Investing in Teachers to Transform Schools

In partnership with the District of Columbia Public Schools system, Center for Inspired Teaching is building teacher capacity and supporting strategic application of the Common Core State Standards for content area literacy in the social studies at the middle school level. Below, a teacher participant describes a lesson taught through the Literacy Design Collaborative's module structure, and its importance in her classroom:

"The students were given a compelling problem to solve, and tasked with creating a product that served a purpose. A few of their letters were sent to an Egyptian Art Administrator, who sent me feedback on their arguments, then distributed their work amongst his colleagues in Cairo, in an effort to show that American students are advocating for the return of their precious artifacts. It blended social studies content with literacy skills. Students were focused on the evidence-finding and argument-building, which are really research and writing skills. But to be able to make sense of the documents, students had to have a basic understanding of Ancient Egyptian civilization. With this basic understanding, they were able to soak in the documents and gather new information about Ancient Egypt."

In June 2011, Center for Inspired Teaching launched the Inspired Teaching Institute for Mathematics Teachers, a partnership with Baltimore City Public Schools to prepare the district's middle school math teachers for implementation of the Common Core State Standards for Mathematics through an inquiry-based instructional approach. That summer, Jessica Hiltabidel, a middle school math teacher in Baltimore, began her journey toward becoming an Inspired Teacher. 

While participating in the week-long training and monthly practicum sessions of the Inspired Teaching Institute, Jessica transformed her teaching practice to one centered on inquiry-based teaching and learning strategies.  She believes the most important thing she learned was that her role as a teacher had to change from "an information provider" to "an instigator of thought". "I had to stop showing students how and start showing them what they already could," Jessica said. "I had to stop giving examples and start asking questions." Using completely student-driven instruction, Jessica helped every single one of her students move forward no matter how far behind they may have been. Her test scores are now higher than ever before, and her students are retaining information longer while taking responsibility of their own learning.  

Because of Center for Inspired Teaching, Jessica has taken a leadership role in the school, represented Inspired Teaching in meetings and at conferences, and wrote an article on student achievement in her class as the result of teaching through inquiry. Moving forward, Jessica will stay involved with the Inspired Teaching Institute for Mathematics Teachers by coordinating the work of teacher leaders who will support the incoming cohort of teachers.