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TAKE TWO WEEKS THIS SUMMER TO BEGIN TO CHANGE THE WAY YOU TEACH FOREVER.
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This course is FREE to all teachers.
Graduate credit is available.
Download and submit an application. (This is a PDF file.)
This intensive, year-long professional development program challenges teachers (preK-12) of all academic subjects to build student achievement and meet standards in creative and truly effective ways. The course rejuvenates teachers while strengthening their abilities to meet the challenges of teaching. During the course, teachers are engaged in a 100% participatory process. Teachers are active and on their feet as they delve into a rigorous examination of the teaching-learning process. They emerge with new and more effective strategies for reaching every student. Teachers learn strategies for motivating students and engaging them in thoughtful analysis of academic material -ensuring that meaningful learning takes place. Program results show an increase in student participation, interest, and critical and analytical thinking.
Summer Session: June 29-July 10, 2009, Mon.-Fri., 9:00 am to 3:00 pm (excluding July 3 - a Federal Holiday)
2009-2010 Practicum (4:30 to 7:30 pm):
2009 - September 16, October 15, November 17, December 9
2010 - February 11, March 9, April 14, May 20
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BECOME A FAN OF INSPIRED TEACHING
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Check out our Facebook page and become a fan of the organization.
Inspired Teaching is now on Twitter as InspireTeach. Follow us to get regular updates!
These are new ways you can stay connected to Inspired Teaching and, even better, a way we can stay connected
to you!
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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.
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What can I learn outside my comfort zone?
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Teaching is not a relaxing activity, nor is it particularly "comfortable." You're on your feet all day, being held to stressful demands, trying to meet the needs of many young people -all at the same time. And yet, even in such an environment, as teachers we find ways to stay in our comfort zones. We do this by sticking to what we know, doing the same old activities over and over, repeating the routines we've established from the beginning, and shying away from anything that suggests too much change.
The irony in all this is that we are in the business of asking children to step out of their comfort zones every single day. We ask them to change from struggling to proficient, from troublemakers to classroom leaders, from those who forget their homework to those who model responsibility. We have our established methods for achieving these changes. And the logic goes: if these methods work - why do something different?
As we enter into the reflective time in the school year when we look back on the progress made since last fall - it may be the best time ever to confront this question.
What if what you're doing now isn't actually best for kids?
Think about it for a minute, do all of your tried and true instructional methods really work? Sure your kids are doing better now than they did in the fall, but how much of that is biological, developmental growth and how much of that is experiential, intellectual growth? What if something better exists? What if there is a new way to reach kids who struggle with math -that you've never even heard of before?
Would you be a better teacher if, like your students, you had to try new things too?
What if you could slow teacher-burnout by keeping your ideas fresh? Would you understand your students better if you found a way to learn more, and know less, in their presence? Can you make the teaching process more like a discovery expedition and less like a day job? What is preventing you from stepping outside of your comfort zone?
You've got a few more precious weeks with this group of kids and though you're tired, and the promise of summer is distracting - you have the power to make these last days more of the same or something magnificent. This month we'll bring you suggestions along these lines. You may find that in the process of trying new things and learning together, you and your students will discover a whole different way to approach next year.
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Outside the Zone Idea 1. Take a Trip!
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 It's unlikely that you can convince your principal to pay for a field trip at this late date, but there are plenty of "trips" that you can take on foot around your school. Check out this list for some ideas.
If you decide to take a trip of any kind with your kids, this checklist can help you get things planned.
If you want a very helpful resource to support your field trip planning for next year, consider A Guide to Great Field Trips by Kathleen Carroll.
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Outside the Zone Idea 2. Learn through service.
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 What if your kids learned something more than the three R's over the next few weeks? Consider a service-learning project.
"Service-learning combines service objectives with learning objectives with the intent that the activity change both the recipient and the provider of the service. This is accomplished by combining service tasks with structured opportunities that link the task to self-reflection, self-discovery, and the acquisition and comprehension of values, skills, and knowledge content." ~ The National Service-Learning Clearinghouse
Setting up service-learning projects for your class can be as easy as helping to organize the shelves in the school library and as complex as helping to renovate the home of someone in need in your neighborhood.
Projects you could do with your class before school is out include:
- Planting a flower garden at the school. (You even have time to start the flowers from seed!)
- Volunteering to serve a meal at a local soup kitchen.
- Making artwork for the teacher's lounge.
- Writing letters to service men and women over seas. (This is a list of groups that organize such activities)
- Pick up litter around the school or in a neighborhood park.
- Visit a retirement home and draw pictures for / bring flowers to - the residents.
- Start a paper recycling program at the school.
- Ask your kids for their ideas!
Check out the DC Government pages on service learning, for youth and download this guide which gives you more information than you'll ever need on how to get started.
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TEACHER RESOURCES
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Live It Learn It
Live It Learn It creates hands-on learning experiences for DC public school students by utilizing the city's tremendous resources as an urban classroom. These rigorous learning experiences, tied to DC's academic learning standards, enhance student motivation and promote academic achievement.
Donors Choose
Find funding for your field trip! DonorsChoose.org is a simple way to provide students in need with resources that our public schools often lack. At this not-for-profit web site, teachers submit project proposals for materials or experiences their students need to learn. These ideas become classroom reality when concerned individuals choose projects to fund.
Target Grants
Find a grant to fund a field trip. Target will award 5,000 Field Trip Grants of up to $800 each during the 2008-2009 school year. Applications will be posted by September.
The following list was pulled from a New Horizons: article by Kate McPherson
The National Service-Learning Clearinghouse site is filled with research and program examples.
National Service-Learning Exchange is a network of peer consultants to help teachers implement service learning in their classrooms, community organizations or college campuses.
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