School as Sanctuary: Hooray for Monday - Center for Inspired Teaching

January 11, 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 sanctuary is a place of refuge or safety. Schools – even virtual ones – are designed to be safe places for growth and learning, for building community and skills, and for understanding the basics and beyond. There’s comfort in knowing that math class and science lab and literature circles will always be there even in the midst of chaos in the outside world. However, providing refuge and safety doesn’t mean shielding students from painful events (a task that would be impossible to accomplish in any case in the age of social media). School must be a place students can turn to for support and clarity during times of crisis. In the past few days, many thoughtful teachers and school leaders have cleared space for students to begin to process and understand the events of January 6, even as we ourselves are still very much struggling to comprehend them.

This moment in time offers an opportunity for teachers and parents to model ways to navigate uncertainty. We shouldn’t expect ourselves to know all the answers. No one does. No one can fully explain what happened, why it happened, or what’s going to happen next. But what we can do is show our students that school is a place where they can puzzle through things that are scary with their teachers by their side supporting them.

Last week I published a piece that offers a list of questions teachers can start with in exploring the events of the past week with students. Here are some other steps you can take to make your classroom a safe place for learning, for your students, and for yourself:

Clear space in the schedule and invite your students to talk about what they know, what they want to understand, and how they feel.
Support students in naming and expressing their emotions. In a developmentally appropriate way, let your students know how you are feeling too.
Continue to focus on equity – including putting protocols into place to promote equity.
Take action: invite your students to write letters to their representatives, thanking and/or challenging them for their actions this past week.
Incorporate music into your in-person or virtual classroom.
Remind your students and yourself that beauty still surrounds us. Right now, many of the things we don’t understand are scary. But some things we don’t understand can be beautiful. We benefit from experience with the unknown when we learn how to think about and process things that are out of the ordinary.
Make space and time to process the unfolding events, but don’t abandon routines. Routine and predictability can be comforting and stabilizing – for students and for teachers too.

And as you strive to be a healing presence, and to create a sanctuary for your students, remember to take care of yourselves.

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.