His Story
Brad Upshaw planned to be a performer. He studied theatre arts at San Diego State and worked as an actor, until he “accidentally fell into teaching.” He has taught at Vanalden Avenue Elementary School in the Los Angeles Unified School District since 1985, and says he gets “to do a different show for the same audience every day.” He tells his third graders: “Life is not a rehearsal. Show who you are. Give what you’ve got.”
Visitors to Room 14 might see clay sculptures or a video production, live crayfish, a Scottish Storyline unfolding, student Identity Day posters, or an intense Pi Day multiplication challenge. He runs Accelerated Reader, student-led conferences and an after-school intervention class, and teaches character with John Wooden’s Pyramid of Success. At the end of each day he leads a short reflection where students offer genuine apologies and the class resets for a fresh start, as a family would.
His students’ curricular videos have won awards every year since 1987, more than 80 in all, including the first Video in the Classroom award given by LAUSD. He also created “Upshot: Shoot for Success,” a basketball game that teaches math, and “Family Circle,” where students share their sad, mad and glad feelings with a mouse puppet named Gretchen. His former principal says that in thirty years he missed only one day of school.
Beyond the Classroom
Upshaw earned National Board Certification in 2013 and has been a mentor teacher for more than twenty years. He has been faculty chair at his school for over thirty years and has served as lead teacher, union chapter chair and president of the School Site Council. With his principal he helped write the school’s LEARN reform plan, which helped Vanalden become a California Distinguished School and a Title I Achievement Award school. His Academic Performance Index score rose from 600 to over 800.
He is a Discovery Educator Network STAR educator and has led workshops across California for groups including Computer-Using Educators and the National Teacher Training Institute. He appeared in an Emmy Award-winning instructional video and spent 18 years as a judge and coordinator for the California Student Media Festival. His students have sent Operation Gratitude care packages to troops and have made their first public speeches accepting awards at video award shows.
Philosophy Into Practice
Upshaw says that “teaching is storytelling,” and he tries to find what is essential and never be boring. He uses assessment data, including Smarter Balanced interim tests, DIBELS and Accelerated Reader reports, to find students who need help early and meet them where they are, and he makes sure each student understands his or her own results.
He sees closing the achievement gap and keeping excellent teachers as the education issues he can influence most from his own classroom and from his seat on the school’s leadership team. For twenty years he has helped interview and hire the school’s teachers, principals and cafeteria managers.
“I want to understand my students’ hearts along with their minds.”Brad Upshaw
In His Own Words
“Teaching is storytelling. I try to find the essential. I do not want to be boring.”Brad Upshaw
“Every interaction I have with every student is an opportunity to build trust and set higher and higher expectations for what is possible.”Brad Upshaw
“From theatre, I have learned about true collaboration. From video editing, I have learned how to cut out what doesn’t matter.”Brad Upshaw
What Others Said
“Mr. Upshaw has always inspired extraordinary efforts from his students.”Yoshim Yang, nominator, principal, Vanalden Avenue Elementary
“I always wished I could have cloned him and his love of teaching.”Teri Cooke McLurkin, former principal, Vanalden Avenue Elementary
“His classroom has won an award every year for 29 straight years.”Hall Davidson, senior director of global learning initiatives, Discovery Education
“In all my schooling as an LAUSD student, I had never witnessed such a dynamic between students and their teacher.”Imelda Alfonso, colleague and former teaching assistant
“He not only prepared us academically, but he prepared us for life.”Nagra, former student