S6 E5: Leading with the head and the heart: Enacting lasting literacy change with Mitchell Brookins

Equal parts educational leader, educator, and life-long learner of reading science, Mitchell Brookins has leveraged his passion and dedication to affect change in the lives of the students and teachers he works with, as well as the many educators he has inspired online. In this episode, he opens up about the emotional journey he took—from realizing everything he’d been doing wasn’t working and that he’d never actually learned how to teach kids to read, to seeking out reading research and encountering the Science of Reading—a path that brought unparalleled transformation and success to his schools. Mitchell talks about how he is still learning  and keeping students at the forefront of what he does every day, ending on a powerful story of a student who changed his life forever.

Additional Resources:

• The National Reading Panel Report: Practical Advice for Teachers
• Mitchell Brookins - Twitter
• Scanning Pens webinar: Learning to Read & How to Support Older Learners
• Free Poster: Why are you thankful for literacy?

Quotes:

“My calling is so that children can one day stand on their own without scaffolds, that children will one day reap the benefits that literacy is liberty, that children will one day be able to teach someone else the power that only literacy can bring.” – Mitchell Brookins