Associate Professor of Education Dr. Louanne Jacobs has spent years in all kinds of classrooms – teaching humanities at the secondary level, serving as a reading and literary specialist, and working at the college level. And she enjoys the same things now that she did when she first started teaching.

“I loved history and books, and it seemed like being in the classroom was the way to read books for a living,” she says. “I love the relationships in the classroom. I love the magic of the classroom and the messiness of learning. That’s the same thing I love at the college level.”

Jacobs brings her experience and passion to Birmingham-Southern as she coordinates secondary education programs, teaches courses in literacy with Assistant Professor Dr. Gay Barnes – the other half of “the literacy team” – and serves as the department’s acting “children’s lit guru.” After all, books were the reason she first entered the classroom, and keeping books and reading at the center of education coursework is one of her favorite parts of the job.

“My mission is for students to walk out the door with bookshelves in their heads,” Jacobs says. “There is always a right book for the right kid at the right time. Students walk out with a joy for reading, and we’re helping them build those bookshelves.”

With dual teaching certificates in secondary history and English, Jacobs graduated from UAB before teaching at several middle schools in Birmingham and Huntsville. Eventually, she wanted to go for another degree but didn’t want to leave the classroom.

Jacobs earned her master’s degree in P-12 reading from Alabama A&M University and served as a reading specialist for 15 years, first placed in one middle school and then serving the entire North Alabama region.

This role led Jacobs to earn her doctorate in educational leadership and literacy through a joint University of Alabama/UAB program. Afterward, she returned to A&M and taught in the university’s reading and literacy program and directed the Regional Inservice Center, where she helped design and deliver professional development materials for Alabama teachers.

Jacobs came to the Hilltop in 2008 – starting the same day as Associate Professor of Education Dr. Amelia Gunn Spencer ’85 – and brought her previous experience in a wide range of Alabama classrooms to the role. As the program coordinator for all secondary subjects, Jacobs works with departments across campus to identify students who would be a good fit for teaching.

She sees the tight interconnectivity of disciplines at the College as something only BSC can pull off. She often teaches non-majors in introductory classes, children’s literature, and others, and she regularly shares recent tweets or helpful resources with other faculty and sees how all of these subjects work together. As she says, “We dig each other’s stuff.”

“We can specialize in one thing but we have to understand its interconnectivity and the impact from other disciplines,” Jacobs says. “We believe that if we inspire teachers who will go into classrooms and teach that way, we are bolstering the liberal arts.”

This is one part of the education department’s shared philosophy and heart behind the work they do. Jacobs says another crucial part of teaching to her, as well as to the rest of the education team, is dedication to both the college classroom and classrooms outside of campus. As BSC education majors complete internships and student teaching placements, Jacobs and other faculty members visit alongside them like an apprenticeship.

“As a college professor teaching teachers, I still get to be in classrooms with children,” she says. “I have opportunities to regularly visit K-12 classrooms. We saw that as being something really important for us and our students – that they get to see us teach kids, and we all enjoy the learning process.”

Over the past three summers, Jacobs – along with Barnes, Visiting Assistant Professor of Education Ann Dominick, and other faculty members – have demonstrated their love for the classroom through their partnership with College Admissions Made Possible (CAMP) and the Birmingham Summer Institute. They first worked with the program in 2019 and then designed curriculum for the 2020 virtual program. Jacobs says they couldn’t predict how the online version would turn out, but third through eighth grade children across the state participated for several hours each day, listening to read-alouds and working on writing, art, and STEM projects.

This summer, CAMP is taking place in schools, community centers, and churches all over Alabama, and the BSC education faculty is dropping in for read-alouds and other activities for five weeks. Every day she’s there, Jacobs get to see the passion and magic in the classroom that she’s a part of as she teaches and as she inspires more teachers.

“It has been fabulous,” Jacobs says. “I never wanted to move out of the classroom, and there’s not anyone in our department who doesn’t want to be with kids.”

This story was included in a special education edition of From the Hilltop, Birmingham-Southern’s alumni email newsletter.

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