West Liberty Elementary School teacher Brandy Lackie loves her students, she loves mathematics, and she loves to make it real.
Lackie is passionate about teaching, and she wants her fourth and fifth-grade students to learn as much they can. Lackie wants her students to enjoy learning, but she also wants them to understand that what they learn will help them in life.
“I think I’m able to make math real for these kids,” Lackie said. “I’m able to show them how they will have to use it in real-life situations. I once did a lesson where each student would earn a paycheck, but they also had to pay rent on their desks and chairs, and make payments for the utilities in the school. It’s real life, and they aren’t too young to understand it. I once had a parent tell me their child helped them balance their checkbook… I love to make it real.”
Lackie said it is important for learning to be fun for the students. She said lessons that are fun and interesting keep students engaged. An example is Lackie’s “Glow-in-the-Dark Math.” During those lessons, basically all that is visible in her classroom are students’ pens, their writing boards and the numbers they’ve written. She said the students love it, they learn from it, and they retain what they’ve learned.
“It is so important,” Lackie said. “I can teach, they can learn, and we can still have fun. If they have fun, they remember it. I was teaching a lesson on volume and perimeter, but to teach them the lesson I had them redesign Santa’s Village. They will remember calculating volume and perimeter in Santa’s Village, but they aren’t going to remember it from a worksheet or a lesson out of a workbook.”
Lackie has also been recognized for her success as an educator. She was named as the 2021-2022 West Liberty Elementary School Teacher of the Year. Lackie has taught fourth grade at West Liberty for 13 years, and she has 21 years of teaching experience. She came to Ohio County Schools in 2008 as a media teacher at Bridge Street Middle School before moving to West Liberty Elementary School for the 2009-2010 school year.
Ohio County Schools Superintendent Kimberly Miller said a combination of talent and dedication makes Lackie an innovative educator. She said one of Lackie’s most important assets is that she is creative in the classroom. According to Miller, Lackie is committed to her craft, and she is skilled in creating innovative ways to help her students learn.
“Ms. Lackie makes the kids excited to learn, and she inspires them to work hard,” Miller said. “Brandy is a tireless worker, and her students’ test results are always excellent - year in and year out. She is motivated to find the best learning techniques for each individual student, and she is tech savvy which broadens her instructional tool kit.”
West Liberty Principal Stacey Dietz said Lackie works hard to create excellent learning opportunities for her students in the classroom and beyond.
“She loves math and makes lessons fun and engaging for her kids,” Dietz said. “She does Black Light math, and the students love it. She works closely with West Liberty University to obtain grants for even more opportunities for her kids… She once did a project that involved her students creating timelines, videos and their own float at the West Liberty University Arts and Education Center for a Thanksgiving Day Parade. Then, her class used green screen technology to make it look as if the students were actually in the New York City Parade. Those are the kind of projects she comes up with that make her students so happy to learn.”
Lackie said she truly loves teaching, her students and her school. She said she is doing what she was meant to do.
“Getting to know my students and seeing their excitement when they learn something new is my favorite part of teaching,” Lackie said. “I love it, and I love teaching here at West Liberty. There’s such a family feeling here. It’s the best school ever.”
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