1 of 22

Inspiration visits

Guidance for partners on planning and facilitating inspiring visits with design teams

1

2 of 22

Purpose & activities

activities


Getting fired up
Mini inspiration visit
Planning your own visit
Closing

Learn how inspiration visits can help your teams get unstuck and fired up
Dig into a mini inspiration visit to better understand how to make the most of an experience like this
Learn how to plan your own with a behind-the-scenes peek at how inspiration visits are designed

Purpose

2

3 of 22

Inspiration Visits

The goal of Inspiration Visits is to help participants break out of their mental model of what school can and should look like and to unlock creativity about what is possible for kids.

School Models

Van Ness Elementary School, Washington DC

Non-School Models

Architecture Firm, Los Angeles, CA

Experiences

Girls Garage, ,Oakland, CA

3

It’s can be tough to get new ideas about how to challenge the status quo in schools because we’re often so isolated: We spend most of our time heads down in classrooms and dreaming big can feel like a luxury we don’t have time for. But, we think that if you can invest that time, it will pay off in big ways: 1) We’ll have renewed conviction about what’s possible in our work with young people, 2) We’ll be able to indulge our own curiosity, which we don’t spend enough time attending to, and 3) We’ll get specific, actionable ideas about how to translate new ideas into practice.

We can seek inspiration in lots of different contexts: We can visit other schools to learn about best practices. We can visit non-school learning spaces, like after-school programs or libraries or kitchens, to gather ideas about how to bring the magic from those places into our classrooms. And, we can engage in new experiences ourselves - like learning how to print our own tshirts or build a bookshelf with power tools - to reconnect with what it’s like to be learners again.

Reflect: Have you ever participated in an “inspiration visit” like these? What did you do? What did it make you think about?

4 of 22

Virtual Inspiration Visits

The Perks!

More customization (when you don’t have to accommodate the diverse needs of a large group)
Can focus on “technical” materials (like student schedules, hiring manual, budgets)
Cheaper (no travel)
Can visit more places

In-Person Inspiration Visits

The Perks!

Can experience the “feel” of a place – classroom design, student conversations, faculty demographics, etc
Can easily observe learning in action, and talk to many students and teachers
Can focus deeply – a visit might be 2-3 hours

4

5 of 22

Inspiration mindsets

5

6 of 22

Think like a designer, not a consumer

6

7 of 22

2. Push beyond

the literal

7

8 of 22

3. Bring

the joy!

8

9 of 22

A mini inspiration visit

How to get the most out of your visits

10 of 22

A mini inspiration visit

This mini inspiration visit is designed to help you 1) get reacquainted with what inspiration feels like, and 2) better understand what we need to get the most out of these experiences.

SPOTLIGHT:

The Whole Child Model at

Van Ness Elementary School

How might we cultivate deep relationships between young people and their peers, and between young people and their teachers?

10

11 of 22

Let’s explore:

Dig into some virtual resources about how Van Ness Elementary cultivates deep relationships through its Whole Child model.

RESOURCES:

The Whole Child website: https://www.wholechildmodel.org/

A video about SEL at Van Ness

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e2YwTbyJW34

An overview of the Whole Child Model at Van Ness, for school designers https://exchange.transcendeducation.org/models/the-whole-child-model

Using the resources at left, respond to the questions at right.

QUESTIONS:

Describe what you understand about this model. What questions do you still have?

What did you see that is pushing your thinking?

What connections are you making between this model and your own work?

11

12 of 22

Let’s DEBRIEF:

“TECHNICAL” QUESTIONS:

Describe what you understand about this model. What questions do you still have?

What did you see that is pushing your thinking?

What connections are you making between this model and your own work?

“META” QUESTIONS:

What felt motivating or inspiring about this experience? What felt lacking or difficult?

What would you need to feel better prepared to make the most of a visit like this?

What is this making us think about how to best prepare for and synthesize inspiration visits?

12

13 of 22

Behind the scenes

Planning your own visits

14 of 22

A coach’s guide to Planning a virtual visit

Identify your purpose and define a theme or central question
Brainstorm and research places to visit
Curate resources for participants to engage with
Customize the inspiration template for the theme
Prep your people and do the visit (together or asynchronously)
Debrief and craft insights
Reflect and align on next steps

14

15 of 22

Step 1:

Identify your purpose and define a theme or central question. What do you want to learn?

Purpose	Theme or central question	Consider:
Experiential	How does learning happen?	If you wanted to help your instructional coach get reacquainted with what learning really feels like, what experience could you offer them?
Borrowing	Who’s doing interesting work with restorative practices?	If you were writing a charter application and wanted to learn from folks doing work that’s aligned with your own specific school model, how would you know where to look?
Creative spark	We can find inspiration in surprising places	If you were supporting a teacher who’s feeling burned out, where would you go to get them fired up? What would you want them to think about?
Mindset	Why should we reimagine school?	If you were helping a new board member strengthen their mindset about why it’s important to do school differently, what would you want them to see?

15

16 of 22

Purpose	Theme or central question	Possible visits:
Experiential	How does learning happen?	Take a printmaking class at a local art studio Take a language class
Borrowing	Who’s doing interesting work with restorative practices?	Visit a school that is well-known for restorative justice implementation Visit a nonprofit that organizes community resources around restorative practices
Creative spark	We can find inspiration in surprising places	Visit an urban garden to spark new ideas about how to tend to community healing and invest in economic justice
Mindset	Why should we reimagine school?	Check out school models that push your thinking about what school can be: NuVu, The LIFE School, Liberated Kids, Da Vinci RISE

Step 2A:

Brainstorm places to visit.

Custom New York-specific examples: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1WZGQfFZ1NSeAeIItJtDQ0jeVz-RTmxr3cYDBhlX0LIE/edit?usp=sharing

16

17 of 22

Step 2B:

Research spots that offer a specific point of view about your question or theme.

Researching schools? Start here:

The Transcend Models Exchange
Education Reimagined
Edutopia (navigate to “all topics”)
Twitter (eg search “expeditionary learning in ELA” for teachers and schools engaged in this practice)
Ask for recommendations from schools whose work you’re already inspired by

Looking for school-adjacent spaces? Consider:

Search for your theme (“restorative justice”) along with the context you’re interested in (“nonprofit,” “after school” etc)
Reflect on spaces where folks learn outside of school: Art studios, music classes, science labs, sports teams, libraries and more
Farms, writers rooms, woodworking studios, kitchens: A space where adults do interesting professional work can spark new possibilities for what classrooms can be.

17

18 of 22

Step 3:

Gather materials that participants can use to deepen their thinking about the question or theme.

As the facilitator(s) of this experience, you have the opportunity to offer materials to support folks in building a picture of the place you’re visiting virtually. Consider gathering:

Video and photos (from different sources)

Social media (school-owned “official” accounts, and other media created by non-affiliated folks - just search the name of the school and see what comes up)
School website
News reports, GreatSchools

Documents, including

Day in the life
Student schedule, teacher schedule
Course catalog
Mission / vision

18

19 of 22

Step 4:

Customize the virtual inspiration template to capture what you learn about your question or theme, using the materials from step 3.

Modify this template in advance of the visit (slides 5-14) to fit your unique needs. Use it during the visit to organize your team’s collective thinking.

Blank template: https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1RCqkKtCAAPVx9nXAlibLplWEtjFVzEbCL1JinlNOL0o/copy

Completed example (Charlotte Lab School):

https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1gOvUyTl8pDFe7CGoUiauG29JKsrmkZlKJVqphmpNpO8/edit#slide=id.ga0d7ccc807_0_125

19

20 of 22

Step 5:

Prep your people and do the visit

Activities to help your team prepare for the visit:�

Help folks take a curiosity stance. Rather than searching for best practices to “cut and paste,” it can be helpful to invite folks to embrace the mindsets on slides 9-11 of this deck.
Prepare folks for what they will see, or what they might look for: It’s essential for your team to be familiar with the driving question or theme for the visit. It’s also helpful to brainstorm what “evidence” they might look for ahead of time to build their understanding of the question or theme.
Start the visit together. Even if the visit is asynchronous (folks explore independently), it’s helpful to watch a short video together to ground in a shared experience. Then, invite folks to fill in their templates while they explore.

20

Bonus: If you’re able to meet with a representative from the school / organization virtually, consider asking them “how does this work”-type questions (to build your technical knowledge) and “advice/lesson”-type questions (to help you learn from their experience):

I’m thinking about doing [PBL] in my own model, and it looks like you do [intersession] that is similar. What advice do you have for someone who is just beginning to build out that piece of their model?
What lessons have you learned about [hiring, budgeting, discipline policies, grading approaches, etc]?
What sets your model apart from other schools that approach teaching and learning in similar ways?
I’m really interested in [trauma-informed practices, design thinking, etc]. Are you familiar with other folks in the field whose work I should look at?
What are your biggest challenges right now? What are you trying to “fix”? [eg improving virtual learning practices, overhauling the hiring strategy, fundraising, etc]
I spent a lot of time digging into the resources I could find about your school online. What might I have missed that you’re really proud of but isn’t really documented online?

21 of 22

Steps 6 + 7:

Debrief, craft insights, reflect and align on next steps

Debrief questions:

Describe what you learned about how this site exemplifies your question or theme.

What connections are you making between this model and your own work?
What did you see that is pushing your thinking?
How could this impact your school design?
What did you learn about the conditions needed to do this well?
What questions do you still have?

�Reflect and align on next steps:

What does this visit make us think about what to do next?
What are the implications for our work?

21

22 of 22

Additional considerations for an in-person visit

Reach out and coordinate details with the host

Once you’ve found a compelling place to visit, reach out to inquire about a visit. Be upfront about your needs in order to lessen the burden on your hosts: Make a clear ask about the time involved (ie, “90-minute tour”), what you are hoping to see and what your group is interested in learning, and accessibility needs. Ask what the host needs from you to make the experience as smooth as possible.

Express appreciation to your hosts

After your visit, acknowledge your hosts’ time and care by offering 1) compensation (be transparent about this before the visit), 2) a thank you note, 3) a skill trade, or 4) something else that feels right for both of you.

22