Many students probably don’t know, but Eleanor Brookins, our school’s beloved AP Human Geography teacher, graduated from North Atlanta. When she graduated in 1978, the school was called Northside High School.

Even though teaching comes so naturally to her, Brookins hasn’t always been a teacher. She studied pre-law and graduated from the University of Georgia with a double major in English and psychology. After several years working as a paralegal, she became interested in teaching and went back to school at Georgia State University to get a bachelor’s degree in social studies education, followed by a Master’s degree in political science. “I felt a strong urge to do something meaningful with my life and career. I love learning and I am so interested in many subjects, topics, and current events, so I felt teaching would be a good fit,” she said.

For 12 years she taught at Paul D. West Middle School in East Point. She was then transferred to Tri Cities High School where she taught world history and political science for five years. In 2012 she moved on to take a teaching post at North Atlanta.

Brookins loves interactive, enriching, and, most of all, fun classes. Although she’s a teacher, she’s constantly going to workshops and learning new ways to make her classes even better. “I use to be old school and very controlling. I have since learned to let go and let students be the masters of their learning. I like to challenge students and give them options and I now consider myself more of a facilitator,” Brookins said.

Her teaching styles have evolved over the years and she tries to add at least one new teaching technique to her repertoire every year. Brookins wishes students would focus less on the grade and more on the learning. She finds it incredibly rewarding when students connect classwork material to real life or finally understands a difficult topic. She loves to know that her students are engaged in class, which she finds is more common in AP classes, where the students are striving for excellence. Brookins finds that she is always learning from her students and feeding off their energy, and this makes coming to work everyday something to look forward to. “Some days I look at my class and think, ‘None of my friends are having this much fun at work!’” she said.