Teacher of the Month: Northeast Middle’s Adelice Barriere
KANSAS CITY, Mo. — FOX4’s Teacher of the Month for March was nominated by three different people.
Adelice Barriere grew up in Kansas City, Missouri, and now teaches in the same KCPS district where she went to school and graduated.
She says she wants to give back to the school district that produced her. FOX4 went to Northeast Middle School to find out why her students and co-workers call her a force for good.
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Barriere found out she had a knack for teaching when she tutored other students in college. She planned to be a journalist, but when she took a couple of education classes, she said it clicked.
“I’m a very personable person, so I could relate to people very easily. And just the fact that when they would get the information, it would make me feel excited,” Barriere described.
She still feels that excitement now, 25 years into her teaching career.
“That’s the same way I feel even to this day, with my co-teacher and I. We’ve been the most improved scores for reading comprehension, and it really just made my heart sing,” she said.
“In fact, the mayor was here that day they announced it. And I just cried, I couldn’t even talk.”
She teaches English Language Arts and reading to seventh graders at Northeast Middle School in the. She looks for fresh ways to keep students interested, like studying the poetry in the lyrics of modern music artists.
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“Keeping it innovative, fun, engaged. You know, not so much rigor or structure, but necessarily more so, keeping it exciting. And where they can do more hands on,” she said.
She also teaches her students about their own and other cultures and ethnicities, and that while we may all be divided into those categories, overall we’re the same.
“We’re all just human and we need to see that although we have some differences, we do share a lot in common,” she said.
“And with our students being that we are the largest multi-cultural school in our district, it’s very important for me to let the students see themselves, so that their ethnicity, their culture, can be shared.”
She mentors kids to prepare for their futures – college or trade schools. Outside her job, she teaches classes for women and girls as part of her church ministry. Everywhere she can, she tries to inspire others to love learning, growing, reaching for more.
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“This is my life’s calling. I don’t want to start crying, but this is what I’m meant to do,” she said.
“I know for a fact that God called me to do a certain thing in this world, and that’s to enlighten others. And not just to enlighten them, but also to empower them.”
Mrs. Barriere wins $750 in gift cards from Volkswagen of Lee’s Summit. Nominate your favorite teacher online at fox4kc.com/teacher.
