Staff Spotlight: Stephen Browning

“Who you gonna call?” asks second grade teacher Stephen Browning to his class at Talahi Community School. “Ghostbusters!” they respond back to him. It’s one of Browning’s dress-up days for his class, and his call and response is themed to match it. He’s been dressing up in character and creating themed content to make learning fun since he began teaching in 2007.

“I always liked doing these sorts of things,” says Browning. “When I was student teaching, I ended up with a teacher, Amy Trombley [former St. Cloud Area School District 742 teacher and current executive director of Partner for Student Success with United Way] who really enjoyed doing these sorts of things. It was a good fit. She was like, ‘Well, I’m going to make you do a theme day and make you dress up.’ I was like, ‘Sold! You don’t even have to ask me twice.'”

The theme was Harry Potter. The duo made banners for every table representing each of the houses of Hogwarts: Gryffindor, Slytherin, etc… When students walked in the room, the sorting hat would tell them where they would sit for the day. The math tests were themed- the owl exams. All the curriculum for the day was taught with words and concepts themed to Harry Potter. Trombley remembers Stephen being a creative thinker and extremely artistic in supporting student learning. He jumped right in when he was given the opportunity to plan his ‘Fun Friday.’ In addition to house banners, he provided robes and wands and designed lessons to make it a memorable day.

“Thematic teaching brings cognitive skills like reading, thinking, and writing into the context of real situations, supports building on prior knowledge, and allows for creativity and reaching a variety of learning styles,” explains Trombley. “And … it brings joy and wonder into the classroom setting. Our class would look forward to what many of them named ‘Fun Fridays.’ The truth of it is, they were learning, connecting, growing, developing creativity, and using the skills they were learning and applying them in new situations, all while having fun and making brain connections with the concepts at hand beyond rote memorizations.”

Browning has loved themed dress-up days and content ever since. His goal is to do it at least every other month of the school year. However, he was limited the last year and a half with hybrid and distance learning. As soon as students were back in school last year, though, he and his co-teacher created a Little Red Riding Hood theme.

“I dressed as Little Red Riding Hood and she got to wear our Tracker [the timber wolf mascot] costume from our school,” describes Browning. 

Browning has always had a knack for creativity. In fact, his career aspirations had been graphic design work at the College of Art and Design at Hibbing Community College with a degree in media design. He thought he’d like to teach art. So, he obtained his K-8 teaching license, but then realized that it would be an additional three years of school to get an art license.

“I said, ‘I don’t think I want to go to school for another three years,'” laughs Browning. “I subbed for a while and landed at Lincoln doing Math Corps, and one of the teachers here retired and I ended up taking her spot.”

However, he didn’t start by teaching art. Instead, he taught science for fifth and sixth grade students. Eventually, he taught fourth grade, fifth grade, co-taught second grade and enjoyed it so much, he stuck with it.

This year he used the Ghostbusters theme to teach their science content area. They talked about mixtures, made marshmallow squares and had Seesaw lessons related to slime and proton streams.

Browning looks forward to every February for District 742’s One District One Book. He and his colleagues dress up to match the characters of the book. He’s also been Waldo, BFG (Big Friendly Giant,) Ebenezer Scrooge and a Star Wars Jedi on May the fourth, to name a few. Star Wars was a personal favorite when they discussed forces in motion for science. Who doesn’t love to carry a lightsaber while discussing science?

“What we know is that our most valuable asset we have is our teachers and their connections they make with their students,” says Browning. “Those personal connections drive student engagement. When I dress up, … they require the most planning but are often the best days of teaching. The kids are so engaged, so interested that they are just waiting for the next hook of the day to see what will come.”

Browning doesn’t just dress up for his students. He does it for himself as well. He finds it keeps teaching and learning fun. To him, it’s also self-care. If he’s not having fun, then his students won’t either. He’s noticed over the years some of his students will dress up for the day as well.

“Dressing up, being a little silly, it’s a lot of fun,” smiles Browning.

So, when the students at Talahi  are asked who they’re going to call to make learning fun, they’ll shout out, “Mr. Browning!”

Other Fun Facts:

1. Not wanting to lose his talents and skills in art, he spends his spare time illustrating, inking or drawing.
2. During the pandemic, he purchased a 3D printer and used it to make his proton pack for his Ghostbuster costume.
3. He’s enjoyed learning about modeling and engineering with his new 3D printer. He loves knowing a little bit about everything.