Brooke Eisenbach is the sixteenth recipient of the Edwin A. Hoey Award for Outstanding Educator in the English Language Arts, which recognizes exceptional English language arts teachers of grades 5-8 who have demonstrated excellence in teaching English language arts and inspired a spirit of inquiry and a love of learning in their students.
The award is sponsored by Scholastic Classroom Magazines, and honors Edwin A. (Ted) Hoey, who brought limitless imagination and creativity to the pages of READ magazine during his nearly forty-year career as writer, editor, and managing editor of the renowned literature and language arts classroom periodical. Hoey's efforts enriched the work of countless middle-level teachers of English language arts and the lives of their students.
Brooke is an eighth-grade English language arts teacher at Tomlin Middle School in Plant City, Florida. She has been a middle school language arts teacher for ten years, teaching language arts, honors, critical thinking, and adolescent literacy courses to a diverse student population. She earned her master’s degree in reading in 2006, her National Board Certification in 2008, and is expected to graduate with her Ph.D. in 2014.
Brooke uses young adult literature in her classroom to teach English skills and research to students. She takes advantage of the wide variety of books available and arranges frequent online chats with the authors to give students another perspective into research and the world of literature. Her lessons regularly allow for student-led instruction through literacy circles and writing groups involving the use of multimedia, including videos, music, and art. Incorporating this genre into her teaching has made her the resident expert for her students as well as her colleagues.
Brooke strives to cultivate a sense of community in and out of the classroom. Respect and positive connections are developed in her classroom through letters of encouragement and affirmation that students write for one another, as well as through stories shared during weekly family meetings. The reading program she created allows her students to earn community service hours by reading to elementary students, ultimately helping both groups of students build their reading skills.
Brooke is very active in the NCTE affiliate, Florida Council of Teachers of English (FCTE), where she was recognized in 2012 as the FCTE Teacher of the Year. She routinely attends and presents at regional, state, and national conferences, emphasizing creative approaches to the teaching of English language arts through critical thinking. Additionally, she has published research in and been a peer reviewer of English Journal and The ALAN Review.
Read more about Brooke through her award narrative. 
Join us for the Hoey Award celebration at the Middle Level Luncheon on Friday, November 22, 2013 in Boston, Massachusetts during the NCTE Annual Convention.