Brett Gooch, a fifth grade teacher at Macon Hall Elementary School, discovered his love for teaching by happenstance.
Gooch earned a degree in communications from Memphis State University (now the University of Memphis), going on to work in human resources for a local real estate development company for eight years. But he wasn’t sure about the path he had chosen.
His guiding light materialized when his supervisors approached him and told him that they were downsizing.
“They came to me and said that I should probably start looking for another job, and immediately, I knew what I wanted to pursue,” he says. “My mom taught for Shelby County Schools for 28 years, and I had basically grown up in a youth group at church. Then, as a young adult right out of college, I worked a lot with a youth group, as well. Education was something that I always thought I would be very good at and enjoy.”
From there, he ventured on to pursue a master’s degree in elementary education from the University of Memphis. He started out student-teaching kindergarten classes at Crump Elementary School, and he was liked well enough that he was asked to substitute-teach for the remainder of his final year. “This led to me getting a permanent job with Shelby County Schools,” he says.
After working at Crump Elementary for four years, Gooch got a job with Macon Hall Elementary School, where he continues to teach today.
“The thing I love about my school is that we are very consistent with high-level instruction and high-level leadership,” he says. Gooch expresses admiration for the school’s former principal, Maryanne Spencer, who retired last year. “Behind every great school is a great principal. And wherever there’s a great principal, you have great teachers. And that’s Macon Hall.”
Gooch also credits his teaching partner Beth McFarlin for holding him up to high standards. “She has made me become a better teacher because she’s a better teacher than I am,” he says. “We’re also both competitive, so it leads me to want to be as good as her.”
Gooch and McFarlin understand that kids learn best when they’re having fun, and they use this knowledge in their classroom, which they’ve aptly dubbed McGooch University.
“We have gotten our middle school-bound kids to love taking notes, and one of the best inventions to encourage that has been gel pens,” he says. “We also like to teach our students chants and songs, and we have our kids work with and teach each other often.”
Reading and history are Gooch’s favorite subjects. “I’d say the thing I’ve enjoyed the most is turning my kids on to books and reading. My students are required to read a book a week, and my kids have learned to love it,” he says. “I also love teaching our kids about history and about the importance of becoming involved citizens.”
Throughout his teaching career, Gooch has grown as a person through learning to be patient and by forming strong bonds with his students and peers.
“I’ve learned to be a much more patient person. You don’t see how much you impact some children until they come back and visit,” he says. “I’ll see how successful they’ve become, and I learn that not only do I impact them for the year I taught them, but for the future, too.”
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