Sarah Brooks is ready to take on her next challenge. She has pursued her admin certification and stepped into the new role of Special Education Coordinator. In this position, she will develop instructional materials, coordinate educational content, and integrate current technology into teaching. She will be able to provide guidelines for educators and instructors to help them create curricula and conduct courses effectively. This role will enable her to contribute to the future of education and inspire students to become lifelong learners.

Brooks’ passion for education began in college, where she worked jobs at Upstate Caring Partners (UCP) in the Promise Program and served as a camp counselor at Camp Northwood, a camp for children with learning disabilities. These experiences motivated her to pursue her degrees in Elementary and Special Education, launching her career teaching adaptive curriculum for 7th and 8th graders at Hillside Children’s Center in Rochester, NY. 

After meeting her husband, Brooks took her special education expertise to England, his home country. She spent several years teaching at Amwell View School, educating students with moderate to severe learning disabilities. Eventually, she returned to the United States and began teaching special education at Mount Markham in the Middle School. Later on, joining the elementary team as a second grade teacher, then reading specialist. Now, Brooks is using her experiences to make a positive impact on the teachers and students of Mount Markham.

Q: What are you hoping to accomplish this school year in this new role? What are some of your long-term goals?

A: I’m most looking forward to learning the other side of teaching and all of the work that goes on behind the scenes. I want to best serve our students by meeting the expectations from New York State and tracking their progress with best practices in goal writing and IEP writing.

My long-term goal is to provide more robust intervention services. I want students with IEPs to have even more support in the general education classroom, all while being as compliant as possible with NYS guidelines. We also plan to work more with co-teaching and review our progress monitoring process. 

Q: What instructional material is new for the 26-27 school year? How will it continue to evolve in the future?

A: In grades 3 & 4, we are continuing the rollout of the Envision Math program that was implemented in previous years. We also have new models that provide support for teachers with co-teaching, discovering new ways that they can plan their instruction, and then implement it effectively. We’re always asking ourselves, how can we use our time effectively in the classroom?

In the future, I would love to see more co-teaching models. The goal for all of our students, including our special needs students, is to have teachers provide the instruction to meet the NYS standards. It’s easier to do that when you’re in the classroom where that instruction is happening. There is a time and place for pullout services, but having more co-teaching will be beneficial, especially at the elementary level. What they’re learning is staying the same, but how we are doing it is changing based on what that individual child’s needs are, and just having two people working together helps us achieve that goal. 

Q: How do you develop instructional materials for teachers? What guidelines are you following when incorporating new topics/materials into the curriculum?

A: With students with IEPs, the most important thing is to make sure that we are meeting everything that is on the IEP. As a team, we’re asking what we are doing that is special for that student to help them meet their goals and meet the standards. Whether it is more hands-on concrete learning, auditory learning, or working in small groups, our goal is to ensure that we are providing opportunities for all students to learn and grow. 

Q: How will New York State’s “Portrait of a Graduate” fit into the curriculum and the future of student learning?

A: Portrait of a Graduate provides us with a lot of unique opportunities and makes us really think about how we are instructing by analyzing what the strengths of each student are and evolving instruction around that. We’re discovering new ways to provide experiences for students with more inquiry-based learning. With Portrait of a Graduate, students will have the opportunity to follow other pathways to graduate with one New York State diploma. 

We are dedicated to meeting the needs of every child, while challenging and inspiring them to become lifelong learners.