LifeChanger of the Year Nominee Profile

Onjaleke Brown was nominated by her colleague, Sicily Whetstone.

Mrs. Brown is a principal who inspires excellence in teachers by demonstrating what good instruction looks like. She often goes into classrooms to teach lessons while other teachers observe. They express that watching her deliver unrehearsed, authentic lessons is powerful, because they can observe her deal with the same struggles they face daily. Her lessons aren’t perfect because students misplace materials, forget answers, and occasionally get sick while she is demonstrating; however, these unplanned incidents become teachable moments for the staff. One staff member told Mrs. Brown, “I just love that you are willing to go through what we go through with our students when you come in and teach. We feel that you really understand how hard our jobs are.”

When N. W. Harllee Early Childhood Center opened in 2015, there was a national epidemic in early childhood. Students were being removed from classrooms, or expelled from schools for behavior problems. This wasn’t what they wanted at Harllee, but Mrs. Brown knew that teachers’ knowledge of handling challenging behaviors was limited. She believes that knowledge is power, therefore, she provided the staff with the latest research on best practices for social emotional learning. This meant that the staff read articles, conducted book studies and attended conferences. She also brought Jesse Jackson III, the author of Don’t Kick Them Out, on campus as a speaker.

Knowledge is power, but once we gain the knowledge, it’s necessary to bring about a paradigm shift to achieve results. Mrs. Brown created a safe environment that allowed teachers to change their thinking about trauma, and how it alters the brain. The teachers applied their learning to their interactions with students. As a school, they completely eliminated behavior charts. Glitter bottles and calming zones were implemented as new tools for students, trampolines were placed in the hallways for fidgety students, and yoga was added to the schedule.
 
"Her formula is to share knowledge, provide training, then expect transformation," Whetstone said. "By leading teachers through this process, they have become change agents for a wide audience of people who care about school in this country. We are a model school where several times a week, current teachers, future teachers, campus administrators, and ordinary community members come to observe innovative teaching."