The Importance of Rest: Hooray for Monday - Center for Inspired Teaching

December 21, 2020
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.

For those of us whose professional lives involve doing serious work, like teaching children, a vacation is a sacred thing. Whether or not it is sacred because we celebrate a religious or spiritual holiday, vacation is sacred because it is time away from work. And even those of us who love our work benefit from making time to rest.

According to Bill Stixrud and Ned Johnson, authors of The Self-Driven Child: The Science and Sense of Giving Your Kids More Control Over Their Lives, if we want to develop resilience, we need the opportunity to be stressed and experience challenge (check!), and also the opportunity to recover. Even our muscles know this, as rest allows muscles to repair and heal after strenuous exercise, and prepares them for additional growth during the next workout.

Vacation offers time for rest and offers us more say in how we spend our time. And just as we are intentional in the way we structure our teaching time with our students, we can be intentional in how we choose to rest. Binge-watching Say Yes to the Dress, sleeping late, going for long walks, reading a wonderful (or ridiculous) novel, singing multiple songs in the shower, doing Zoom calls with friends or family with no agenda other than to say hello, spending time alone… All of these are ways we can choose to rest.

Especially in this year when so much has been out of our control, making choices about how we want to spend our time can be rejuvenating in itself. If you live with young children or elders or others who require constant care, you may not get to choose to spend much time alone. But you can choose what to do at least some of the time with the people in your life. You can choose to bake and eat your favorite cookies together. You can choose to put on old records that make everyone feel good. To listen fully to the stories your family members want to tell. To play poker or bridge, or even Go Fish! To stand in front of the toaster oven together for a full 3 minutes watching the cheese melt on your grilled cheese sandwich. To do an online yoga class together. To commit to telling each other a joke a day.

You can also make the intentional choice to waste time – as in I am committing myself to accomplish absolutely nothing for the next 60 minutes (or 5 minutes, or 6 hours, or 2 days…).

Of course, many of us will need to use our vacation time to catch up on work, try to get through our inboxes, take care of household chores, meet the needs of family members, and more. But setting an intention to choose some time to rest our minds and bodies deserves a place on our vacation to-do lists.

Rest well. Refuel. And I hope you feel the gratitude from me, and from the many students, parents, and others whose lives you have enriched during this deeply unusual fall semester.

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.