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Cape Hatteras Elementary’s Molly Barnes is Dare’s Teacher of the Year

By SHARON SULLIVAN

For seven years, fourth grade students at Cape Hatteras Elementary School have learned reading, writing, and science from a teacher with innate ability, versatility, and insight. She skillfully addresses the needs of the whole class and the objectives of the state without losing sight of the little girl who struggles with reading or the boy who is too shy to ask for help with a problem.

That teacher is Molly Jo Barnes, Cape Hatteras Elementary School Teacher of the Year and the 2008-2009 Dare County Schools Teacher of the Year.

It’s easy for educators to put pen to paper and espouse educational best practice theory. It’s another to put that theory to work on a daily basis by taking the time and making the effort to see the individual child and the big picture. By exciting students, having high expectations, empowering them to set and meet goals for their own learning, by having the courage to let go of ownership and ego to collaborate with colleagues to do whatever is in a student’s best interest, Barnes gives her children sure footing on the short track to success.

CHES colleague, Media Coordinator Shauna Leggat, reflects that “For Molly’s children, year after year, school is their favorite place to be. Molly constantly works to find what helps kids to learn and succeed, then perfects her skill at teaching it.”

Barnes, educated at University of Pennsylvania at Hershey with degrees in both theater arts and education, attributes her career path as an educator to three influences -- her grandmother, a college professor, and Charles Dickens.

Barnes’ grandmother, she says, taught her that inspiration can be found in small moments such as appreciating nature’s fragility as it can be found in the works of literary masters. She describes her freshman professor “Doc Oliver” as encouraging her to rise far above where she ever imagined she could go. While working at an outdoor theater at the suggestion of a friend, a middle school exceptional children’ teacher, Barnes rewrote the story of Dickens’ Ebenezer Scrooge, and under Barnes’direction her friend’s students performed the familiar scenes. To the delight of students and their parents, no one was left out. Elated, Barnes decided to return to school to become a teacher.

“From that moment on,” says Barnes, “I’ve never wanted to do anything else.”

She began her teaching career at Cape Hatteras Elementary School.

Barnes reflects, “As a member of a small community on Hatteras Island, I feel an extremely strong bond with, not only the children I teach, but also with their families. I see my job as the purest form of community service. I help to prepare the community of the future while preserving and respecting the community of the past. This island has such a rich history for which the children need to develop an appreciation. I love Hatteras and its people, from Chicamacomico to the village of Hatteras.”

To support their students, Barnes and her fourth grade colleague, math teacher Wayne Hooper, hold after school tutorial sessions. Barnes’ sessions are twice weekly from December through May, to accommodate the students who attend Hooper’s year-long math tutorial.

Last year, 98 percent of the fourth graders attended one or more sessions. Two fifth-grade students attended every tutorial, with even some parents joining in. Barnes reflects that they all became a true community of learners.

“Molly’s success is clearly evidenced both by the eagerness of her students to learn and by the steady rise in our fourth grade reading scores on the [N.C. end of grade assessments] EOGs,” notes Hooper. “This past year, her students’ writing scores were the highest in Dare County at fourth grade.”

CHES Assistant Principal Sherry Couch also attributes the approach of this fourth grade dynamic duo to the fourth grade 2008 math scores being the highest in the school’s history.

Collaborative teaching is the future, says Barnes. “Teachers need to work together to highlight the interconnectivity of ideas and disciplines to students. Making connections reinforces learning.”

Making connections with her students, their parents, and her community, is what motivates Molly Barnes.

Even with her students’ performance scores leading the district, Barnes continues to pursue professional excellence. A candidate for National Board Certification, Barnes has attended the Model Schools Conference and was a presenter at the Northeast Regional Educational Service Alliance 2007 Conference. She was an integral team member when her school won two prestigious awards -- the state’s 2007 IMPACT Model Award for integration of technology across the curriculum and the International Reading Association Exemplary Reading Program Award, earning CHES state and international acclaim for innovations in teaching reading across the curriculum. Additionally, Barnes is this year’s recipient of the RBC Bank 2008 Tribute to Teachers Award.

“Teachers have the awesome responsibility of preparing today’s children to live and thrive in the world of the future,” observes Barnes. “To best serve this 21st Century student, we must embrace a new paradigm wherein technology, interconnectivity of disciplines and the needs of the individual supersede all else. North Carolina needs to continue with its tradition of brain-based and project-based learning strategies.

“I am fortunate to live in a county that takes a proactive approach to the issue of literacy by investing money, focusing effort and time, and analyzing data to drive instruction and promote best practices system-wide.

“Take, for example, writing across the curriculum. Writing is a means for self expression and discovery,” says Barnes. “A student’s ability to express ideas and thoughts in a coherent manner is crucial for his/her development and growth as a learner and as a human being. To that end, students must be required to give a narrative explanation of how they solved a math problem, why they decided to conduct an experiment, even critiquing works of art or pieces of music. Writing cannot be taught in isolation.”

Following the announcement of being named Dare County Schools 2008-2009 Teacher of the Year, Barnes commented, “I am so honored to receive this recognition, considering the truly outstanding teachers from all the schools in Dare County."