired Teaching Research Briefs

Radically Reimagined Relationships: The Foundation of Engagement

This project was designed to learn about schools and school systems across the United States that are moving beyond conventional, standardized, compliance-based teaching, to create learning experiences that are student-centered and engagement-based. Through our research, we found that while these schools looked different from one another as far as location, status as public/private/charter, grade levels served, and demographics, they felt the same. This realization led to an exciting discovery: the primary element connecting these schools was a shared commitment to radically reimagined relationships between students, teachers, administrators, and families. While the schools had other elements in common, including authentic learning experiences and commitments to educational equity, we found that the commitment to strong relationships was the core element upon which all others depended. The report, which synthesizes the findings from this initiative, has exciting implications for all of us working to re-imagine education.

Download the full report here
Download the report digest here

Inspiring Improvement Toolkit

This toolkit contains resources for organizations who wish to undertake evaluation of their teacher training and professional development programs that promote teacher leadership, cultivate teachers as changemakers, and actively encourage engaging student-centered instruction.

Download here

Inquiry-Based Teaching

Inquiry-based teaching invites students to explore academic content by posing, investigating, and answering questions. This approach puts students’ questions at the center of the curriculum.

Download here

Closing the Engagement Gap: A Social Justice Imperative

This white paper both affirms the benefits of engagement-based education and confirms the reality of the current “engagement gap” in this country.

Download here

Critical Need: Replace Compliance-Based Teaching with Engagement-Based Teaching

This white paper promotes the urgent need to adopt engagement-based education in all of our nation’s schools. Most education organizations and education policymakers advocate for the need to raise “student achievement,” but too narrowly define this goal to mean only raising standardized test scores, a goal that is primarily achieved using methods that promote student compliance. Students need to be engaged for lasting, meaningful learning to occur.

Download here

Relationship-Based Discipline

Relationship-based discipline is a student-centered approach to classroom management that relies on strong, mutually respectful, personal relationships to engage cooperation in the classroom.

Download here

Investing in Teachers Through Mentoring

Teacher mentoring is an individualized form of professional development that involves a holistic approach to personal improvement. Mentoring is a key aspect of Inspired Teaching’s programs that ensures teachers are able to operationalize best practices.

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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.