This school year, Center for Inspired Teaching, the Washington Teachers’ Union (WTU), and Ashoka: Innovators for the Public are partnering to offer high-quality professional learning for middle and high school educators around creating engaging, relevant learning experiences that facilitate youth leadership and changemaking.

The professional learning experiences will be built around Speak Truth, a popular program for DC youth offered by Center for Inspired Teaching. Speak Truth gathers high school students from all eight wards of the District to engage in monthly discussions led by trained student facilitators on contemporary issues facing young people. Topics are chosen by students, and this year, participants have grappled with topics such as the history and legacy of blackface, the impact of super PACs in politics, and gentrification.

Through this course you will:
• Learn to really listen to your students, and shape instruction based on their interests and needs;
• Develop your and your students' discussion facilitation skills;
• Learn how to craft and ask effective questions that provoke thought and spark critical thinking, collaborative problem solving, and the practice of empathy in students.  

Course Structure:

The program will take place during Speak Truth seminars on the following dates:
• September 26, 2019: Thurgood Marshall Academy
• October 17, 2019: National Cathedral School
• November 21, 2019: Thurgood Marshall Academy
• December 19, 2019: Georgetown Day School
• January 11, 2019: WTU Headquarters, Special Saturday Session, 9:30am-12:30pm
• January 16, 2020: Location TBD

Participating teachers will be invited to observe Speak Truth discussions (5:15-7:00pm); and Center for Inspired Teaching expert instructors will lead them in activities, guided reflection, and discussion of what they observed during a post-event seminar (7:15-8:15). Dinner will be included. Inspired Teaching will supply participants with readings, activity guides, and other resources they can use in their own schools, and will coach these participants through the experience of implementing Speak Truth-style critical conversations with their own students, connected to curriculum and geared towards students’ interests.

CEU Information:

WTU will award each teacher a 3-hour certificate at the end of each session, and teachers can attend up to five Speak Truth sessions. Additional credits will be awarded to teachers who complete all 5 sessions and submit a written reflection.

Signup forms for each workshop will be sent out closer to the dates, but if you know your schedule already, you're welcome to sign up now! If you'd rather just be included on the program mailing list for now, you can choose that option as well.