Zooming Out: Hooray for Monday - Center for Inspired Teaching

September 13, 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.

Sometimes when we’re bogged down in the challenges right in front of us, we have a hard time understanding their true size. Are they really as overwhelming as we imagine? What size are they in relation to the other facets of our lived experience?

Looking at something small and then zooming out to contextualize it can bring all sorts of interesting discoveries and help us see things from a broader perspective.

We recently created Zoom Out, a perspective-building activity that strengthens writing, data collection, and other academic skills while also supporting social-emotional learning – for students and teachers.

Here’s how it works:

Watch a video that looks at something familiar from vastly different perspectives. These two short videos are great examples:

Carl Sagan’s Pale Blue Dot

Zoom, by Istvan Banyai

Then find an object in your own surroundings that holds some importance to you. It should be familiar, perhaps something you look at every day: a favorite mug, family photo, or your school bookbag, for example. That’s the object you’re going to write about. You’ll write down what the object is and where it’s usually found. Across from that, you’ll write down why that object matters to you.

Then you zoom out – just like in the video, and look at the larger object on which this item is found and where that’s situated. Write that down in the next set of boxes, then across from that write why it matters. Keep going and zoom out 2-3 more times on your own.

Invite your students to share their discoveries with you and with one another. And remember to share your discoveries with your students too.

As thoughtful teachers, we strive to teach our students about the big, shared events that shape our society – the Black Lives Matter movement, the impact of the ongoing pandemic, the 20th anniversary of 9/11, and much more. And we want our students to know that the simple, everyday things they experience as part of their lives matter a lot too. In fact, deepening our students’ ability to engage with intention around the everyday parts of life can enable them to learn about, analyze, and understand historic events in our past and current day too.

My new friend, the brilliant astronomer Harriet Witt, recently shared with me this planetary explanation of an anniversary, honoring the 20th anniversary of 9/11 this past Saturday. Harriet’s explanation exemplifies the kind of understanding we can achieve when we zoom in (to an important event in our personal and shared lives) and zoom out (to the edge of our solar system) simultaneously.

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.