Page Unified School District issued the following announcement on Aug. 16.
Desert View Intermediate music teacher, Josh Brink, was informed that he is one of three finalists being considered for the 2021 Coconino County Teacher of the Year.
Brink was nominated by Desert View Principal, Mary Stahl, at the end of the 2020-21 school year.
Brink received the news on Tuesday, Aug. 10th, which was also the first day of the new school year. After the difficulties brought about from Covid-19 last year, Brink was celebrating having so many students back in his class when he heard the news.
“It’s an honor, and I was kind of blown away,” Brink said. “I was already a little emotional having my kids back and the news hit me pretty hard.”
Part of the process includes submitting an essay and conducting an in-person interview with the panel of judges, which Brink did in early August.
Stahl has only good things to say about Brink, and the energy and enthusiasm he brings to his classroom and building.
“Mr. Brink is the epitome of innovation, creativity, and enthusiasm. His persona contributes to our positive school culture,” said Mrs. Stahl. “And his enthusiasm for music is infectious.”
Brink does a lot of extra, creative things in his class, at his school and on the district level that make him stand out. For instance, last March, which was National Music in Schools month, Brink got the Desert View teachers together and had them sing lines from the movie “Sing.”
He then put all of those short videos together to create the full song. He sent that out to staff and who then shared it with their students.
“The students were so proud of us for doing that,” said Stahl.
Last school year brought with it numerous additional challenges as students and teachers moved to remote learning. At the beginning of the year when teachers, students and parents were learning how to use Chromebooks, Google Classrooms and other technologies, Brink was asked to serve as Desert View’s Technology Coach.
And he did an amazing job, said Stahl. “He shared with us how to use Flipgrid, Screencastify, and other tools to enhance student engagement in a virtual setting. He has made the virtual teaching environment accessible to all of our teachers.”
In the early days of the pandemic, when schools were still doing remote learning, creating music together as a class was difficult. Playing together while keeping proper time and rhythm simply wasn’t possible to do via Google classroom.
But Brink still found ways to keep his students engaged and thinking about music. One of the assignments he gave his students during first semester was to record themselves telling him what music meant to them and their family. He did in conjunction with a unit on culture. He then uploaded the recordings to his Flipgrid account and shared them for his class to see.
“The responses were touching,” said Stahl. “Some examples included a student singing a Navajo lullaby to his baby brother, a family singing together, and siblings playing a dancing video game that showed them all dancing and singing together.”
Brink teaches all 510 Desert View students, who attend his class once every four days. This is Brink’s eleventh year as an educator, and his third year at Desert View.
The Coconino County Teacher of the Year will be announced on Sept. 17, during a banquet in Flagstaff.
Original source can be found here.
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