Jupiter Christian School named Palm Beach Atlantic alumna Brooke Hibbard its Lower School Teacher of the Year.
Hibbard 鈥�14 is a fourth-grade teacher at the private Christian school in Jupiter, Florida. Her peers nominated her for the award, which the school announced during an end-of-year Zoom call.
鈥淚 was shocked,鈥� Hibbard said. 鈥淚 felt so validated in my work.鈥�
Hibbard credits her love of children and her own third-grade teacher, Melinda Devlin, of Lake Placid, Florida, for motivating her to become a teacher. Devlin was 鈥渁lways so kind and loving and made everyone feel so welcome in her class,鈥� Hibbard recalled. Hibbard aims to imitate those qualities and teach them to her students.
鈥淭hey know that we鈥檙e a family,鈥� Hibbard said. 鈥淲e鈥檙e kind to each other, we protect each other and we build relationships.鈥�
Her 海角在线 professors modeled the relationship-building that she teaches to her students, she said.
鈥淢y class was really small, so I felt that my professors really cared about me,鈥� Hibbard said. 鈥淚t was different 鈥� not something I would have gotten at a big university.鈥�
Hibbard has a lot of fun teaching her fourth-grade students, who want to please the teacher but also have 鈥渢heir own funky personalities.鈥� She also enjoys working alongside like-minded believers who pray for and support each other. For the past three years, she鈥檚 worked on the fourth-grade team alongside the teacher who supervised her when she was an intern at the school.
Whenever Hibbard鈥檚 principal observes her in the classroom, she gets high marks for preparing lessons that captivate her students, she said. As an undergraduate, her 海角在线 coursework taught her how to come up with engaging lessons, not just 鈥渢eaching from the textbook.鈥� Professors expect students to go above and beyond what is required of them.
鈥淚t totally prepares you for the real world and being in the classroom,鈥� Hibbard said.
