Stay Within Reach: Hooray for Monday - Center for Inspired Teaching

February 22, 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.

Father Greg Boyle is the founder and director of Homeboy Industries, the largest gang intervention, rehabilitation, and re-entry program in the world. His organization supports over 10,000 young people in Los Angeles each year as they strive to break the cycle of gang violence and reimagine their futures.

Recently I listened to Father Greg on an episode of Alan Alda’s podcast Clear + Vivid. From the way he talks about his work, it is clear that he is a teacher. His insights about engaging young people who are living in the most extreme situations were extraordinary – and mostly focused on authentic listening and empathy.

Father Greg offered a powerful way of reframing our work as educators when we engage with students, especially those who are in distress: “Stop trying to reach them.” Instead, he asks, “Can you be reached by them?” He went on to say, “You’re not fixing anybody, you’re not rescuing anybody, and it is not about you.” He challenges us to allow our “hearts to be altered” which requires us to “listen to” and “receive” our students.

This past week, my colleagues and I led an Inspired Teaching Institute focused on Mental Wellness. We chose the topic because a few weeks earlier, students in our Speak Truth program had selected Mental Health as their discussion topic, and their conversation was illuminating. My colleagues and I thought deeply about what kind of guidance and what strategies we could offer teachers to support their students at this moment. Drawing from our teacher workshops over the years, here are some of the things we shared:

A Wellness Check-Up tool.
A framework for understanding unmet student needs.
An invitation to brainstorm strategies to meet those needs.

But the highlight of the Institute involved listening to and receiving the words of students. High school students Leah and Markaiah told us about initiatives they created and currently lead at their school. Each day they check in on their teachers to show them compassion and caring. As they explain it, “We came up with a system to give our teachers a constant reminder they are appreciated, just how children would love a constant reminder from their teachers.” Recent high school graduate Mira told us about an activity she had created and led with her classmates: through a survey and storytelling, students were able to share, anonymously but powerfully, their personal experiences with mental health issues in a way that helped their teachers better understand them.

One participant in our Institute commented, “I especially enjoyed hearing from the students about the initiatives that emerged organically from their concern for the well-being of others.” Another said, “I will be following Markaiah’s suggestion of investing the first few minutes of virtual teaching to check in with students.” Like Father Greg says, our “hearts were altered” by the words of these young people.

In March, our Institutes will feature even more students speaking directly to us, their teachers. Our topic will be Making School Worth It – and we’ll hear from students of all ages about what they’ve learned during the pandemic; what they need and expect from their teachers as we return to in-person learning; and how we might collaborate to remodel schools moving forward.

The change we seek, the better future we desire for our students, is possible if we put them at the center of the redesign. We must be as open to being reached by our students as we are focused on reaching out to them. They have so much to teach.

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.