On Aug. 25, 2023, Lexington High School French teacher Beckie Bray Rankin (Brankin) found out that she would be receiving the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages’ (ACTFL) Nelson Brooks Award for the Excellence of Teaching for Culture. This is a national award recognizing outstanding contributions to the teaching of culture in the field of language education.
Established in 1978 to celebrate the contributions of educator Nelson Brook, the award is presented to teachers whose work has had a considerable impact on world language education. One must complete the nomination procedures and meet certain criteria for language education in order to be considered.
Brankin’s journey in French education began in school when she first learned the language. Throughout middle and high school, she excelled in her French classes, earning a five on her Advanced Placement French exam. In college, she originally studied elementary education, but later switched to majoring in French to become a French teacher.
Since joining the teaching staff at LHS, Brankin has sought to bring a fun and unique perspective to education. She experiments with diverse learning strategies, including incorporating humor into her lessons.
“She makes [learning the subjunctive tense structure] interesting. For example, she put in a pun in one of her grammar examples so that we have some fun while also learning grammar,” Elizabeth Yan, a sophomore and French student at LHS, said.
In addition to her unique approach to learning, Brankin’s teaching style also works to push her students to the best of their abilities by encouraging them to set goals for improvement.
“She emphasizes goal setting and perfection quite often in her work because she uses a lot of rubrics to grade all four major assessments,” Yan said.
When applying for the national ACTFL award, Brankin spoke about her experiences as a high school teacher. The award is typically granted to lifelong veterans of the World Language profession and university professors who write extensively about their experiences.
“One of the things that I was passionate about in applying for this award was showing other high school teachers that it’s possible to get these awards. To get it when other people are getting it, like late in their career, that was really important to me as I did this award,” Brankin said.
As a high school teacher competing with highly experienced educators, Brankin was doubtful of the outcome and had convinced herself that she wouldn’t receive the award when she received an email from ACTFL six days after the expected announcement.
“I just took a deep breath. And I’m like […] you’re not getting it. So it’s just better to know it now. And then as I was closing [the attachment], I was like, wait a minute,” Brankin said.
The LHS community is honored to have a dedicated and accomplished teacher like Brankin whose unwavering commitment has been recognized by ACTFL.
