English Department Welcomes Ms. Brown to the Hive

Ms. Brown teaches 9th grade ELA and AP Literature. Photo Credit: Justin Chow

By NICOLE RABKIN-BEKKER

Ms. Shanée Brown, a new teacher in Midwood’s English Department, believes that her real education began when she started teaching. 

Ms. Brown grew up in Connecticut, and went to culturally diverse high school with about 1,000 students. In her friend group were kids from Vietnam, Mexico, Nigeria, and other countries. However, growing up in an urban area was complicated. 

“I think there’s a love-hate relationship,” Ms. Brown said. “If you are raised as a city kid, you learn to navigate the world, and you grow up with thicker skin than you would achieve in a different place.”

When she left her hometown for New York, Ms. Brown realized the difference in lifestyle that other city kids had.

“Leaving my home, I sort of felt how the norms were different here in New York,” Ms. Brown said. She grew up in a rough environment, but “we were all empathetic to each other; we understood each other’s socioeconomic and cultural issues, so things that are not as normal here were understandable. We were able to bond over these issues and understand each other better.”

One of Ms. Brown’s biggest passions is art. Her family was very artistic: her mother painted, including reproductions of famous pieces, and her sister practiced photography. She too, developed an ability to paint with inspiration from her mother. 

“I developed my love for art in college,” she said. “Now, if I have time, I like recreating artwork.”

Ms. Brown’s aspiration to become a teacher began when she was in school. “I was an emotional kid and felt things very deeply,” she said. Ms. Brown realized quickly that many of her teachers didn’t know how to teach the demographic of students in their classes, which made those children who were accustomed to different lifestyles have difficulty learning.

“Teachers should represent those father figures who set you on a path to greatness,” said Ms. Brown. 

When Ms. Brown was a freshman in college, she participated in a mentoring program for a fourth grade science class, where she assisted in teaching about worms and the water cycle. “I felt like I was a natural at it,” she said. Her path to teaching had been set. 

Out of college, Ms. Brown taught at schools in Harlem and East New York, where she interacted with students who led very difficult lives. 

“I was assisting a college student in writing his intro paper,” Ms. Brown said. “Both his parents had passed away from illnesses, but he was the sweetest kid I’ve ever met. All these kids had gone through so much, and I wanted to be understanding, which is part of the core of my philosophy in teaching.”

When Ms. Brown came to Midwood, she found herself in a more diverse school than she had previously taught at. “I think that it allows me to learn more,” she said. “Now that I’m here, I teach classes with kids from Montenegro, Uzbekistan, China. My favorite thing is how refreshing it is to see how everyone is kind of the same. Although my students have all been so different, in a way, the experience is still exactly the same. Kids are kids, and they respond in the same way, no matter who they are.”

Ms. Brown pushes her AP Literature students to do their best, “primarily because I’m relatively young and I know how college debt is a big issue in our country and in the community, so it has affected me on a personal level.”

To help students lighten their college loans, Ms. Brown is preparing them to pass the A.P. Literature exam so they can receive college credit. She is also the new advisor for Key Club. 

But Ms. Brown’s primary goal is to help students learn. “I don’t want Midwood students to have a distorted idea of what success means,” she said. “A lot of students are fixated on this idea of being perfect, checking off boxes, and just looking for numbers. I’m trying to change that so that it doesn’t take away from the messiness of learning. You gain more from your failures than your successes.”