By: Rahma Shammaa, ELA teacher @digiTIES

Yesterday during an ELA breakout room, students were brainstorming ideas for a paragraph on a simple but powerful prompt: What inspires you, and how would you like to inspire others?

One student froze. He said he had nothing to write and didn’t think he had anything that could inspire anyone. It was a classic case of writer’s block, but it was also something deeper. He was struggling to see his own value.

So I asked him a few focused questions.

What are you genuinely passionate about?
What is something you would gladly spend most of your time improving?

His answer was immediate. Computer science.

Then he paused and said, “But I’m not that good at coding.”

So I asked a different question.

Who inspired you to care about coding in the first place?

He smiled and said, “My uncle.”

That became the turning point. I invited him to step into his uncle’s shoes. If your uncle could inspire you through his skills, what would it look like for you to inspire someone younger one day? How would you do it? What would you say? What would you build?

His eyes lit up. He asked if he could write a hypothetical scenario, not his real life experience yet.

Absolutely.

Sometimes the fastest way through writer’s block is imagination. When students can’t see their own impact, we can help them borrow a lens. Start with the person who inspired you, then practice becoming that person for someone else.

This is why teachers matter. Not because we give answers, but because we ask the right questions at the right time.

What strategies do you use to help students move from “I have nothing” to “I have an idea”?