The Extraordinary Educators Podcast
Best practices, tips, and stories to help you be extraordinary in your classroom and beyond, featuring Curriculum Associates' Director of the Educator Community Sari Laberis.
The Extraordinary Educators Podcast
Innovative Student Engagement Strategies with Kim Brownell
What if you could transform your classroom into an engaging, vibrant hub of learning, especially in the challenging post-COVID era? Our latest episode features Kim Brownell, a sixth-grade ELA and reading teacher, who shares her incredible journey from being a principal back to the classroom. Kim reveals her innovative student engagement strategies that are designed to keep middle school students actively involved. From incorporating movement to fostering collaboration, you'll hear about her "tabletops" activity where students dance, form groups, and discuss lesson goals—creating a dynamic and inclusive learning environment.
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Hi everyone. Welcome back to the Extraordinary Educators podcast. It's Sari, and this week I am joined by the amazing, inspiring Kim Brownell. Kim is a sixth grade teacher. She teaches ELA and reading and she is also the MTSS coordinator for grade six to read at her school and additionally, she provides a really unique perspective because she was a principal and now is back in the classroom, and so I talked to Kim this week about all things student engagement, what it means to her, what she has noticed since COVID and recovery, and also what she does in her classroom to increase engagement with middle schoolers. So I know you are going to love this conversation with Kim and learn so much. So here it is, Enjoy. Welcome, Kim. Thank you so much for being here today.
Kim Brownell:Thank you for having me. I'm so excited. So here it is. Enjoy. Welcome, Kim. Thank you so much for being here today. Thank you for having me. I'm so excited to be here with you. Sarah, Of course.
Sari Laberis:So, just to start, what are you interested in? What are you passionate about?
Kim Brownell:So I've been in education for 16 years. I've had very different experiences. I was born in Hershey, Pennsylvania, and I started teaching in the inner city in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, for four years. And then, you know, I had to go fall in love in eHarmony, my husband's from the West Hoosick area here in Hoosick Falls. So I moved from the inner city out here to the country and I got a teaching job here in Vermont and then I got a teaching job in Albany and got my foot in the door in the public school system in Hoosick Falls Central School District and I've been an English teacher, mostly teaching middle school, for the majority of my career Ended up going back to school to get my admin degree. I was a principal for two years and now I'm teaching reading and AIS support as well as I'm the middle school MTSS coordinator and I'm loving my current role and being able to support teachers and supporting kids at the same time and helping them love learning.
Sari Laberis:That's awesome and what a cool perspective you provide. You know, having been in the classroom, moved to a leadership role and back in the classroom, but also still being able to lead some of the initiatives at your school and district. So congratulations on your journey and thank you for all of your service for your students and their families. Thank you. So what types of things are you kind of passionate about or feel strongly about?
Kim Brownell:these days Definitely student engagement. I have seen especially coming out of COVID and hitting all of those hard points through that time in our nation's history and seeing the engagement of students but also teachers just go down and feeling that defeated feeling of kids are different, we're different, education's different. Where do we go from here? And so very passionate in my own classroom of how to do things differently. As the adult in the room I have control of how I deliver my instruction and thinking outside the box with that instruction on how to get kids more engaged and excited about their learning.
Sari Laberis:That's amazing. So tell us your secrets, kim. What are some of the things that you do differently that our listeners could implement in their classrooms, that you do differently, that that our listeners could implement in their classrooms?
Kim Brownell:Well, I think the most important thing is there is no magic formula, there is no magic program. It's really feeling the privilege from our leaders in our schools to you know, once they open up the cage door, so to speak, being able to fly out and really have the freedom to try different things in our classrooms that are circled and centered around students, ways that we can help them collaborate. So it's little things, because it all comes down to having time to plan and prepare A lot of us. It's not that teachers don't want to do all these amazing fun things with our kids, it's that we need the time and the resources to do that. But some little things that I've done in my classroom and that I do right now, on a daily basis, is always try to get. I teach sixth grade and I always try to get the kids moving in some capacity, whether that's right in the beginning of my lesson as part of my warm-up, or it's through collaborative discussions. Or it's through collaborative discussions, one I call it, working together in a collaborative format that gets students up moving, talking and creating this classroom community of vulnerability and taking those academic risks. And so to do that, a tabletops is one of the strategies that I use on a weekly basis, sometimes every other day, when they're doing their guided practice, to really push their knowledge and self-assess their learning. And what that is is to make it fun.
Kim Brownell:Right, sixth grade, you're talking about middle school kids. They always are looking to socialize and have a good time. I play music, usually a popular song. Right now I've been playing a lot of Taylor Swift in my classroom and I encourage them to dance around the room until the music stops. And when the music stops I call out a number, usually between you know three to six. They know because I've set up this routine and procedure to get into that small group and circle up with their peer. And then I have a prompt on my Promethean board, on my whiteboard, and I verbally say it as well, and it has something to do with our lesson goal for the day, usually reinforcement of prior knowledge, and it's a way for them to take that ownership. And then the way they're held accountable for that information is when their group is done, they know to turn their backs to each other and face the outside of the room and they pick a spokesperson from their group to share out. And that changes every time, so they never know who's going to be the person sharing out from their group. So they all have to be ready to share out, because sometimes they choose, sometimes I'll choose, I'll just call on a random student from the group, and so that tabletop activity is one thing that could be applied across every content, every grade level. You just might have to tweak, you know how you roll that out, but it's a one-stop shop. As far as getting kids up and moving and you know, the music thing is a teacher's choice whether they feel their kids can handle dancing around the room or walking slowly around the room but I have used it with kids in grades five through 12, that strategy and that has been a successful strategy and they look forward to it.
Kim Brownell:Other sources of student engagement comes down to our instructional practice in our planning.
Kim Brownell:So how are we finding our moments Not that you're changing and how can we give these ongoing projects, these ongoing learning experiences I like to call them for our kids where they get to choose what they want to learn about within the confines of the content that we need to teach, right per the state, but not being held back by that as well? I firmly believe, too, in rooting that in our community, the community in which we live. We're excited we're bringing Ronald McDonald House in during the month of March and we're doing a reading challenge and incorporating that in somehow within all of our classes, talking about that, giving the kids something to work on and a challenge for them personally to increase their reading but also serve, in that way, their community, where they might be reading to a family member or reading to somebody in their community. So that's something that we're excited about and, I think, ignites our passions as teachers too. It gets us, you know, focused at something else that we might not normally have the opportunity to do within our individual classroom.
Sari Laberis:Definitely. And, wow, you just named a ton of best practices and tips and then small solutions that I think teachers can definitely take away and do in their own classroom. So thank you for providing all those examples and I think you just touched upon it at the end. But doing things that you are excited about yourself too, right, like when you said Taylor Swift, I saw your face light up, like if you're going to have fun with it, there's a higher chance that your students are too, and I'm sure you find that in your classroom.
Kim Brownell:Definitely. Well, you know, I was Taylor Swift. For Halloween, our team was Taylor Swift, the eras of Taylor Swift. I was reputation and the guys on our team, uh, were travis kelsey two different versions of travis kelsey. So it's been a taylor swift themed year this year for us. But yeah, it definitely is.
Kim Brownell:It's fun and the kids see us as people, right, right and, and that's who we are. We're, how can we help each other in our classroom community that we're all learners and I tell that to my students very often. I tell them what I'm excited about in my own. Still, you know, I'm 41 years old but I'm still learning, I'm still growing and I share that with my kids. I tell them what I'm learning about, what I'm excited about learning, and you can see that when I make that connection with them, that it humanizes I'm not just a talking head in the room, that we're learning collaboratively together and that I'm a partner in their learning. And so I just have appreciated, you know, through my years, having different mentors in my life and different teachers come alongside me to bring me to this point where there's that comfortability of it's okay that I don't necessarily have a structured. I mean it's structured but it's not all me sage on the stage talking the whole time, kids sitting there silently taking notes.
Kim Brownell:I think a big misconception in education is that silence is engagement. Right, that is not true. That silence does not. They might not be a classroom management issue there, but it doesn't necessarily mean that they're engaged in learning. And so I just think about you know, where do kids go to have fun? Where do they go? They go to places where they can special middle schoolers, where they can be loud, where they can engage with their peers, where they can have these conversations and do some fun activities. So how do we take that energy and channel it in our classrooms in a way that also excites us as teachers?
Sari Laberis:That is so powerful and we've talked so much on the podcast, especially this season, about how it really all comes down to trust and relationship building and connection, and I think you said just that Before we close out. In the beginning of this episode you talked about how staff engagement and morale is down now to when we're hearing from teachers like this, and last year just seemed like really, really tough years, and so I'm curious if you don't mind sharing with our listeners, like you're doing, all of these. You're testing out new things and you have a lot of energy. Like, where do you find your inspiration from, especially when times are kind of harder than they typically have been?
Kim Brownell:So I have felt called to teaching since I was in college and I just love working with young people. So I think my entrance into teaching was kind of a unique start. I was a communication, advertising, public relations major and then I started tutoring in an after school program in the city of Harrisburg and I just fell in love with helping kids find success and along the way I think I mentioned I've had mentors in my life that have just encouraged me along the way. And those connections, those adult connections, and seeing other people surrounding myself as an adult, around, positive people who love what they do, that is huge.
Kim Brownell:I think sometimes as adults we can get sucked into the negativity and I just challenge all of my colleagues out there to find your people.
Kim Brownell:Yes, we all have to vent. It's important for us to have that village of collegial support that points us into remembering our why, why we went into education and why we want to see those kids succeed. And we can only we're the adults, we can only control ourselves and kids are going to continue to change. Yeah, you know some people want to continue to blame COVID and, and you know, no one can deny the effect that COVID has had on education. But we can't continue to look backwards. We have to look forward and we have to continue to come together and not continue to isolate ourselves and focus on that negativity.
Kim Brownell:So I think, being optimistic, focusing on what we can control and finding your passion project, finding what lights you up and going after it, no matter what adversities or challenges or boundaries are in your way, finding a way to incorporate what you're passionate about into your instructional model, whatever you're teaching and whatever you're doing, whether that's an after-school club that you run, you're an advisor of that club, or you can actually incorporate it directly into your core content area. When kids see that you're passionate about your content or about something else that you're infusing, it lights them up, it's contagious and I think spreading that joy, spreading that excitement, that will make a huge impact in creating a positive culture in your classroom and your school.
Sari Laberis:Definitely Well. Thank you so much, Kim, for being here and sharing all of your wisdom and expertise and reminding us what student engagement is and how important it is to be surrounded by people who lift us up, so we really appreciate your time.
Kim Brownell:Yeah, of course. Thank you, Sarah, it was great to be here.
Sari Laberis:Get inspired by following us on social media and please tag us in your posts on X at Curriculum Asoche and on Instagram at my Eye, ready. If you have feedback about the podcast, a topic of interest or if you want to be a guest email extraordinaryeducators at cainccom. Please subscribe where you listen to podcasts and if you'd like to help more educators just like you, join the conversation and please leave a review. Remember, be you be true, be extraordinary. The Extraordinary Educators podcast is produced by Curriculum Associates, editing by Shane Lowe, social media by Atsiti Hannon, guest booking by Sari Labaris and production by Haley Browning. This podcast is copyrighted materials and intellectual property of Curriculum Associates.