Making Room for the Unexpected - Center for Inspired Teaching

August 17, 2016

This piece by Jane Ehrenfeld, Inspired Teaching’s Executive Director, appeared in Inspired Teaching’s July/August newsletter.

Just over a month ago, I began a new phase of my journey with Center for Inspired Teaching, assuming the role of Executive Director. While our Founder and President Aleta Margolis focuses on spreading our message in order to change public expectations about school, I am leading Inspired Teaching’s work with educators to change the day-to-day reality of school. We are determined in our efforts, as leaders of Inspired Teaching and as teachers ourselves, to transform the school experience from one that is based in compliance to one that promotes engagement for all students.

It is fitting that my first month on the job took place in the midst of the Summer Intensive portion of the Inspired Teaching Institute, which sits at the core of everything we do. Our Institute engages teachers intellectually, emotionally, and physically. Rooted in the principles of inquiry-based instruction and improvisational theater, our professional development looks nothing like the norm: there are no PowerPoint presentations, no rows of desks, no single expert delivering information. We teach teachers the way we expect them to teach their students – with movement, questioning, active learning, and joy.

With incredible focus and careful planning, we design an experience that leads teachers through the Wonder-Experiment-Learn cycle. Every activity has a clear objective, and we encourage participants to discover the goals themselves. While a great deal of experience and research lies behind our instructional stance, we choose not to rattle it off at length. We know that deep understanding and true ownership come through authentic engagement: experiencing, questioning, grappling, applying prior knowledge, and connecting learning with mind, body, and soul. We leave enough space so that teachers can figure out how to use the tools we share in their own contexts, so that each becomes an Instigator of Thought® in his or her own unique way.

Favoring engagement over compliance and teaching with some openness can lead to the unexpected. Surprises can be scary as a teacher, whether you’re teaching a classroom of first-grade students or an Institute of veteran teachers. Many teachers have been trained to believe that the opposite of total control by the teacher is utter chaos for students. With the right supports, though, the opposite of total teacher control should be shared ownership of the classroom. Of course the teacher remains an expert and authority; but if she learns to cede some control, in safe and thoughtful ways, then her students get to contribute their expertise, too. When the Inspired Teacher opens up opportunities for students to pursue their interests within a purposeful structure, he extends learning beyond the bounds of the lesson, making it more meaningful. Surprises do not have to derail; they can enhance.

When I was a first-grade teacher in Boston Public Schools, I worked hard to carve out room for healthy, productive, and joyful surprises in the midst of the pressures of a high-stakes, high-intensity job. I reflected on this in an essay published in Education Week in 2002, noting: “I have taught only inner-city children in public schools where the standardized test pressure is intense and the sense that there is little time to waste if we want our students to catch up with their wealthier, whiter peers pervades everything we do. There are many people . . . who would say that two months of poetry, a morning spent discussing Greek and Roman mythology, even a short and mystifying conversation with a student, are all stealing valuable time from the curriculum.” I understand that urgency. But, as I wrote then, “My classroom is a far better place when I listen to my children: to a question I have never imagined, a request for information that is not going to be on any test but that they just want to know because they are curious and at this very moment it is important, or to a conversation that leaves me puzzled but sometime later opens a window into the way they think, and in turn makes me a better teacher for them.”

I wish I had had the support and training of Inspired Teaching as I tried to strike this balance in my classroom. I think that’s why my favorite part of the Institute is guiding teachers to make room for the unexpected. In one activity, we ask participants to stand in pairs and take turns saying one word at a time, back and forth, together building a story. It can be incredibly difficult to follow someone else’s lead and to accept your partner’s contributions. It can be frustrating to hear the story you had mapped out in your head evolve in a new direction. But the stories that participants create, which are full of surprise and whimsy, remind teachers that it is possible to structure lessons with enough constraints to focus and enough freedom to spark creativity.

For those teachers who have come through our programs and who have been beautifully practicing Inspired Teaching in their own classrooms, we ask you to sign up to pilot our Instigator of Thought Online Challenge and to join our Instigator of Thought Network. We hope this platform will provide you the support I sought as a teacher in Boston, focusing your attention and sparking your creativity, and giving you a community to turn to as you learn how to thoughtfully, safely, and joyfully make room for shared ownership with your students. If you have not received an invitation, please email Mandy Brown (miranda@inspiredteaching.org), and she will sign you up. Your feedback this pilot year will be invaluable as we fine-tune the platform before publicly opening it in school year 2017-18.

This is only the beginning. I’m excited to continue the journey with all of our Inspired Teachers, and the whole of our Inspired Teaching community, in the months and years to come.

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.