Teaching Philosophy:
Kelly Brooks, Award Finalist

May 16, 2007

Williams High School Teacher of Ninth Grade Algebra and 10th Grade Geometry for English as a Second Language Students

The Brain is the Seat of All Learning.

People often say that everyone can learn. Yet the reality is that everyone does learn. Every person is born with a brain that functions as an immensely powerful processor.

Traditional schooling-formal, institutional, standardized, instruction; however, often inhibits learning by discouraging, ignoring, or punishing the brain's natural learning processes. In light of brain-based studies, current practices of instruction and delivery need to be reexamined for their compatibility with how the brain best learns.

Trustee Duncan Webb looks on, as Kelly Brooks is honored by Keith Braley, Plano ISD Education Foundation president (right), award presenters and members of the school board meeting audience.

Brain-based learning theory focuses on concepts that create an opportunity to maximize attainment and retention of information. Copious interactive instructional strategies and optimal learning emerge from this philosophy of natural learning. For one, teachers immerse learners in complex, interactive experiences that capture the richness and variety of the real world.

New learning, therefore, becomes relevant and meaningful to the learner. Furthermore, teachers make an effort to eliminate fear while maintaining a highly challenging environment. All students are accepted with their various learning styles, capabilities, and disabilities. A relaxed accepting environment infuses the room to allow children to stretch to their maximum potential.

Finally, the learner consolidates and internalizes information by actively processing it. Information is connected to prior learning. The stage is set before a unit of study is begun by the teacher, preparing the students to attach new information to prior knowledge so the new information has something to "latch onto." But to do so, teachers must begin with diagnostic assessment probes to identify prior knowledge and uncover misunderstandings.

To come to the point, a teacher must gain an awareness of how the brain works to positively influence student achievement. After all, it is "the seat of all learning," and therefore, should be understood and accommodated.

Principal's Recommendation

What happens when you take a first year, alternative certified teacher, whom must travel between three different classrooms to teach at-risk students? That was the question Williams High School posed when hiring Kelly Brooks. Ms. Brooks teaches math to our LEP students, her lessons model a master teacher's detail to structure and management, while her style and delivery is full of energy, enthusiasm, and genuine compassion.

In one lesson I observed students learning how to calculate the slope of a line. Ms. Brooks talked to the students about fishing and if any of them liked to go fishing. Most of the students eagerly raised their hands. She engaged the students in a discussion about the fishing line when it is first cast into the water and how the slope of that line will look. She further went on to discuss the slope of the fishing line as a fish bites on and as it is reeled in. Students then received graph paper handout (with a fishing theme), which required them to calculate slope. The students immediately began to form groups to work collaboratively on the activity. All of them excited about what they were doing and telling fishing stories to each other as the worked the equation y = (m)x + b. WOW!

This lesson is the norm for Ms. Brooks' classes. She puts an extraordinary amount of time into planning and preparing lessons. She is the first teacher to enter the building every morning; the only one who beats her is the custodian. Ms. Brooks infuses technology in all of her lessons, from PowerPoint presentations and Internet inquiries, to students plugging away on their TI graphing calculators, her students are immersed in technology.

Just recently, Ms. Brooks explained to me her need for additional technology in her classroom. A TI-Smartview would allow her to demonstrate (via projection) calculator functions, yet another way that Ms. Brooks seeks to "hook" the attention of her students. Her classes are all very entertaining and full of energy as she patiently models math problems for her students. Her strong relationship with students is evident both in and out of the classroom. She attends their co-curricular activities and keeps them "in line" when she sees them in the halls.

Recently, Ms. Brooks coordinated (for the first time in my six year in the building) an ESL parent night for students in her math classes. Her hard work and earned the respect of her parents who all agreed to partner with Ms. Brooks to ensure the success of their children. It was the most successful parent event that I ever attended. The parents left feeling truly empowered and that their children were in good hands.

Most years the anticipation of TAKS brings severe anxiety for students, parents, teachers, and administrators. This year I look forward to TAKS (Math) so that our LEP students can perform and shine as Ms. Brooks prepared them to do. It is people, not programs that raise student achievement. Williams High School has such a person with Kelly Brooks. She is most deserving for the first STEM teaching award.

Sincerely,

Courtney Gober
Assistant Principal