-3.jpg)
When you hear the tale of her journey, you realize that Brandis Bean was destined to become a teacher – and not just a good one; an extraordinary one.
Brandis is a kindergarten teacher at the University Preparatory Academy Elementary School Ellen Thompson Campus, a charter school in Detroit that’s authorized by Grand Valley State University.
Brandis has been a charter school teacher her entire 10-year career, and she was recently named the Regional Teacher of the Year by the Michigan Department of Education in Region 10, which covers the entire City of Detroit. According to the state, that makes her the best teacher in Detroit.
Charter schools in Detroit are on a roll. This marks the third year in a row (and the fourth time in the last six years) that the Teacher of the Year in Detroit was a charter school teacher. Calvin Nellum from the Detroit Academy of Arts and Sciences earned the honor in 2024, while Susan Kelsey-Brewton of Hope Academy of Detroit was honored in 2025.
The daughter of a teacher, Brandis Bean has been around the profession her entire life.
“I was born in Detroit and grew up in Southfield, and my dad was a high school teacher for 30 years,” Brandis said. “He taught P.E. and social studies. I used to help him grade his essays.”
Brandis’ dad is Vince Bean, and University of Michigan football fans will remember him as an outstanding wide receiver in the early 1980s, playing for Bo Schembechler’s Wolverines.
Brandis was an excellent student in the Southfield schools, but in seventh grade, she started having issues in math class.
“I was struggling in math, and I just thought, I’m just terrible at math. I’m bad at math,” she said. “But my mom was like, no, there’s something going on here. So she pulled me out of school and homeschooled me for eighth grade. And we kind of like started from the basics, like, simple addition. And I was like, ‘Mom, this is super easy. I know how to do this.’ She said, we’re just going to go through each step, just to make sure we figure out exactly where it is you’re struggling.”
As it turns out, Brandis simply needed to understand the concept of integers (any number that’s not a fraction or decimal).
“Once I understood that, I was basically teaching myself math,” she said. “I just needed to understand integers. I was doing great in math after that.”
It also made Brandis understand the value of having a teacher who takes the time to understand each student’s individual needs. In her case, it was her mother.
Brandis graduated from high school and enrolled at Grand Valley State University with plans on becoming a high school math teacher – to help educate students like her younger self. A conversation with her dad ended up changing her career plans.
“One day my dad came up to visit me at college, and we were just talking about the woes and grows of being a teacher,” she said. “My dad was talking about his students in high school, and he said, ‘I can’t even assign a chapter for them to read at home and do homework because they’re not understanding, they’re not comprehending what they’re reading.’ ”
At that moment, the light went on for Brandis.
“That was an ‘a-ha’ moment for me,” she said. “I was like, oh, the need is not in high school. The need is at the elementary level. So if I want to make a difference in helping these students read, do math, whatever, I’m going to need to teach at the elementary level.”
She changed her focus from math to social studies, with the goal of becoming an elementary school teacher. And she knew she wanted to teach in Detroit, a place that truly needed great teachers.
Her first job out of college was working at a charter school in Detroit called Cornerstone Lincoln-King Academy, and a few years later, in 2020, she took a job as a kindergarten teacher at the UPrep Ellen Thompson Campus. She’s been there ever since.
“I started in August of 2020, right in the middle of COVID, and that first year was entirely virtual,” she said. “That’s so tough for kindergartners because they need so much help in a classroom with things like how to hold a pencil. But we really made the best of it.”
She’s remained in the kindergarten class ever since, and she absolutely loves working with the youngest kids in the school.
“My favorite thing about teaching kindergarten is watching them go from virtually knowing nothing, having no skills in terms of knowing how to sit and listen and follow directions, to being able to sit, listen, follow directions, write sentences, read little reader books, do basic math – everything like that,” she said. “It’s almost a magical thing to see them blossom from being like little timid creatures to being confident and able to say, yes, I know how to do this.”
Shaura Robinson, the principal at the UPrep Ellen Thompson Campus, said it wasn’t the least bit surprising when they got the call from the Department of Education, letting them know that Detroit’s best teacher was in their building.
“I was honored to be the one to nominate her for the award, and I knew right away that she had everything they’d be looking for,” Shaura said. “We’re just so proud, and I know that Ellen Thompson is so proud, too. (School founders) Ellen and Bob Thompson, with everything they’ve given to Detroit and to these students, it’s such an honor to have a teacher win this award at the school that carries her name.”
And Brandis is honored to win the award as not just a teacher, but a charter school teacher.
“At our school, you have students who come from all different walks of life, together in the classroom,” she said. “And I have an awesome support system. I'm supported by the principal, admin, my cohort, my other teachers. Anybody, you can send an email and ask for something or ask for guidance and somebody is going to respond and come and help.
“I’ve only ever taught in a charter school, so I’m not sure what it’s like in other places, but I really do enjoy working at a charter school. I'm proud to say, when people ask me, where do you work? I say, ‘I work at UPrep Ellen Thompson. It’s a charter school in Detroit.’ I’m very proud of that.”
No Comments Yet
Let us know what you think