Hartselle High School will be welcoming internet sensation Gerry Brooks to a special event recognizing educators Feb. 2.  

Celebrate Educators will be taking place in the Hartselle High School auditorium at 1 p.m., with a second session at 5 p.m.

Brooks rose to internet fame after posting a humorous video about educator experiences, and he has since gained more than a million followers across all his social media platforms. “I just happened upon a viral video that was focusing on education; from there I just started making humorous videos that had to do with the life of everyday educators, and I have been doing it for about two years,” Brooks said.

Karen Howell, a teacher at Hartselle High, said she responded in August to Brooks’ post looking for suggestions of schools to visit. “At first I was just thinking it would be really cool to have someone like him in Hartselle. One of our teachers at Crestline, Lane Hampton, loves him, and she has texted me and emailed me making sure she would get a ticket,” Howell said. “I was really excited because I knew there would be lots of people like Lane wanting to go.”

Although currently a principal at an elementary school in Lexington, Ky., Brooks spends his Saturdays traveling to schools all over the United States, speaking to educators, parents and teachers.

“It just kind of thrust me into the spotlight of educators and schools all over the place, and I am very blessed to visit states nonstop,” Brooks said. “I pretty much travel every weekend. I leave after school on a Friday, fly out on Saturday and fly back. My career comes first – my school comes first – so I just fly out on weekends. That has made my schedule very busy. It has really opened up so many opportunities to meet other people and to encourage other people and really come together and be a voice for educators.”

Brooks said he first began making videos for his school when there were upcoming assessments. “It started out with a video that I sent out to my teachers because state testing was coming up, and everyone was very stressed and a little grumpy, so I did a humorous video and sent it to them. I did that for a couple months, then someone suggested that I post it on my Facebook.

“I put one up on Facebook, and it went viral. So it was just something that really started out just within our school in order to be able to lighten the load – to just be able to relax and make fun of the things we deal with on a regular basis. Then when it went viral, it just kind of exploded from there.”

Brooks said he uses the videos at his speaking events to set up a specific subject. “The entire event will be an encouragement for how we as individuals can improve our relationships with the people we work with and parents and students,” he explained, “two or three things you can take away to help you professionally in whatever position you are in. It is really about individual people changing their thought processes for the things we deal with on a daily basis.”

Howell said many educators follow Brooks because of how relatable the videos are to their lives, and this the event will offer them an opportunity to enjoy the experience together.

“Sometimes you get in the grind, and it’s just really tough right now, or parent conferences are coming up, and it is really hard to come up with positive things,” Howell said. “I think as teachers and educators, we identify with that, and he puts a funny spin on it. Some of the things he says are things that we all say. It’s funny, but it also has some good information.”

The Feb. 2 event will also serve as a fundraiser for the Hartselle High Instructional Resource Center. Ten percent of ticket proceeds will go toward IRC. “It will help with our students who participate in Special Olympics. It can help fund some of those outings,” Howell said. “A lot of times we will do different activities together with that. Also, we are taking some students to Terrell Industries to gain some work experience. We have to run a bus to take the students twice a week, and that will help fund some of that expense.”

Tickets for the 1 p.m. show have already sold out, but tickets for the 5 p.m. event are still on sale for $20. Tickets can be purchased online at https://ticketbud.com/events/4505f110-0eb5-11e9-878e-3f170f8ed0d9.

“I am excited to see everyone happy and laughing and all of us together,” Howell said. “With it being all teachers, there is not a lot of time that we can all get together and share stories or hear funny stories, so I am most excited about getting to see everyone laugh, and I know how excited everyone is to see him coming.”