Learning to Love: Hooray for Monday - Center for Inspired Teaching

February 15, 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.

A friend of mine, with two young children, is caring for her mother who has recently recovered from Covid and is now living with her family. The grandmother spends most of her time in bed and requires a lot of care. But she shows her love in many ways, including singing to the children, laughing at their jokes, and giving lots of hugs. And according to my friend, the young children adore spending time with their grandma and making her smile.

This got me thinking: What must it be like for these two children growing up in a home where they experience love in so many different ways? Where they provide care as well as receive it? Where their ability to make someone else feel loved is so clear and easy to see?

When we experience love–by giving and receiving it–chemical changes take place in our brain that promote healthy bonding and even increase our capacity for love. The neurological benefits of love are so powerful that they aren’t limited to humans. A number of studies have shown that when humans and dogs gaze into one another’s eyes, oxytocin, a hormone that creates a sense of love and wellbeing, is released in both the human and the dog.

In the immortal words of lyricist Oscar Hammerstein, “Love isn’t love ‘til you give it away.” It’s good for our brains to experience love.

What opportunities do our students have to make someone feel loved? The someone can be a pet or a friend or family member or classmate, or maybe even a teacher. How can we notice these opportunities and elevate them? How can we create more of them for our students? How can we create them for ourselves?

How are you celebrating Valentine’s Day with your students this year? Maybe you’re doing an online or in-person card exchange. Maybe you are inviting students to write poems or draw pictures or make a phone call to someone in their family or in their community. Maybe you’re inviting students to share something they love with the class: a favorite story, a rock collection, a favorite song, a beloved pet. This week’s resources include strategies for teaching students to identify and understand their emotions, and for creating a sense of belonging.

It’s worth considering how love might find its way into our curriculum beyond candy and cards exchanged around February the 14th.

How can you create opportunities for your students to make someone feel loved?
How can you enable them to feel the joy that comes from knowing you have the power to make someone feel loved?
Children, like all humans, move through this world with the ability to show love for others. It’s an inherent capacity. What are we doing as teachers to cultivate that in our students?
If a two-year-old has the capacity to be the light in someone’s life, then we all have that capacity. What does it take to fuel that light, on Valentine’s Day and every day?

The isolation of our COVID pandemic lives has made the essential more obvious. We need each other. We need opportunities to show and receive love from each other. Kindness and care transcend academic knowledge or skill, but they still benefit from cultivation and opportunities to grow. If all else feels uncertain, let our ability to give, receive, teach, and learn love remain steadfast.

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.