A former public school teacher, Aleta Margolis developed the Inspired Teaching Approach to challenge a prevailing norm: too many children, teachers, and parents accepted the reality that school was something to “get through,” and that the “best” students exhibited compliance and obedience. This Approach challenges that notion, asserting instead that learning should be engaging for children and teachers, and that teachers are key to making this happen.
The Inspired Teaching Approach was developed, and consistently evolves, in response to the most pressing needs in education – like growing absenteeism and mental health crises, teacher retention, and leadership turnover – by improving teaching methodologies and practices in order to build community and ensure equitable outcomes for all students. For three decades, we have collected quantitative and qualitative data via surveys of teachers, students, and school leaders; focus groups; in-classroom observations using nationally normed tools; and case studies. Our approach is also validated by ample third-party research.
In practice, the Inspired Teaching Approach looks like children and their teachers in action - learning math, science, literature, history, arts, and more with their whole bodies, hearts, and minds. An Inspired Teaching classroom is one where authentic engagement and deep learning are evident on the bookshelves, walls, desks, and students’ faces.
For 30 years, the Inspired Teaching Approach has been at the root of our school and district partnerships, teaching residencies, and professional development programming. We began in Washington, DC, then expanded across the US and in India, South Africa (where one of our teachers opened a school rooted in our Approach), Turkey, Thailand, and elsewhere. During the pandemic, we created digital resources – reaching more educators worldwide, including in Myanmar and over 1500 teachers in Ukraine. We’ve received international recognition (including an Ashoka Fellowship, Webby/Anthem Awards, and Global Collection 2024 and 2025 selections). Moving forward, we will continue to adapt our time-tested resources and strategies for use in more classrooms and other education settings, enabling teachers everywhere to cultivate an improvisational mindset in themselves and their students.
The Inspired Teaching Approach is the foundation of every new resource, strategy, or program we develop. In the last year, these innovations have included four new digital guidebooks; an expansion of the Speak Truth program with new high school partnerships and the beginning of nationwide programming; and the launch of the Inspired Teaching Curiosity Challenge in January 2025. Participants around the world are interacting with the Inspired Teaching Approach through the Curiosity Challenge, which features weekly prompts and activities shared through online publications and podcast episodes– designed to cultivate curiosity and community. We continue to offer resources, like the Challenge, that will support teachers’ work inside the classroom and advocate for their work outside of the classroom.
We offer an array of resources – ready-to-implement classroom activities, self-paced professional development, booklets filled with insights and tools – teachers can use to bring the Inspired Teaching Approach into their classroom with the click of a button. They can also join our monthly live online PD workshops or contact us directly to bring customized programming to their school community.
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