May 4, 2026
By Aleta Margolis, Founder and President
Listen to the Hooray For Monday podcast for the audio version of this week’s issue.
Snapshots from the early days of Inspired Teaching, featuring Bernarda Tally and Dr. Michelle Edwards.
Over more than 30 years, Center for Inspired Teaching has worked closely with all kinds of educators: early childhood, secondary, ESL, special education, paraprofessionals, principals, brand-new teachers, veteran teachers, urban, rural. It has been an absolute joy to spend decades teaching—and learning from—the diverse array of people we’ve had the privilege to meet here in Washington, DC and in so many school settings across the country and around the world.
Each day offers new moments to feel gratitude for the work these teachers do; it’s impossible to pick out any one example. So, in the spirit of Teacher Appreciation Week, I want to share just a few that capture three decades’ worth of why we are so appreciative of teachers.
The 12 pioneering DC teachers who attended the first-ever Inspired Teaching Institute
Back in 1996, these teachers took a chance on us, and dove head-first with us into this new approach to teaching. Each day these teachers learned how to teach geometry through dance; strengthen reading skills through playwriting; and use the skills of improvisation to set academic goals and evaluate progress toward those goals. One memorable participant, Bernarda Tally, was a classroom teacher who went on to become principal at DC’s Hearst Elementary. She reported, “I’m a leader of leaders. I love to inspire teachers.”
Kumar Sharma, Head Start Teacher at Brightwood Elementary
Kumar took the Inspired Teaching Institute – by then a yearlong program – in SY 2000-2001. Kumar learned to ask her young students “Why?” to fuel their curiosity. Now, 25 years later, Kumar is still an active Inspired Teacher, continuing to teach full-time at Brightwood. She is a 24-25 Inspired Teaching Fellow in our Teaching With Improv Fellowship, and teaches her colleagues at Brightwood Elementary how to be Inspired Teachers. We appreciate Kumar’s longtime dedication to her teaching craft and to her students.
Dr. Michelle Edwards, Former Principal at Orr Elementary
Michelle was a new principal at Orr Elementary in 2003, when Inspired Teaching launched a multi-year partnership with her school to bring the Inspired Teaching Approach to all teachers and students. Michelle went on to become a nonprofit leader and is now an ordained Minister. Michelle is a passionate educator, devoted to inspiring those around her. Today we are proud that she is a board member at Center for Inspired Teaching, and we appreciate the many ways she sparks learning and joy in our community.
Snapshots from the early days of Inspired Teaching, featuring Kumar Sharma and Abdu’l-Karim Ewing-Boyd.
Abdu’l-Karim Ewing-Boyd, 6th grade teacher, Campus Director at Elsie Whitlow Stokes Community Freedom Public Charter School
After completing the Inspired Teaching Institute in 2007, Karim told us, “I’m focused on getting students to own their education.” Karim has spent his career empowering young people, and building their capacity to learn and contribute to their communities. Today Karim continues his advocacy on behalf of young people as a senior official in the office of DC’s Deputy Mayor of Education. We appreciate Karim’s persistence in working to ensure young people can thrive.
Andrea Durio, math teacher at Dunbar High School in Washington, DC
Andrea is a 25-26 Teaching With Improv Fellow. Andrea is teaching her colleagues at Dunbar about the Inspired Teaching Approach, and she’s devised an intentional and ethical way to integrate VR (virtual reality) technology into her classroom that builds students’ meta-cognitive skills. We appreciate the thoughtful way Andrea is incorporating technology into her classroom. You can find out more about her approach in this recent episode of the Hooray For Monday podcast.
The 25-26 Teaching With Improv Fellows
These 33 teachers are strengthening their own practice and sparking curiosity and critical thinking among their colleagues by leading professional learning in their home schools. They are leading workshops for teachers throughout DC, lending their voices to Hooray For Monday, and inviting Center for Inspired Teaching educators into their classrooms and school communities for close collaboration and learning.
We appreciate the ways these teachers are showing up as changemakers: challenging themselves and their colleagues to rethink the way they teach students and helping ensure schools fuel students’ critical thinking skills and curiosity.
Thank you to the tens of thousands of teachers who have participated in Inspired Teaching programming over the years. We appreciate your investment in your students’ learning, and your own. We appreciate the many ways you fuel curiosity and critical thinking. We appreciate you today—and every day.
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.
