This week's Hooray For Monday features Aleta's conversation with Ann B. Friedman, founder and CEO of Planet Word Museum in Washington, DC. Aleta spoke with Ann for the second in Inspired Teaching's series of conversations on building School Connectedness.

Transcript: https://inspiredteaching.org/words-connect-us-hooray-for-monday/ 

Planet Word Teacher Resources: https://planetwordmuseum.org/for-educators/
Participatory Museum: https://participatorymuseum.org/ 

Inspired Teaching September Institutes
Wed. Sept 6, 7pm EST https://www.eventbrite.com/e/warming-up-with-improvisation-tickets-677064567347 

Tue. Sept 19, 7pm EST https://www.eventbrite.com/e/677066483077

Real World History application: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdaa7d6bvI1BO3YPxWI8nrhvMPnoD7wvo_IjMlcZt_t6uSieg/viewform?usp=sf_link

August 28, 2023: Words That Connect Us

In this week's episode, Aleta speaks with educator, activist, and author Jonathan Kozol about his new book, inequality in education, and -- most importantly -- how educators can combat it. 

Written version: https://inspiredteaching.org/interview-jonathan-kozol-hooray-for-monday

Resources:
Preoroder An End to Inequality here: https://thenewpress.com/books/end-inequality 
Check out the rest of Mr. Kozol's books here: https://www.jonathankozol.com/books

Inspired Teaching Institutes: https://inspiredteaching.org/inspired-teaching-institute/
Teaching with Improvisation Fellowship: https://inspiredteaching.org/teaching-with-improvisation-fellowship/
Speak Truth: https://inspiredteaching.org/youth/speak-truth/

February 26, 2024: An Interview with Jonathan Kozol

Aleta speaks with parenting expert and researcher at Brookings, Rebecca Winthrop, about Rebecca's upcoming book, The Disengaged Teen, and the four modes of engagement her research uncovered.

Subscribe to Hooray For Monday for weekly resources and important updates on Inspired Teaching programming and events: https://inspiredteaching.org/subscribe-hooray-for-monday/

Pre-order The Disengaged Teen (out January 7): https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/726142/the-disengaged-teen-by-jenny-anderson-and-rebecca-winthrop/

October 28, 2024: What Does Engagement Look Like?

Aleta speaks with educator, advocate, and author Esther Wojcicki about an array of topics -- from AI in the classroom to the benefits of student-led learning.

Subscribe to the Hooray For Monday newsletter for weekly resources and important updates on upcoming Inspired Teaching professional development programming and events: https://inspiredteaching.org/subscribe-hooray-for-monday/

December 9, 2024: Meet Esther Wojcicki

A recent classroom visit inspires a reflection on handshakes, trust, and peace.

Subscribe to the Hooray For Monday newsletter for weekly resources and important information on upcoming Inspired Teaching programming and events: https://inspiredteaching.org/subscribe-hooray-for-monday/

February 24, 2025: A Lesson in Handshakes

This interview originally aired as part of Inspired Teaching's Curiosity Challenge. Learn more and join the Challenge here: https://inspiredteaching.org/curiosity-challenge-2025/

Xochi Cartland helps to lead Operation Understanding’s year-long Social Justice Fellowship, a program for high school juniors. Throughout this conversation, she offers a lot of valuable insight into supporting young people as they discover their own voices and learn to respect those of their peers’ – a lot of which mirrors the work Inspired Teaching does with our Speak Truth students. And a lot of which adults can apply to their own interactions in the world. 

Subscribe to the Hooray For Monday newsletter to review resources and important information about upcoming Inspired Teaching programming and events: https://inspiredteaching.org/subscribe-hooray-for-monday/

Learn more about Operation Understanding DC: https://oudc.org/

March 24, 2025: Hope is a Discipline

Jenna visits the classroom of Inspired Teaching Fellow Sabrina Burroughs and discovers a classroom full of young learners who are comfortable and confident navigating big feelings with their classmates. 

Subscribe to the Hooray For Monday newsletter to receive weekly resources and information on upcoming Inspired Teaching events and programs: https://inspiredteaching.org/subscribe-hooray-for-monday/

June 2, 2025: A Bowl of Hot Crazy

This week's Hooray For Monday features a conversation Jenna and Meag had with Deepa Iyer, a lawyer, activist, and author, who shares the framework she's developed that helps us all find our role in building community and advancing the causes we believe in.

Subscribe to the Hooray For Monday newsletter to receive weekly resources and information on upcoming Inspired Teaching events and programming: https://inspiredteaching.org/subscribe-hooray-for-monday/



June 16, 2025: Everyone Can Play a Role in Resistance

This week's episode features Aleta's interview on the City Neighbors' podcast, Flip-Ed. They discuss all things engaging education, and why all teachers should be Instigators of Thought. 

Flip-Ed: https://www.buzzsprout.com/2433198/episodes/17123360

Subscribe to the Hooray For Monday newsletter for relevant resources and information on upcoming Inspired Teaching programs and events: https://inspiredteaching.org/subscribe-hooray-for-monday/

July 7, 2025: Instigate Thought

All students deserve an authentically engaging learning experience.

Download the Closing the Engagement Gap: A Social Justice Imperative white paper: https://www.google.com/url?q=https://e8ujuzejdog.exactdn.com/wp-content/uploads/Closing-the-Engagement-Gap.-A-Social-Justice-Imperative.pdf&sa=D&source=docs&ust=1752241008736415&usg=AOvVaw1f3CGzFhD9MVvf_eS820u8

Subscribe to the Hooray For Monday newsletter for weekly resources and updates on Inspired Teaching programming and events: https://inspiredteaching.org/subscribe-hooray-for-monday/

July 14, 2025: Closing the Engagement Gap: A Social Justice Imperative

For 30 years, Inspired Teaching has invested in teachers as the source for transformational change in the education system.

30 Years of Curiosity: https://inspiredteaching.org/30-year-anniversary-center-for-inspired-teaching/

Subscribe to the Hooray For Monday newsletter for weekly resources and updates on upcoming Inspired Teaching programs and events: https://inspiredteaching.org/subscribe-hooray-for-monday/

July 21, 2025: Teachers Matter

As part of our 30th anniversary celebration, we’ve got a special time-travel issue this week and next, in which we get to revisit the 2010-2011 school year. In that school year fidget spinners were making an appearance along with Silly Bandz, Adele’s Rolling in the Deep was the #1 song, and skinny jeans were still a popular thing. But what we’re sharing today goes a little deeper than these trends.

Subscribe to the Hooray For Monday podcast for relevant resources and information on upcoming Inspired Teaching events and programs: https://inspiredteaching.org/subscribe-hooray-for-monday/

July 28, 2025: Inspired Teaching for the Long Term, Pt. 1

Jenna chats with Ben Frazell, an Inspired Teacher from 2011 who today is an instructional coach at Inspired Teaching Demonstration School.

Subscribe to the Hooray For Monday newsletter for weekly resources and updates on Inspired Teaching programming and events: https://inspiredteaching.org/subscribe-hooray-for-monday/

August 4, 2025: Inspired Teaching for the Long Term, Pt. 2

Orly Friedman, an Inspired Teacher and founder of Red Bridge in San Francisco, shares how the school centers student agency in all things, including determining when they advance to the next level, and how teachers anywhere can incorporate more opportunities for autonomy into their classrooms.

Subscribe to the Hooray For Monday newsletter for weekly resources and information on upcoming Inspired Teaching programming and events: https://inspiredteaching.org/subscribe-hooray-for-monday/

August 11, 2025: Agency and Autonomy

Speak Truth serves not only as a demonstration of the Inspired Teaching Approach in action and as an opportunity for students to build and strengthen leadership skills, but also as a space for young people to be physically present with one another. 

Speak Truth 25-26 citywide seminars: https://forms.gle/BANkfeReCxLYG8cGA

Subscribe to the Hooray For Monday newsletter for weekly resources and updates on Inspired Teaching programming and events: https://inspiredteaching.org/subscribe-hooray-for-monday/

August 18, 2025: Relational Fitness

Jenna speaks with her son Leal, and shares actionable insights for teachers, about the importance of clarity and honesty in communication.

Subscribe to the Hooray For Monday newsletter for weekly resources and information on upcoming Inspired Teaching events and programming: https://inspiredteaching.org/subscribe-hooray-for-monday/

August 25, 2025: Clear is Kind

There is a lot going on in the world right now. Support your students in navigating this uncertainty.

Subscribe to the Hooray For Monday newsletter for weekly resources and updates on Inspired Teaching programming and events: 

September 1, 2025: The Courage of a Maybe

Don't shy away from discussing the day's big--and maybe controversial--moments with your students.

Subscribe to the Hooray For Monday newsletter for weekly resources and information on upcoming Inspired Teaching events and programming: https://inspiredteaching.org/subscribe-hooray-for-monday/

September 8, 2025: We Need to Have Tough Conversations

There are no easy answers to the question of if, when, and how to use AI platforms in the classroom. But Inspired Teachers don’t expect easy answers; instead we engage our curiosity and ask good questions.

Subscribe to the Hooray For Monday newsletter for weekly resources and information about upcoming Inspired Teaching programs and events: https://inspiredteaching.org/subscribe-hooray-for-monday/

Join the Inspired Teaching Curiosity Challenge: https://inspiredteaching.org/curiosity-challenge-2025/

September 15, 2025: AI: Curiosity Killer or Fuel for Learning?

It's our responsibility—to our students and ourselves—to be the drivers, not the passengers, of educational innovation.

September 22, 2025: To AI or Not to AI? These are the Questions

Every teacher CAN have the agency to take the reins of what’s happening in their schools.

Subscribe to the Hooray For Monday newsletter to receive weekly resources and updates on Inspired Teaching programming and events: https://inspiredteaching.org/subscribe-hooray-for-monday/

September 29, 2025: Everyday Advocacy

Listen to this week's podcast episode to learn how to use the Everyday Advocacy framework in the face of book bans and censorship.

Subscribe to the Hooray For Monday newsletter for weekly resources and updates on Inspired Teaching programming and events: https://inspiredteaching.org/subscribe-hooray-for-monday/

October 6, 2025: It's Banned Books Week

Over more than 260 issues of Hooray For Monday, Inspired Teaching has featured the voices of leading activists, educators, and changemakers. Revisit those conversations in the Action & Advocacy playlist today: https://soundcloud.com/inspiredteaching/sets/action-advocacy/s-fAXv2NEd0Gu?si=7182f89e945849b2ba7941b06af5cba2&utm_source=clipboard&utm_medium=text&utm_campaign=social_sharing 

October 13, 2025: Inspiration to Action

Revisit Inspired Teaching's October 2024 conversation with Rebecca Winthrop, author of The Disengaged Teen, to understand how young people engage--and how to support them in doing so authentically. 

October 20, 2025: (From the Archives) What Does Engagement Look Like?

Jenna and Aleta discuss cultural traditions around, personal experiences with, and classroom approaches to navigating death and loss. 

Subscribe to the Hooray For Monday newsletter to receive weekly resources and updates on Inspired Teaching programming and events: https://inspiredteaching.org/subscribe-hooray-for-monday/

October 27, 2025: Dia de Los Muertos: A Beautiful Way to Talk with Kids About Death

Hooray for Monday is an award-winning collection of resources from Center for Inspired Teaching, shared at the start of every week. These resources feature questions, ideas, reflections, and actions we can all take to remodel the school experience for students. Hooray for Monday challenges teachers to hone their skills as Instigators of Thought©, includes instructional ideas from our #Inspired2Learn collection, and provides links to other useful tools and opportunities.

About Us
Creating radical change in the school experience — away from compliance and toward authentic engagement. Center for Inspired Teaching envisions a future in which every person is prepared to thrive in and contribute to our complex and rapidly changing world, through an education that teaches students how to think, not what to think.

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