Henrico's Top Teachers – Liz Broda, Henrico High School, social studies

“Hey there! Where should you be? And is he going too?”

High school teacher Elizabeth Broda does this a lot. She calls it embarking on a “grand adventure,” when she roams the campus of the school to track down her students who should be in class. This time, she sees one of her students walking around with a friend, and tells them both, kindly, that they need to hightail it to the classroom.

But 10 minutes later, Broda spots the two students still walking laps, and ventures out again.

“I just physically took him to his math class,” she said once she returned to her classroom.

Broda, who teaches ninth and 12th grade social studies at Henrico High School, does not take no for an answer. She has been teaching for 12 years, most of which have been at Henrico High, and she sets high expectations for all of her students.

“I’m not going to be that teacher that just says, ‘Alright, suit yourself.’ It’s going to be, ‘Come here, sit here, let’s get this done,’” Broda said. “I demand your presence. And I think they know that I’m not going to let them get away with laziness, with foolishness, with selling themselves short. And I’m happy to spend the extra time to work with them to get them there.”

A former teacher at Henrico High remembers seeing Broda go on one of her “grand adventures” to fetch a freshman student who often skipped the world history class she taught.

“If he’s not there, she will walk around campus and find him, with her co-teacher staying in the classroom of course. Once found, he comes back to class with her without issue, as if he was just waiting for her to come get him,” the former teacher recalled. “He knows she expects great things from him and won’t settle for mediocrity.”

And all of the students do come back with her, every single time, Broda said. Sometimes, she thinks they are even a bit relieved to be found by her. They will turn to their friends and say, “Ugh, Ms. Broda’s making me go back to class, I guess I should,” and maybe roll their eyes a bit, but without much protest, they end up back in her classroom.

“I think as a ninth grader, you are greatly influenced by the people around you. So the influence from your three friends who are saying, ‘We should do this,’ in the moment feels greater than your urge to go to class,” Broda said. “But once you have someone else in a position who cares for you saying, ‘Hey, actually I need you in class right now,’ it’s easier for them to make that decision on their own.”

Broda has a sign in her classroom above her desk that reads, “All y’all are welcome but you gotta act right.” That pretty much sums up her teaching method, she said – she will always be there to provide support to her students, and she will always be there to give them the nudging and redirecting as well.

“I want every child feeling like they belong here. And I want them here,” she said. “But when you’re here, you have to do what I need you to do. And if not, I’m going to correct you with a smile and I’m going to correct you with love.”

She may not be remembered as the “chill” teacher or the “cool” teacher, but that’s not her goal, her former colleague wrote. It’s about the students, what they really need in the moments when they’re skipping class or slacking off on an assignment.

“It isn’t so much about having students remember her as their ‘favorite teacher,’” the former teacher wrote. “She is delighted to have those big, flashy, special moments of student success and joy, but her impact is much more likely to be felt in little, everyday moments of consistent love, high expectations, relentless positivity and optimism, and community building.”

That consistent love and community building is especially needed for certain students, Broda said. This year, a few of her students spent time incarcerated, being removed from her classroom for bouts of time. When they returned, they needed the extra attention, more check-ins, and Broda’s efforts to gain their trust again.

“You have to take the time to get to know those kids, because they have been removed from your classroom for a certain amount of time and they’ve missed that connection," she said. “Even if it’s them telling you about jail. Because you can’t assume that you’re going to pick up right where you left off. They’ve had experiences outside your classroom since you saw them last that have changed them in some way.”

Broda also keeps in consistent contact with students’ families, especially with the families of students who have been in and out of her class. She “fires off” texts to parents, ranging from a picture of a worksheet a student is working on to a text asking for insight about a student who has been withdrawn.

“In my first few years of teaching, I didn’t understand the importance of connecting with families. I did not, as a new teacher, want to call home because it felt like I was getting the kid in trouble,” she said. “And so if I can, just maintaining that low key, low stakes parent contact.”

Broda doesn’t expect every student to get all 'A's or be the perfect student. But when a seat is empty at the start of class, she is spurred to go out and find the student who should be there. When students set the bar low for themselves, she moves it up herself.

“At the end of the day, you’re still going to learn what you need to learn. You’re still going to grow how we expect you to grow, just your path to get there may look different,” Broda said. “It’s not taking no for an answer. It’s providing them with guidelines and support, and doing everything with a smile and doing everything with love.”