AMAZING EDUCATORS: Building trust and consistency

(OREGON CITY) — Brooklyn Myers’ path to becoming a special education teacher began in her home.

Her aunt was a special education instructor in Texas, and Myers remembers hearing stories about what she did with her classes. That was a spark.

But her future crystalized 23 years ago when her first daughter, aged 3 at the time, was diagnosed with autism.

“I remember sitting there when she was a little girl, and we were sorting a puzzle,” Myers said. “She was getting upset because I was trying to get her to do the ABCs like any parent would be, and I realized it was too hard for her. And I put it in color groups, and I just got it and adjusted it. And she got it and was proud of herself — and that was what kind of started my whole journey.”

Myers, Oregon City’s 2024 Amazing Educator, is a special education learning specialist at Holcomb Elementary. Throughout each day, students in grades K-5 filter through her classroom to receive specialized instruction on everything from reading, writing, and math to social-emotional learning, behavioral skills, and self-regulation. When students aren’t in what Myers refers to as her “resource room,” they integrate with the general student population — part of what is called the “push in/push out” model that allows students with disabilities to learn alongside their peers while also receiving specialized attention they might need at different points in the day.

“Kids aren’t segregated like they were before,” Myers said. “Kids are pushed into general education classrooms, which is very important. They need to be around their peers.”

The thinking around special education has changed significantly since Myers’ daughter was diagnosed with autism, and at the beginning of her career, she just wanted to be a voice for her.

“She was non-verbal until 6 years old, so I needed as much information as I could possibly have to understand what her world was about,” Myers said. “And so I kind of just dove into that — took tons of different classes before I even became a teacher, and I just got it, I understood it. The brain made sense to me … I was determined to just make her part of society.”

Now, almost 20 years into a career that has seen several stops — mainly in the Oregon City and North Clackamas school districts — Myers works with parents and caregivers living through similar experiences to hers.

“I connect with families all the time,” she said. “Probably at times of the night when you’re not supposed to connect with families, I’ll be honest. I send that email at 6 at night even though I probably shouldn’t, because parents trust me. I let them know what I’ve done with my own children.

“I don’t take my educator’s hat off, but I also put myself in their position because I’ve been a parent of a child with a disability, too.”

As one parent who nominated Myers as an Amazing Educator put it: “Mrs. Myers' has brought her vast experience and expertise in special education and shown up every day with patience, empathy, truth-telling, and a canny ability to understand how to best understand and support her students and families.”

Myers said trust is one of the biggest keys to it all.

“These kids have to trust you if they are going to work with you and really show what they are capable of doing,” she said. “Consistency and developing a rapport with them, setting high expectations. Not expectations that they can’t meet — being flexible and ready to pivot on a dime. And consistency not just in what I expect of them but what they are expected down the hall, or their second-grade classroom, or their fourth-grade classroom.”

And Myers has the unique privilege of seeing how this trust and consistency pays off over multiple school years.

“It’s amazing. It’s beautiful to be able to see all of the growth,” she said. “General education teachers have their kids for one year, and then they go on next year to next grade, but I get to see the growth from kindergarten all the way up to fifth.”