Sixth-grade teacher Pamela Barnes is a newcomer to Cape Girardeau schools, but she's immersed herself in a number of new and developing programs within the district.
Barnes said her main goal as a teacher is to provider her students with the positive opportunities they need for academic and social growth. Sixth grade is a year of great change as students prepare to adopt new responsibilities, she said. As a teacher, she works to get the students ready for those changes by making them recite three class mottoes: I am responsible for all of my actions; To achieve in life, I must get an education; I will respect myself, others and their property. Seeing a student make wise choices and meet the high expectations set for classroom behavior is very gratifying, she said.
"From day one the students recite them and we discuss their deeper meaning and how each of the statements are true," she said. "After the students get into the routine of reciting them to me, I often encourage them to believe them, and live them, not just say them."
Besides helping sixth-graders find their way into and through the "mental and emotional unknown" they exist in as pre-teens, Barnes also works with a number of programs. She serves as a tutor for a free pilot tutoring program offered by Jefferson's Caring Communities program. Volunteers provide assistance to students who are struggling with a specific concept and to those who need a structured setting to complete homework.
She is also working with the City of Cape Girardeau Public Works Department to develop a schoolwide recycling program. Barnes' class is piloting the program with hopes of having it implemented throughout the district next year.
"My class is responsible for the collection of copy paper, envelopes and notebook paper from all of the classrooms in the school," she said. "This project goes right along with Jefferson's theme for the year of "Respect and Responsibility," as the kids respect our natural resources by recycling them and accept the personal responsibility of making this program a success.
The three-year teaching veteran relocated to Cape Girardeau with her husband, an assistant professor at Southeast Missouri State University, in August 1996 after teaching at New Haven Accelerated School in Columbia. She accepted a position as a sixth-grade teacher at Jefferson in May.
Connect with the Southeast Missourian Newsroom:
For corrections to this story or other insights for the editor, click here. To submit a letter to the editor, click here. To learn about the Southeast Missourian’s AI Policy, click here.