June 8, 2026
By Aleta Margolis, Founder and President
Listen to the Hooray For Monday podcast for the audio version of this week’s newsletter.
Students and teachers engaged in dialogue at a recent intergenerational Speak Truth event.
How would your students answer these questions:
What ticks you off about school?
What motivates you to learn? Which do you care more about: getting good grades or learning?
Do you use AI to do your homework? Should you?
How do you feel about teachers using AI to create lessons or grade assignments?
Can teachers even relate to students now?
These are just a few of the questions students and teachers discussed together at a recent inter-generational session of Speak Truth. DC students led their peers, and their teachers, in improvisation-based scenarios exploring the ways teachers and students interact when problems arise. Then they led us in small group discussions around grades, homework, AI, and whether teachers expect kids to grow up too fast.
Students offered honest perspectives about how it feels when, for instance, teachers “pretend to listen” to what they have to say or “assign 300 math problems but tell us we can’t use AI” or “think the only thing that motivates us is grades.” Teachers listened respectfully, and also offered their perspectives, explaining the pressures they face from administrators and parents, curricula that require them to cover long lists of topics, performance evaluations, and more. Teachers and students appreciated the opportunity to talk *to* one another, not just about one another.
This kind of thoughtful, useful conversation is the embodiment of curiosity in action. Have you made space in your classroom to engage with your students in meaningful conversations about things that matter to them, and to you?
How do we overcome a growing generation gap; an undercurrent of boredom in school; and fears that AI is replacing learning with prompting? We talk with our students.
Students want their teachers to engage in these kinds of important conversations. See below for activities and tools to support you in doing just that.
Looping
Hot Takes: Listen, Learn, Respond
The Art of Discipline
Hooray For Monday is an award-winning weekly publication of Center for Inspired Teaching, a social change nonprofit organization that champions the power of curiosity and is dedicated to transforming the school experience from compliance-based to engagement-based. Inspired Teaching provides transformative, improvisation-based professional learning for teachers that is 100% engaging – intellectually, emotionally, and physically.
