Aleta Margolis
{{Short description|American educator}}
Aleta Margolis is an American educator, social entrepreneur, and Ashoka Fellow.{{cite web |title=Aleta Margolis – Center for Inspired Teaching |url=https://www.ashoka.org/en-us/fellow/aleta-margolis |website=Ashoka |access-date=27 September 2024}} She is the founder and president of Center for Inspired Teaching, a 501c3 nonprofit organization with the mission of "Creating radical change in the school experience – away from compliance and toward authentic engagement."{{cite web |title=Center for Inspired Teaching – About Us |url=https://inspiredteaching.org/about-us/ |website=inspiredteaching.org |access-date=27 September 2024}}
Biography
Margolis grew up in Silver Spring, Maryland. Her parents were Lawrence S. Margolis, a judge of the United States Court of Claims in Washington, and Doris Margolis, who was president of Editorial Associates, a Washington research service.{{cite news |title=Engagements; Aleta Margolis and Michael Brodsky |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1992/08/30/style/engagements-aleta-margolis-and-michael-brodsky.html |access-date=28 September 2024 |work=The New York Times |date=30 August 1992}} Doris Margolis was also president of the American Medical Writers Association mid-Atlantic region.{{cite news |title=Appointments |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/business/1990/07/30/appointments/67708670-8bf3-4bb4-84e6-7ff29aa6c17b/ |access-date=28 September 2024 |work=Washington Post |date=30 July 1990}}
After graduating from Brown University in 1989, Margolis taught high school students in Washington, D.C.'s juvenile detention system, where she had good success in turning around students who had no interest in schooling when she started.{{cite journal |last1=Obolensky |first1=Masha |title=Teach Your Teachers Well |url=https://www.brownalumnimagazine.com/articles/2012-11-27/teach-your-teachers-well |journal=Brown Alumni Magazine | date = November–December 2012 |access-date=27 September 2024}}
In 1991 she moved to Chicago, and earned a master's degree in education from Northwestern University in 1992 while teaching grade school in Skokie, Illinois. Then she taught middle school in the inner city, and found a lack of interest in education there similar to what she had seen in Washington, not just among the students but even among the teachers.
In 1995, Margolis founded Center for Inspired Teaching to train other teachers in her methods of reviving the educational process.
She is on the board of directors of the Inspired Teaching Demonstration School in Washington.{{cite web |title=Board of Directors |url=https://inspiredteachingschool.org/board-of-directors |publisher=Inspired Teaching Demonstration School |access-date=27 September 2024}}
Awards and recognition
Margolis was named an Ashoka Fellow in 2001, in recognition of her work "revitalizing public education by unlocking the personal creativity of teachers and thereby dramatically improving student learning."
She was included in the Washingtonian 2006 List of Powerful Women to Watch, when Inspired Teaching had already trained over 5000 Washington-area teachers over 11 years.{{cite web |last1=Forrest |first1=Kim |title=June 2006: The List of Powerful Women to Watch |url=https://www.washingtonian.com/2006/06/01/june-2006-the-list-of-powerful-women-to-watch/ |website=Washingtonian |access-date=27 September 2024}}
References
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Category:American social entrepreneurs
Category:Year of birth missing (living people)
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