Teacher Feature: Hannah Braswell

By Barbara P. Jacoby

As a tween and a teen, Hannah Braswell didn’t have many mentors beyond her parents. Knowing the value that more of those positive relationships would have had in her life influenced her decision to pursue a career as a middle and high school teacher.

“These years are so critical to one’s character and identity development, and kids of middle and high school age need as many positive influences and adult mentors in their lives as possible,” the Sequoyah HS teacher said. “I always try to be who I needed when I was their age.”

After teaching Georgia studies to 6th graders at Dean Rusk MS for six years, where she earned her school’s Teacher of the Year honor, Braswell now is in her second year of teaching 10th grade world history at Sequoyah. She also coaches varsity basketball cheerleading and serves as facilitator for her school’s World History Professional Learning Community faculty group.

Braswell said she chose to teach history because it was her favorite subject as a student.

“History is fascinating to me because through learning about people of different places and time periods, I feel a deeper human connection,” she said. “From ancient civilizations to the modern era, history is simply studying how people interacted with one another, how they dealt with problems, made decisions, and created change. There is always a connection to the present that can be made, and always a valuable lesson to be learned.”

While her students may be studying the past, Braswell looks to the present for tools to teach more effectively, from review game systems like Kahoot! to gallery walks to critical thinking strategies like hexagonal thinking.

For the latter, students are given a series of hexagons labeled with words, people, places, or time periods, which they cut out and then arrange and paste on paper. Students collaboratively work to determine the best placement for the hexagons and discuss how the hexagons connect to each other to make a web or mind map.

“What really shakes some students is that there is no correct answer or no right way of organizing their hexagons,” she said. “Students simply have to explain their thought process and how the various terms connect; as long as they can do that, they are correct. I love that they realize that there can be more than one correct answer or more than one way of looking at things. History is all about perspective.”

What can parents do to help their child be as successful as possible at school?

“It is important for kids to know that their household values learning. To show your student that you value their education, ask them about it; show interest in what they are learning at school. Place the true worth on the learning, not necessarily the grade,” Braswell said. “Try to allow your student enough independence to possibly make a mistake but be prepared to step in and help them to learn from the mistake and not make it a habit. Allow your student to have the independence to solve their own problems and learn from the choices they make; these are invaluable lessons that help them to become good decision makers as adults. Lastly, encourage your child to get involved. Students who belong to a club, sport, or some extracurricular feel more connected at school and have a more enjoyable experience!”