Let’s give a great Catalogue welcome to … Aleta Margolis, Executive Director of the Center for Inspired Teaching! Through in-depth training programs and even annual principal and teacher institutes, Inspired Teaching advocates for true educational reform by challenging how teachers understand their students, their teaching, and themselves. Check out her insights on education and why great teachers are profoundly essential to our communities:

1. What was your most interesting recent project, initiative, partnership, or event?

Center for Inspired Teaching is in the process of opening a school: the Inspired Teaching Demonstration School. This school will be a DC public charter school and will open in August, and it will serve as a model for how we believe all teachers should teach and all students should learn. It will also be home to a teacher residency where new teachers will train alongside master teachers. We’re very excited!

2. What else are you up to?

In addition to the Inspired Teaching Demonstration Public Charter School, we are also in the midst of recruiting for the third cohort of our Inspired Teacher Certification Program, a 15-month program which certifies teachers in the DC area; we are accepting applications for our Early Childhood and Elementary tracks for the upcoming year. I’m also working with my colleagues and with the Bridgespan Group to create a business plan for Inspired Teaching to expand our impact within DC and nationally.

3. Is there a moment, person, or event that inspired you to do this particular work?

After I graduated from college, I took a job teaching playwriting to a group of high school students in the juvenile justice system. The play that my students wrote — both in its quality and its depth of content — made very clear that my students not only had the desire to grow as young writers, but also the drive to enact change in their communities. It also became clear that teachers who would have nurtured these students would have been integral in keeping these students out of legal trouble. It was these realizations that led me to a career in education reform.

4. Who is your hero in the nonprofit/philanthropy world?

John Hunter, a lifelong educator and subject of the documentary World Peace and Other 4th-Grade Achievements, who exemplifies what I believe Inspired Teaching is at its best. John is also the founder of the World Peace Game Foundation, which supports the development of collaboration and communications skills for resolving and transforming conflicts.

5. What is the single greatest (and non-financial) challenge to the work that you do every day?

Changing the conversation about the potential of children is a difficult task. Currently, it is widely assumed that kids simply do not want to learn — and as a result, most schools try to entice or coerce them into it. Changing this mindset is the toughest, and most gratifying, part of my work. Children possess innate curiosity, energy, and questions. These things are assets to their potential in the classroom. Good teachers can and do cultivate this in their students.

6. What advice do you have for other people who want to work in your field?

Above all else, a dedicated passion for education reform is at the heart of my work with Center for Inspired Teaching. On the more logistical level, you must be flexible to succeed in any area, while still recognizing that your commitment to the work you are doing is crucial. Times change, popular opinion changes, and circumstances change. The key to success in the face of all these shifts is knowing where you are willing to make adjustments as well as knowing what is not negotiable. Finally, it is critical to be able to ask thoughtful questions and listen to the response so that you are genuinely transformed by what you hear.

7. What’s next?

Center for Inspired Teaching is in the process of growing our impact within and beyond the District of Columbia toward our mission: ensuring every child has an Inspired Teacher.

EXTRA: If you could have a power breakfast with any three people (living, dead, or fictional) who would they be?

I would invite Susan B. Anthony, because I?d like to know how she kept her energy and spirit strong to fight for change in a positive way; Stephen Hawking, because he epitomizes the intersection of intellect and imagination; and Alice Walker, to better understand her technique for crafting characters with strong voices.