Inside the Classroom: Shawna Briseno - Justin Elementary

Inside the Classroom is a series that visits Northwest ISD campuses throughout the year and highlights the magical moments that happen between teachers and students each and every day across the entire 234 square miles of NISD.

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The first edition of Inside the Classroom for the 2025-2026 school year takes us to Justin Elementary, one of Northwest ISD’s newest buildings. For nearly a month, the Jaguars have been discovering just how limitless learning can be in their new environment.

We visited Shawna Briseno’s fourth-grade classroom, where her students were using every inch of their classroom and even spaces outside of their four walls to master their math lesson for the day.

The lesson started with some students sitting at their desks and others gathered on the floor as Ms. Briseno explained that their time in math was going to revolve around using analog and digital clocks. 

After a quick class discussion on clocks and the math involved in telling time, students were split into groups. Throughout the rest of the lesson, they rotated through four stations that would test their math understanding.

In one station, students took their math workbooks and solved problems independently or with a partner. They were free to take their workbooks somewhere comfortable, including into the learning pod outside their classroom, which is a central area that is accessible to all fourth-grade classes. 

Each grade level on campus, except for Pre-K, has a pod that features flexible furniture that can be rearranged in countless ways. It offers students an extended learning space and allows teachers to expand beyond their walls.  

In a second station, students brought their workbooks for small group instruction with Ms. Briseno. She sat on the floor with each group and led them through a few exercises to help grasp using math to tell time. The students welcomed the chance to leave their desks and work from new space.

For some groups, Ms. Briseno moved to a table at the side of the room so students could use some extra tools. With their 1-120 chart in hand and Ms. Briseno guiding them, students mastered their problems.

“All great mathematicians use tools,” Ms. Briseno told her class.

Ms. Briseno also uses all the tools at her disposal to keep her students engaged and efficient with their time.

Ms. Briseno projected her iPad to the screen at the front of the room, allowing her to show off some cool tricks, like turning her clock into a flower to help count through their minutes on an analog clock.

One new tool that teachers have this year is Lightspeed Classroom, a management software that helps teachers monitor student activity on their devices, allowing them to limit distractions, engage students in learning and maximize instructional time. 

The third and fourth stations put even more tools at the forefront as students were allowed to use their Chromebooks and various physical math games to engage in math activities. All of Ms. Briseno’s students did an incredible job of staying on task and logging off when it was time to rotate to a new station, but the newly integrated Lightspeed Classroom gives Ms. Briseno the ability to intervene and log them off remotely if needed.

In one of the last two stations, students logged into Imagine Math, a supplemental math curriculum that builds students’ confidence with grade-level content.

In the final station, students played a variety of math games, some on their Chromebooks and some physical games. Some students took their games to the fourth-grade pod.

After completing their rotations, students returned to their desks and grabbed their problem-solving journals. Ms. Briseno handed each student that day’s problem, they glued it into their notebook, then worked independently to solve it. Ms. Briseno walked around the room to check on each student’s progress and offer support.

The class came together to discuss the problem and strategies for solving it. That wrapped up their math lesson, and they quickly transitioned to reading.

Because they worked incredibly well and stayed engaged during math, Ms. Briseno let the students relax as she read their class book, “Frindle”, aloud. The students were captivated as she moved closer to the end of the book, but the collective “NO” was loud when Ms. Briseno stopped reading just before the final chapter.

She then gave students time for independent reading. They chose a book from their personalized reading bins and were free to move around the classroom and the fourth-grade wing to find a cozy place to read.

Between their laser-focus during math and the quiet calm of reading time, Ms. Briseno’s students showed the perfect example of how a dedicated teacher, the right tools and collaborative space can transform a child’s learning experience.

Check back regularly all year as we continue to visit students and teachers throughout Northwest ISD and offer a rarely seen look Inside the Classroom.