For her work in helping traumatized and underprivileged minority students, high school English teacher Briana Morales has been named the Illinois 2023Teacher of the Year. Photo credit: Illinois Public Media

Many excellent teachers deserve recognition for their work in the classroom. And some of them actually receive it! One of these is Briana Morales, an English teacher from Illinois who has been honored by the Illinois State Dept. of Education.

Briana teaches in East St. Louis at Gordon Bush Alternative Center in St. Louis, Illinois. The facility is an alternative school that serves a majority of Black students from low-income families. Briana is passionate about alternative education. “I think alternative education is representative of the underdog in all of us,” she asserts. “They are the kids that you’re rooting for to turn the tide and be who they want to be with the right resources. These are kids who may have unmet needs and lagging skills, but one caring adult can break the chains for so many children,” she continues. “We have a moral responsibility to ensure that every child has access to equitable experiences that allow them to be their authentic selves, especially in alternative education,” she declares. 

Throughout her career, Briana has been recognized for using writing and poetry to help her students process their experiences of poverty, personal loss, and violence. Her use of poetry as a therapeutic device has roots in her own childhood. “In seventh grade, I was struggling with complex life changes at home and I experienced a lot of trauma as a child,” she reveals. “My teacher at the time tried to equip me with the skills to battle everything that I was going through. She taught me how to write poetry as a way to cope,” she continues. “I wrote my first poetry book in her class and I never stopped writing,” she concludes.

In addition to her Teacher of the Year honors, Briana was named an Early Career Educator of Color by the National Council for Teachers of English in 2021. She has served as a policy fellow, senior fellow, and now a national senior research fellow with Teach Plus, where she has worked on advancing diversity, equity, and inclusion for students across the state through culturally responsive initiatives. Additionally, Briana serves on the school board for the Illinois Department of Juvenile Justice, School District 428. Her career as an educator spans six years.

Briana earned her Bachelor’s degree in Secondary English Education from St. Ambrose University in 2017 and her Master’s degree in Curriculum and Instruction from American College of Education. She is currently pursuing a PhD in education policy, organization, and leadership at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.

To learn more about Briana Morales, click on this link to an article about her published by Chalkbeat.