This article describes a piloted approach to responsive lesson planning and lesson reflection that centers the motivation of both teachers and students in public school settings. Anchored in the African philosophical approach of Sankofa and Self-Determination Theory, the tools and practices described encourage strategic reflection while considering the basic psychological needs of both children and adults. Special Education teachers in Washington, DC employed a Lesson Internalization co-planning tool and found it aligned the paired teachers and filled gaps in the social-emotional and support needs for their students not captured by traditional lesson planning formats. General education teachers in the Bronx utilizing a responsive post-lesson reflection tool were able to adeptly pinpoint problem areas in delivered lessons, identify differences in causes of struggles between different sections of students, and even replace a traditional approach to behavior intervention for a student. Crucially, the practices were found to be fully internalizable and did not unduly add to the planning or reflection workload or time commitment for the teachers. The successes found in these pilots suggest the potential for a broader application of motivation-centered approaches in other aspects of school including conflict resolution, teacher evaluation, coaching, hiring practices, and professional development.