Liberty Park Middle School’s teacher of the year

Brooke Izurieta has been named Liberty Park Middle School’s nominee for Alabama Teacher of the Year.

Izurieta has taught for eight years, spending seven at Liberty Park Middle School and one at Chelsea Middle School.  She has a bachelor’s of art degree in Spanish with a minor in history and a 6th-12th certification from Birmingham-Southern College. She also has a master’s in English as a second language from UAB.

Izurieta said she tries to create an inviting, interactive and creative environment to motivate students to learn Spanish in her classroom. 

“If they are having fun and creating they are learning — which inspires them to keep going at the high school level and beyond,” Izurieta said. “I also think that with learning a language it is important to consider all types of learners, and I try to incorporate activities in my lessons each day that help learners of all learning styles.”

One of her favorite lessons to teach is vocabulary for emotions in Spanish.  After she teaches the vocabulary, she has the students create a presentation using Photobooth. The students take photos of each emotion and come up with a sentence about that emotion. 

Currently her eighth grade students are studying the family and the house. Students will begin creating family trees to describe their family in Spanish.