Resources for New Teachers

Start your career with proven tools to make school meaningful and engaging for your students — and yourself.

As you prepare yourself and your classroom for what lies ahead, you’ll want resources and professional development programs you can trust to help build a practice that is authentically engaging and effective. That’s where Center for Inspired Teaching comes in!

Since 1995, we have taught the Inspired Teaching Approach to thousands of teachers. Our methods are founded in data and research, aligned with standards, and have generated nearly 30 years’ worth of results.

And those results are classrooms and schools where students are enthusiastic, active participants in their education, and teachers are empowered to construct systems in which each student is an expert and has a voice.

ABCDE of Learner Needs Guidebook

Whether you are an administrator, teacher, student, or caregiver, we all need Autonomy, Belonging, Competence, Developmental Appropriateness, Engagement, and Fun in order to learn and thrive. We CAN meet these needs in schools and we don’t need to go to extreme measures to do so. This Guidebook includes links to classroom activities, printable reflection and planning sheets, posters for your classroom walls, and a whole section designed to be shared with families.

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Activities & Lessons that are Ready-to-Go

Inspired Teaching’s classroom strategies really work in creating students who are resilient, enthusiastic, and engaged learners. These resources are great for new teachers who are looking for activities and lessons aligned with standards and created for easy implementation, for any grade or subject area.

colorful text that reads "ABCDE of Learner Needs" an assessment resource for parents

An effective assessment tool for understanding your students’ needs — and yours — and figuring out how to meet them

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a colorful lightbulb with mutlicolor pencils above it, next to blue text that reads "#Inspired2Learn," which are activities and resources for parents

A collection of engaging, fun, and simple lessons for all subjects and grade levels, that work well in both virtual and in-person settings

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an orange sun on a blue background above text that reads "Hooray For Monday," a weekly resource for parents

Timely insights and resources for starting every Monday morning excited and prepared for the week ahead

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Instigator of Thought Challenge

View the entire Instigator of Thought Challenge

The Instigator of Thought Challenge is a collection of activities and tools to help you move beyond your comfort zone and sharpen your skill set. While every Challenge is suitable for any teacher, new teachers may find the following Challenges especially beneficial.

Ask "So What?"

Questioning that prompts curiosity, investigation, and thinking extends to teachers asking ourselves key questions. Why? So what? Who cares? As reflective practitioners, we should ask ourselves these questions about every unit and lesson we plan.

Emotion Continuum

While activities that build social-emotional skills are traditionally relegated solely to the younger years, people of all ages benefit from an environment that supports their emotional needs and development. Through this challenge, students build their vocabularies and build productive strategies for communicating feelings and needs to adults and to one another.

Graffiti Board

A Graffiti Board can strengthen community, elevate student voice, connect to content, and show your students that you care about what is on their minds. Most of all, it demonstrates to students that you—the adult, the teacher—trust them: to be respectful, to figure out what to do with a big blank space without a teacher telling them, to be inclusive, to take the risk of sharing their thoughts publicly

Poster Analysis

Walk into a classroom and you will see posters with information about rules, norms of interaction, instructions, procedures, warning, etc., to communicate expectations to students. Some posters are required by the school. Others are of our own choosing. Have you ever stopped to think about how they tell students about your beliefs about children – intentionally or unintentionally?

Learn more about this Challenge here.

Profile Pages

Profile Pages is a simple yet powerful activity that helps you to learn more about your students, to make sure introverts and extroverts alike feel heard and valued, and to reveal and strengthen meaningful connections between peers.

Learn more about this Challenge here.

Scribe's Record

Filling the walls with student-produced work, questions, and accomplishments – like what they are learning – helps students take ownership over the space. They benefit from spending time in a classroom that reflects both their intellectual and emotional development and their potential for future growth.

Learn more about this Challenge here.

Share Questions with Families

Time and time again, we hear about after-school conversations that go just like this one. Adults grow frustrated by limited responses, and children miss the opportunity to stay engaged in school-based learning after the day is done. But with some tips and practice, families can become skilled at asking effective questions and engaging children in thoughtful conversations about their learning, social interactions, and overall experience in school.

Learn more about this Challenge here.

Snap Inspiration

Lunch Date: Eat lunch with a small group of students. Talk about something besides school.

Make Room: Look at your room. How much is devoted to your students versus the teacher?

Like our teaching colleagues, we’re doing our best to accept missteps with grace and humor, while simultaneously working to improve. And we’re celebrating the learning and growth along the way.

— Aleta Margolis

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.