April 11, 2022

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.

“I can see how quickly you solved that problem.” “I can see you’re taking your time with that problem.” “What can I do to help you get started?” “What can I do to help you finish?” These simple, yet powerful, statements and questions come from the toolbox of my mentor, Judy White. She uses them to offer specific feedback and encouragement for students at different stages of the learning process.

Through middle and high school, Judy was my teacher who never answered a question. She only asked them. And through her incisive questions, she kept me, and all of her students, in a perpetual state of Purpose, Persistence, and Action – the third of Inspired Teaching’s 5 Core Elements. Judy, who has also mentored teachers with Inspired Teaching for many years, insists her students find the expert within themselves, instead of looking to her for answers. Being a learner in her care is both challenging and exhilarating. That’s why I had to speak with Judy about her process for keeping students in the driver’s seat of their learning.

An Inspired Teacher teaches students how to think, and avoids doing the thinking for them. This practice is at the core of Purpose, Persistence, and Action.

Purpose, Persistence, and Action means students are fully engaged, intellectually, emotionally, and physically, in what they are doing. They persevere in solving problems, making discoveries along the way. They experience failure as a necessary part of the learning process. The full definition can be found here.

During our conversation, Judy offered powerful insights on the role of preparation to ensure Purpose, Persistence, and Action is part of the learning process for students. She spoke about how extremely detailed preparation frees teachers up, and allows teachers to be in the moment, so they can follow the students, while staying focused on instructional goals. Judy explained that, when she was a classroom teacher, she invested so much energy in preparation, “so that I would then be free to perceive the richness or the questions or the mysteries or the perplexing knots or the upsets or the chemistry that each class…or each student would present. And every time it was different.”

Judy notes that teaching students to “articulate your process as you go along,” is a tool for getting to Purpose, Persistence, and Action. As students deepen their understanding of their own learning process, they not only expand their understanding of content, they also learn about themselves. As Judy reminds us, “Nobody learns quite like you.”

Judy invites us to understand the “portals to creativity” that are embedded in Purpose, Persistence, and Action. For her, courtesy and kindness play a central role in promoting Purpose, Persistence, and Action, and in every aspect of teaching. “To model courtesy and kindness is an authentic way to let the kids know you care about them. And I think it should undergird every action that a teacher makes.”

I can see how quickly you solved that problem.
I can see you’re taking your time with that problem.
What can I do to help you get started?
What can I do to help you finish?

Statements and questions like these put students in charge of their own learning. And that’s right where they should be.

Resources

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.