Loren Brody has a mantra that guides his life: Every child should have caring adults in their lives that provide stable, consistent, and loving leadership. Mr. Brody’s role in this is to help adults work together so that they can unite behind doing what’s best for students.
He did that at Hardy Middle School, where as an Assistant Principal, he helped the math department create a “Math All-Stars” program that increased students’ self-esteem, confidence, and skills. At Whittier, he’s worked to build strong relationships with colleagues and parents that support Whittier’s vision to prepare all students for “the ever changing 21st century,” while using his previous teaching experience (in English) to guide teachers to implement the Common Core in their classrooms.
As a teacher in Washington, D.C. and Montgomery County, Maryland, Mr. Brody says he enjoyed seeing three crucial elements come together: Getting to know students and celebrating them for their unique talents and gifts; creating memorable learning experiences; and pushing students to be better every day. “My biggest joy was in seeing these three parts come together. As an English and Reading teacher, I had the advantage of guiding student writing, and through their writing, seeing windows into their inner poetry.”
Long before his time at DCPS, Mr. Brody discovered his passion for teaching 14 years ago as an AmeriCorps volunteer in Baltimore, Maryland, and Washington, D.C. He tutored adults studying for their G.E.D. and was deeply inspired by the opportunity to connect with students and colleagues whose life experiences and backgrounds were different from his own.
“Bridging differences among adults on behalf of children, especially as it pertains to social justice, is very important to me on a personal and professional level,” he said.
And that’s exactly what a school leader does. The fruit of his work takes many forms— seeing students wave hi to him in the mornings, talking to them at lunch about the new Transformers movie or the vocab words they learned in class, or watching teachers explain how they’ll prepare students to become competitive in the workforce.
“I get excited about the little things and the big things,” he said.