April 28, 2025
By Jenna Fournel, Chief Curiosity Officer
Listen to this week’s Hooray For Monday podcast for the conversation between Jenna, Meag, and Sheena Styles, an elementary math teacher in Washington, DC, and Inspired Teaching Fellow. Ms. Styles shares her advice for creating a classroom where students feel empowered to take the lead in their learning.
Inspired Teaching’s April online Institute, “Making Constructive Choices,” offered participants an array of Inspired Teaching strategies and tools to support students in taking ownership of their learning. It also featured guest speaker, Sheena Styles, a Teaching with Improvisation Fellow and 3rd grade math teacher at Takoma Elementary in Washington, DC.
In my visits to her classroom throughout this school year, Ms. Styles and her young students have exemplified a classroom culture that centers Mutual Respect and student voice. In my and Meag’s conversation with her during the Institute, she shared how she cultivates this environment. I encourage you to listen to that conversation in this week’s Hooray For Monday podcast below.
Here are 4 takeaways from Ms. Styles for building a classroom where students are empowered to take the lead:
Fearless Curiosity
Upon entering Ms. Styles’ classroom, it is evident that curiosity and open-mindedness are highly valued. From the posters on the wall to the language Ms. Styles uses when teaching, she models joyful curiosity for her young learners, letting them know asking questions–and not knowing the answers–is part of the process.
“I consider myself a lifelong learner…and kids are like the ambassadors of curiosity; they are fearlessly curious. And so I’m feeding off of that energy,” she says. “I tell [my students] I don’t know everything. I’m a teacher [and] I’m a student, just like you guys are. You’re my teachers as well.”
Respectful Disagreement
When students arrive at a solution, whether to a math problem or a social one, that may not be correct, Ms. Styles frames her critiques–and encourages her students to do the same–as respectful disagreement.
“When students share their solutions, they know how to say things to each other like: ‘Do you agree or respectfully disagree?’ ‘What strategy did you use?’ All of our discussions are guided by questions, so students get into the habit of asking as well as answering questions.”
Space to Stumble
Among the many posters in Ms. Styles’ room is one that reads “Mathematicians make mistakes.” And that is a lesson she is sure to emphasize with her students, especially as math is often a subject framed as difficult or accessible only to those with an inherent aptitude.
“What really wills us and awakens us to our own ability and starts to build our confidence, is our ability to stumble and get up. And if I’m a teacher and I love them, I have to give my students the space to stumble and to get back up. They get back up…and now they can name the mistake: ‘Oh I said 9 plus 1 is 11 instead of 10.’ And so, it becomes this thing where we’re just making friends with our mistakes because that’s a part of life. Mistakes are a part of life.”
Being Human
“I’m able to connect more meaningfully and deeply with my students, the more vulnerable I’m willing to be…I want to leave them with something every single day [so I close class with] ‘I’m proud of you. I’m grateful to be your teacher.’ And I really am grateful; I love the work that I do. It is an honor [and] I don’t take it for granted…So, that’s just a bit of positivity that I leave them with to end our day. And to add to that, that also includes me. Being a whole human in the same way that I need to embrace how my students show up. They talk about their feelings, like I talk about my feelings as well. So, we see each other as human beings with feelings and experiences.”
For additional insights, resources, and information on Inspired Teaching teacher and youth programming, subscribe to the Hooray For Monday newsletter!
Hooray For Monday is an award-winning weekly publication of Center for Inspired Teaching, a social change nonprofit organization that champions the power of curiosity and is dedicated to transforming the school experience from compliance-based to engagement-based. Inspired Teaching provides transformative, improvisation-based professional learning for teachers that is 100% engaging – intellectually, emotionally, and physically.
