Mrs. Lola Brown

Lola Brown, Edna Maguire School, Mill Valley, Central Council (CCCTE)

Lola Brown, CCCTE, Edna Maguire School, Mill Valley

Fourth-grade teacher Lola Brown of Edna Maguire School in Mill Valley talks with her students about a class project they are about to begin.Brown won the Classroom Excellence Award from the California Association of Teachers of English.
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This enthusiasm for writing that Brown has passed on to students and her ability to bring words and language to life for them likely led to her winning the Classroom Excellence Award.

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Brown, who is in her 60s, is one of nine teachers statewide to receive the honor from the California Association of Teachers of English, CATE, a nonprofit organization that promotes communication and educational knowledge among English and language arts teachers.

CATE is a resource for kindergarten through college English teachers looking for instructional ideas and information on education policy.

"What I want from the kids is mastery over all that they find mysterious," Brown said."It will make them feel powerful to know the tools and use them in their work.That is what I teach, those tools."

But there is more to Brown's class than run-of-the-mill grammar drills, punctuation practice, spelling tests, book reports and handwriting exercises.

"Most of the time, you do not know what her activities are supposed to teach you because they are so much fun.
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"Mrs. Brown is getting us to look at different ways of using words," said Watts.
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Brown, who has been teaching at Edna Maguire since 1990, has students' written "memory pieces" posted, a bound student poetry book and the Word Wall.

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" Every time we do not know how to spell a word, like Connecticut, Mrs. Brown writes it down so next time it will be right there."

Parent Susan Prey said Brown got her son Nicholas interested in his lessons.Nicholas said Brown got him to improve his sloppy handwriting.

"She made him care.She engages students and just doesn't settle for mediocre," Prey said."To engage fourth-grade boys is a major accomplishment."

Brown then pulls all the language tools together, having students write a lot in class, starting with paragraphs before moving to longer works.

"I do a lot of exercises that illustrate, that concentrate on vivid nouns and verbs and use the senses," Brown said."I focus on what is effective about a piece, what works, so kids can imitate that.I don't spend a lot of time focusing on terrible mistakes made."

This year the Award for Classroom Excellence is for teachers at the elementary school level who demonstrate continuing outstanding classroom expertise in teaching English or literary skills.

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Brown was nominated by former student Matthew Henn, who said that "unlike any other teacher I have ever had, she gave you the most enduring subjects to write about."
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Brown was born in Alexandria, Egypt, where she went through British schooling until she left for San Francisco at 18.She got a bachelor's degree in art from the San Francisco Art Institute in 1959 and master's in writing from the University of San Francisco in 1987.

After Brown earned her teaching credentials 28 years ago, she worked at several Marin schools until 1980, when she began teaching full-time at Saint Mark's School in San Rafael.

Brown trained at the University of California at Berkeley in 1983 to become a writing consultant.

"I teach other teachers how to teach writing to kids," Brown said.

She has been married to husband Dennis for 40 years and has two sons.

Contact Carla Bova via e-mail at cbova@marinij.com

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