We recently connected with Brittany Johnson and have shared our conversation below.

Brittany, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Can you share a story with us from back when you were an intern or apprentice? Maybe it’s a story that illustrates an important lesson you learned or maybe it’s a just a story that makes you laugh (or cry)?

I experienced a pivotal moment prior to my teaching career even starting. I had chosen to student teach at a pretty affluent school within HISD. Not knowing much about the campus or demographics, I chose the campus due to its relation to my apartment at the time.

I was a young Black girl who spent her elementary years on the Southside of Chicago. That was really all the experience I had when it came to elementary education. When I began student teaching in the Rice Village community, it didn’t take long for me to see the inequities that were taking place in lower socio-economic communities.

Due to my lack of experience, I couldn’t quite put the political pieces together, but I knew they were present.

I was at a campus with ample resources, phenomenal parent engagement, very few behavior complaints, and what most teachers would consider an “ideal campus.” However, during my time there, I made a conscious decision. No matter how tough it got, or how long the hours were, despite the lack of resources, I would get the job done. I would be a servant to communities that served lower socioeconomic families. I believed if I wasn’t a part of bridging the gap for the little black and brown girls and boys, then I too was a part of the problem.

Brittany, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

I worked two jobs during college. I would work my work-study job in between classes and at our local H-E-B at night. When I think back, my college years were a blur!

When I think back to how I got into education, I honestly don’t know! I always wanted to be an attorney, I’d been arguing with people since I was four years old, and I was certain that was the route I was going to take! I transferred to the University of Houston, and they didn’t have a criminal justice program as I had previously studied. At the time, it was an impulse decision just so that I could make a schedule to finish up my prerequisites.

When I began teaching, it just felt right! I’ll be honest, the policies that don’t benefit children, the lack of culture on campuses, and other outside factors have caused me to reconsider my career choice. During covid, I left mid-year with many frustrations! During this time, I worked on my nail suite, started doing nails and it took off! I went back to school for Social work and it too worked out. However, nothing really gave me the same fulfillment as teaching. I knew it was God allowing me to see that I had the talent and grit to do something else, yet still reminding me of what my purpose was.

I do believe that a career can be a job. A daily task that people commit to in order to make a living. I wanted that to be my reality so many times. Go to work, leave work at work and never let my personal life coexists with what I did for “work.” Well, I came to terms that my “work” was a part of the assignment that God has called me to do. Knowing and accepting that has helped me better transition back into the classroom!

I’m most proud of the growth I’ve experienced. I always reflect on my first year. It was a journey, to say the least! It was the year that I learned working hard doesn’t always equate tot effectitveness. I would get to campus before 6 a.m. and leave at about 8 p.m. It was terrible. I had no idea what I was teaching, I just knew, even if it was wrong, it was going to be my best.

During that time, I had veterans take me under their wing. They made me feel powerful. I was lost, but I could see the light in the tunnel. They would remind me that I wasn’t going to fail and even though I was lost, I didn’t feel alone in the struggle. Each day it started to make more sense. I looped with that group of students. I felt like I owed them a do-over because they went through the trenches with me. They were flexible when I had to reteach due to my own misconceptions and forgiving when I just didn’t have it together.

I still talk to many of those students. They had no idea of my shortcomings. they could care less. We had a treasure box we would visit on Fridays filled with Takis and prizes I could barely afford. We had huge class parties and created countless memories over those two years.

Now that I can pair that culture with content, it’s so fulfilling!

Have you ever had to pivot?

One summer, I read “Wild Card” by Hope King. I was obsessed with Ron Clark! I read all of the books I could, watched Youtube videos, and everything in between! Reading that book changed my teaching life. I always wanted to be the best teacher on campus. I believed if I strived to be the best, then that would mean my students had the best! When I read the book, my initial thought was, “I suck!” Not technically, but I knew I wasn’t doing all that I could do to meet my student’s needs and make learning as interactive as possible.

I read all of these scenarios where they brought the learning to life with room transformations and book studies. That summer, I spent my time buying supplies, revamping lessons, and following teachers on Instagram. That year, I totally went away with worksheets and workbooks. Unless it was an exit ticket, I wasn’t giving my students a close-ended assignment. Each paper had to be paired with something hands-on! I wanted my lessons to be engaging. I wanted my class to be the most fun, yet the data to reflect growth!

It was challenging, but I wasn’t okay with Hope King being better than me! My students needed the best version of me. That book will forever be a turning point in my career.

Training and knowledge matter of course, but beyond that what do you think matters most in terms of succeeding in your field?

Success doesn’t come from what you do occasionally. It comes from what you do consistently. I have to tell people often, Yes I’m hard on my students. I’m rough on the edges, but they leave my door daily knowing I truly love and care about them. They look like me, they come from a similar background as me, and we are resilient based on the traumas we bring into the classroom. That alone encourages me to push my students beyond their limits.

My expectations are consistent. My students know that I am not accepting anything but their own greatness. It looks different based on each student, but whatever their “great” is, that’s all I am accepting.

My routines may shift from time to time because with growth comes change. However, my expectation is consistent. Everyone must work! We are all here to grow, me included! That’s why I truly loved teaching ELA. I would get students that couldn’t read and never passed STAAR, to walk in on day one and feel defeated. By the end of the year, we were having book talks, they were making gains on state assessments and so much more! I wanted them to experience the feeling of being a winner, embody that feeling, and forever put up that fight!

Contact Info:

• Twitter: BrittanyJD_