VERNON, CT — Vernon’s 2024-25 teacher of the year is a testament to educators who are able to right a potentially listing ship of a struggling student.
Teacher of the Year Brian Stevenson is a reading interventionist at Vernon Center Middle School. Stevenson’s eighth grade Boost Reading classroom lends a hand to young people who need, well, a “boost,” in reading and writing. Colleagues say Stevenson is devoted to, but also demanding of, his students and that combination consistently achieves “miraculous results.”
School officials said Stevenson is Vernon’s teacher of the year, based largely on the recommendation of those colleagues.
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“All students find an overwhelming sense of place in Mr. Stevenson’s classroom,” colleague Michael Furey said. “His students consistently demonstrate a skill increase of two or more grade levels. Not only does he help students improve their reading levels. He also builds a community of readers that encourages reluctant readers to like, if not love, reading.”
Reading is “the key to pretty much everything,” Stevenson said. To take “full advantage” of the offerings at Rockville High School, and to be able to access information in general, strong reading skills are “essential,” to middle school students moving up.
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Stevenson also said there is no typical student in his classroom.
“There is a wide variety of needs,” he said. “Some kids really want to do well but struggle. Others struggle with motivation or in seeing the value of reading. That’s a whole different challenge. But it’s a challenge I enjoy motivating kids to see the value in their education.”
A lot of what Stevenson does is build relationships with students and establish that he cares about them and how they do.
“They need some tough love sometimes and to be pushed,” he said.
School officials said they also know he will not accept easy answers such as, ‘I don’t know’ or with a shoulder shrug. Instead, students know Stevenson is going to demand their best, school officials said.
“They need to think and they need to be pushed to think,” he said. “If you work hard enough they start to see that you are on their side and on their team, that you’re there helping them and trying to help them succeed.”
Confidence building is also essential, he said. That means pushing students to read challenging books, he said.
“When they finish a real 250-to-300-page novel, they’re like, ‘Wow, I don’t think I’ve ever done that before.’ Sometimes when that happens it starts to build their confidence,” Stevenson said. “When you struggle, your confidence is hurt. When kids don’t think they can do the work, they defeat themselves before they even give it a shot.”
Stevenson said he works with students to find books that interest them and that they’ll enjoy. They may struggle, but they keep going. They find a character with which they can identify, or a topic they like.
Success is getting kids to grade level, or close, and seeing them succeed in their other classes, Stevenson said.
The Vernon public schools system tracks students to gauge their success in school. If a student struggles, interventionists in math and language arts are available to help. If additional assistance is necessary, more help is available.
Stevenson is one of those keys.
“Our curriculum is aligned to standards, cognitively engaging for students and rigorous,” Vernon Superintendent of Schools Joseph Macary said. “If we find a student is not meeting grade level expectations, we get them the help they need to succeed. Interventionists are essential to helping our students move forward.”
Added VCMS Principal David Caruso, “Brian is passionate about doing what is best for his kids and making sure he improves their performance in reading. He works really hard analyzing data,
talking to teachers, and getting anecdotal information about what’s going on in the classroom so he can support the students in his classroom. We believe every student should be performing at grade level.”
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