Story by Kaden Bessent
Sherri Land originally wanted to be a service dog instructor, not a teacher. Once she became a mom, her perspective on school changed. “I actually really hated school growing up. After I had my own kids, I wanted to be that teacher that I never had growing up,” she said.
Land graduated from Early and Howard Payne. This past school year Land received the BISD Elementary School Teacher of the Year award. She has been teaching for 13 years, with her first two at Zephyr and her last 11 at BISD.
Despite not being fond of school growing up, a certain teacher left an impact, Land said. “In high school I had one teacher, she was a big well-known teacher in Early, Mrs. Hohertz, who’s passed away now. She kind of gave me that positive outlook of ‘oh this is what teachers can do’ and how they can influence kids.”
Land said she started out teaching fourth grade and just loves it. “Other than last year I taught all grades, but I realized after teaching all grades I’m like ‘nope I like fourth grade’ so I went right back to fourth grade,” she said.
Land particularly harped on her joy of teaching science and Texas history. Regarding why she enjoys teaching those subjects, Land said, “I really enjoy getting to see the kids getting to do the hands-on experiments in science and getting them to find that love for science. Really science is one of those things that gets put on the back burner until about third or fourth grade because they test on it in fifth grade. So it has become more of a priority. So getting them to kind of see science for what it truly can be in fourth grade is really fun to do. And Texas history, I mean who couldn’t love teaching Texas history, it’s super fun and exciting. I like to get them to finally fall in love with that history because a lot of time they come in and they’re like ‘not social studies’ because it’s just always been that thing that’s just thrown aside. So I enjoy getting to see them fall in love with social studies and learn that it’s cool, it’s a story, and it’s got a meaning and a purpose behind it.”
As for the most rewarding part about teaching, Land said, “Being able to see the kids that struggle finally find success. Getting to teach them in a way that they can truly learn instead of forcing them to fit inside of the normal school box, finding that way that fits for them.”
Land said struggling students are why she continues to teach. “I always examine and really observe my kids and I’m like ‘what can I do to get them to be successful.’ Whether that’s pushing them to a higher level for my high kids or getting those lower kids who have been struggling to finally feel confident enough that they can break down some of those walls and become the successful kids that they can be.”
In terms of what is the most exciting about the future of teaching, Land said “I’m always about continuing my education to learn more ways to support the kids, especially those struggling students. I love that I’m not teaching in a tested subject because it does allow me a little bit more freedom to be able to do some of those unorthodox ways of teaching. I look forward to just continuing to be able to push myself and push these kids to levels that they can get to.”
She and her husband Nathan have two daughters, Kylee, who will be a sophomore at Tarleton State, and Kynlee, who will be in seventh grade at Brownwood Middle School.
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BrownwoodNews.com will highlight one Brown County educator per day in the month of July, based on nominations received on our Facebook page, for our Teacher Feature series.