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Former Plains resident helps his students and school shine

by By CALLIE JONES Journal Advocate
| May 8, 2024 12:00 AM

[Editor's Note: Former Plains resident Shane Browning was recently honored with a Crystal Apple award given to educators within Logan County, Colorado's school district. This story was first published in Sterling, Colorado's Journal Advocate.]

For over two decades, Shane Browning has touched the lives of young students in Sterling, Colorado's RE-1 Valley School District as an elementary teacher.

Browning started his teaching career in Montana, fourth grade for seven years and sixth grade for one year. In 2002, he and his wife, who is from the area, moved to Sterling and he began teaching in RE-1, where he is now a fourth grade teacher at Campbell Elementary.

“There probably are very few hours that you will not find Shane Browning at Campbell Elementary working at some capacity. Along with his normal hours at Campbell, Shane spends numerous after-hours helping his students, calling parents, preparing for his classes, and painting at the school. Shane even makes home visits to deliver work and/or visit with parents to make sure his students have what is needed to be successful in his class,” said his Crystal Apple Award nominator, Beverly Schonfeld.

Browning didn’t always know he wanted to be a teacher. “It just kind of fell into place,” he said. While in college in Montana he played basketball and ended up earning a teaching degree, “It wasn’t in blood or anything I thought of, it just kind of fell in my lap.”

When asked what he enjoys the most about his job, he said there’s not really a bad part, he likes the kids, the parents, his colleagues, and the administration. A positive attitude is key for the longtime teacher, who always starts every day believing that it’s going to be a great day because if you think that “then that’s what it will be.”

Parent involvement has become a big part of how Browning runs his classroom. At the beginning of the school year, he handed out a flier to his students’ parents at an open house inviting them to attend a special meeting with him, where he shared his expectations and together they developed a social contract and planned to meet several times throughout the year.

Browning explained the parent social contract ties into what the school has been doing with social contracts for students and teachers. He wanted to take a step further and get the parents involved, asking them to come up with rules for the year. Browning said this has made it easier in the third and fourth quarters when parents can start to come unglued and teachers may be getting frustrated with certain things.

“The reason why I did it and I like it is because it kind of eliminates that feature where everybody’s kind of at their wit’s end. I figured if I established the contract and we came up with the rules then by the time the third and fourth quarter comes it makes it a whole lot easier. I find it easier for me to call the parents and talk to them about certain situations or behaviors that come up, it makes that transition easier for me,” he said.

When the parents asked for more community engagement activities, Browning planned activities around specific holidays. On Halloween, he brought in hay bales, a balloon arch and enough pumpkins for his class and their guests to carve.

“Everyone had a Spooktacular time that beautiful fall Sunday afternoon,” Schonfeld said.

Then, at Thanksgiving time Browning and his class, with a little help from the third grade, made 125 placemats to give to Sterling Health and Rehabilitation Center, Devonshire Acres and Harmony Home.

“I’m sure the elderly appreciated the little messages handwritten on each one,” Schonfeld said.

More recently, for Valentine’s Day, Browning and his class visited Walmart and handed out some sweet sentiments to shoppers.

He says that he sees the activities as a way to “get more people involved so they see what the kids are doing” and as something to “spread something positive out in the community.”

Browning hopes to keep expanding it so it gets bigger every year. Next year he wants to do something with CPR and plans to get not just his class but the whole fourth grade involved.

Not only is he making an impact on the lives of students in his classroom, but this six-foot-nine teacher is literally leaving his trademark all over his school with various painting projects.

“Shane loves to paint and has such an eye for color. He loves Campbell Elementary so much and wants everyone who enters to love it too! He has touched every wall throughout our school in the past two years and just keeps rolling on,” Schonfeld said, sharing that he’s even painted at Ayres Elementary too.

Browning explained that his paintwork started when someone gave him a fish to hang and he decided that his wall needed to have a background to go with it. He’s since expanded outside of his classroom, even painting a tiger mural near the school’s cafeteria, with a little help. Now, he has big plans for the entrance of the school, including a Campbell Elementary sign in the form of a crossword puzzle and the school’s mission statement.

The teacher is also working with the Bank of Colorado on some window safety improvements.

“I figure if (the school) is rejuvenated and painted it might spark a little bit of other things to come,” Browning said.