Inspired Teacher                                    July 7, 2008
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Becoming Inspired: Step 4
Build the skills of effective teachers, including listening, asking thoughtful questions, observing, and communicating effectively.
Visit the Inspired Teaching Institute

Inspired Teaching Institute 2007-2008

The Inspired Teaching Institute is our flagship teacher-training program, now celebrating its 13th year in Washington, DC. Join us for a few hours and meet a group of teachers who are starting a yearlong journey to improve their practice.

Visitor dates are: July 9-17. Visiting hours are 10-2.

The Institute is located at Georgetown Day School Upper School campus, 4200 Davenport St., NW Washington, DC.

RSVP to Kristen Boswell.
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Center for Inspired Teaching is a 501(c)3 non-profit organization that exists to ensure schools make the most of children's innate desire to learn. We do this by investing in teachers. Please visit our website to learn more about our philosophy, programs, and results.
Inspired Teaching Alumni Conference
metamorphosis
Save this Date:
August 18, 2008

Alumni of the Inspired Teaching Institute are invited to join us for a day of rejuvenation before the 2008-09 school year begins. Now in its third year, this annual conference is designed to reconnect our alumni and reinvigorate Inspired Teachers so they are ready to jump into another successful year.

This year's conference will be held at the Washington Ethical Society
7750 16th St. NW
Washington, DC 20012

The conference runs from 8:30 am to 3 pm and breakfast and lunch will be served.

The Inspired Teaching Alumni Conference is free to alumni.


RSVP to Griffin or Jenna Fournel 202.462.1956

Becoming Inspired: Step 4
This week we continue our study of the Five Step Process educators are currently experiencing at the Inspired Teaching Institute. The process leads participants towards the goal of achieving their full potential as Inspired Teachers.

Last week we talked about Step 3: Make the connection to classroom practice - develop new strategies to make sure my philosophy of teaching and learning matches what I do in the classroom. This week we move to:

Step 4: Build the skills of effective teachers, including listening, asking thoughtful questions, observing, and communicating effectively.

We learn more by looking for the answer to a question and not finding it than we do from learning the answer itself.  ~Lloyd Alexander

By now you are probably starting to realize that becoming an Inspired Teacher is not a journey with a finite end. Inspired Teachers are perpetual students. They study the art of teaching. Like artists or athletes, doctors or computer programmers, they must constantly build, strengthen, and pursue the skills of their craft.

What are the skills of effective teachers? Though the list can be lengthy, these are some of the most important:
  • Observing - Effective teachers are detectives constantly on the lookout for new clues to unlocking the learning needs of their students. Careful observation also enables teachers to discern the effectiveness of their lessons and to adapt and change them as necessary.
  • Questioning - Effective teachers ask more questions than they answer so that inquiry forms the foundation of their instruction. Thoughtful questions can guide the learning process for students and provide essential insight for the teacher about how students are processing what they learn.
  • Communicating - Effective teachers take responsibility both for understanding their students and being understood by them. These teachers focus on clear delivery of instruction as well as listening closely for feedback from the class.
Even if these skills come naturally for you, their ongoing development is essential to the evolution of your practice.
Think about it this way, highly skilled people may be born with a gift for their craft, but they excel at what they do through practice. Athletes, artists, surgeons, and teachers - all get better at what they do by practicing what they do.

You can practice a lot when your students are in front of you, but you can also view this summer as a training camp for the real deal in the fall. Here are a few activities to build your observing, questioning, and communicating skills.
  • Look and  Listen - Use your senses to observe the world around you. Here are a few examples: Count red cars on the road. Listen to other people's conversations in a restaurant and try to recount the stories they tell. Notice the facial expressions of people you pass on the street or in your car - try to decipher how they might be feeling based on what you see. All of these activities sharpen your observation skills and will enhance your ability to use your eyes and ears to take in information from your new class.
  • Question Conversation - Find a patient and willing partner and have a conversation in which you ONLY ask one another questions. This is much harder than it sounds, so here's a helpful hint: think of questions that can't be answered with yes or no. These tend to be more complex questions, but they actually make the conversation easier!
  • Teaching Through Questions - Try to teach someone how to do something only using questions. Make sure your questions are not simply veiled instructions. (Can you tie the fishing line around the hook?) Instead, ask questions that push the learner to make her own discoveries. (How does a hook catch a fish?)
  • Retelling Stories - Ask someone to tell you a story and try telling it back word for word. A variation on this is to listen to the story and challenge yourself to tell it back without using words!
  • Analyzing Stories - Ask someone to tell you a story about a conflict he or she experienced. After hearing the story try to pick out 1. the facts of the story, 2. the emotions that played a role in the story, and 3. the values at issue in the story. This is a conflict resolution strategy, and learning to hear these elements of the stories that play out in your classroom is a beneficial skill for you and for your students.
Inspired Teaching Institute Blog
Want a real first hand account of the Inspired Teaching Institute in action? Check out this blog from our Communications Associate, Griffin, who will make an entry each day for the next two weeks sharing her observations and insights from the experience.