2016 LOCALS LOVE US: MFHS teacher Lauren Berkman a favorite

MARBLE FALLS — How does a high school English teacher take classic pieces of literature and offer them in a way that engages today’s technological-age students? For Marble Falls High School English teacher Lauren Berkman, it’s all about making the classics — or any reading — relevant.
“I try to pull in things that are relevant to them, so it’s not just reading ‘The Scarlet Letter,' but it’s also about how ‘The Scarlet Letter’ relates to them and what they can learn from it,” Berkman said. “Any good literature, especially the classics, have themes and lessons that are universal. The setting may be different than what a high school student sees today, but the lessons are very much as important today as when the book was written.”
So Berkman often brings in current issues to her AP Language Arts and Pre-AP English 1 classes. She really likes to challenge the older students in her advanced AP course in their writing and reading but also in their thinking.
“It’s a good time for the students to really take a stand and really think about why they believe that,” she said. “When they go off to college, they won’t necessarily have their parents there to guide them. So now is a great time for them to take a good look at what they believe with their parents there still to guide and direct them.”
Her methods appear to be paying off because The Picayune readers and KBEY 103.9 FM Radio Picayune listeners voted Berkman the Locals Love Us favorite teacher for the Marble Falls area.
Berkman has been teaching for six years. But she’s not a stranger at the high school. She graduated from MFHS before heading off to college and earning her degree and teaching credentials. She returned to the area along with her husband, John Berkman, and began raising their family here.
While it was a little odd returning to the school as a teacher, Berkman said she’s grateful for the chance to give back to a community that gave her so much.
But don’t think she’s a pushover as a teacher. Berkman knows the value of a strong education. She uses short stories, essays and articles to get her students engaged in more in-depth writing and reading on their own. And with that comes better thinking.
“They do a lot of writing in this class,” she said. 
And she works to pull in current topics that affect her students' lives such as racism, gender and even medical ethics. 
For her hard work and dedication to her students’ future, The Picayune readers and KBEY listeners are happy to honor Berkman with a Locals Love Us award.
daniel@thepicayune.com