TEACHERS
OF THE
YEAR MOLLY A. BARNETT
FOURTH GRADE
MATH, SCIENCE, LATIN,
LITERATURE, HISTORY,
THEOLOGY, GRAMMAR
TEACHER AT IMMANUEL
LUTHERAN SCHOOL IN
ALEXANDRIA, VA
What’s your funniest
teaching moment?
My ﬁ rst year teaching
at ILS was special in
many regards, and in
part because of the
spectacular group of
students I taught. During
one wintry month when
stuffy noses were aplenty,
every present student
breathed with some
audible difﬁ culty. I could
not speak a full sentence
without a sneeze, snifﬂ e
or cough interrupting the
ﬂ ow of words! One clever
student uttered, “Ah, the
‘Sound of Mucus.’” And
with that, the entire class,
including myself, burst
into uproarious laughter.

NOMINATED BY:
MARY RADCLIFFE
“Molly Leithart embodies
a delightful and joyous
love of learning that
captures the minds
and imaginations
of her fourth-grade
students. It is a wonderful
experience to witness
Molly’s classroom joyfully
abuzz as students
enthusiastically learn
poetry — just imagine
learning Walt Whitman’s
“O Captain! My Captain!”
complete with jumping
up on chairs and then
down to the ground. Or
to witness as they explore
history and architecture
in teams and create
their own replicas of
famous buildings. She
has a wonderful ability of
engaging her students
in each new project and
subject. “Molly also takes on
leadership roles within
the ILS community,
serving as the lower
school lead teacher.

This year, she helped
introduce a new aspect
to the lower school
experience: a house
system, complete with
competitions and
lunches with integrated
grades. Also, as a talented
musician, singer and
dancer herself, Molly
directs student musical
theater numbers for
the annual talent show.

She is an enthusiastic
and inspiring teacher,
a wonderful leader and
overall, a tremendous
asset to the ILS
community! We are
blessed to have her.”
16 September 2018
Why do you think
teachers are important?
In an otherwise
ever-changing and
unpredictable world,
certain aspects of
familiarity and constancy
help to anchor our lives
and order our days
in peace, turning us
to what is higher and
enduring. Knowledge
lovingly imparted may
be forgotten, but love
directs the students to
their end. Students can
enter a classroom each
morning knowing they
are loved, expecting to
learn, read, discuss, write,
compute, think, perhaps
sing, jump and even
laugh. Teachers not only
share wonderment of the
art they teach, but they
motivate and support
each child. And this, in my
opinion, is of the noblest
of work of our time.

washingtonFAMILY.com What is the single best
piece of advice you can
give parents of fourth-
graders? Let them be children,
but guide them into
adulthood. Fourth-graders
are easily excited during
classes. They participate
readily and love to laugh
and play. Their minds and
bodies are also rapidly
growing, and it’s amazing
to see how much they
can memorize and recall.

Witnessing this impressive
cognitive activity, however,
might wrongfully lead us
adults to think that they
need more stimulation or
challenge. But they also
need to be bored and
think up a game, or splash
in puddles left over from
last night’s thunderstorm.

In other words, they need
to be children. And while
they often emote about
the injustices of childhood
(bed times, yucky healthy
food, etc.), they need this
sort of love to lead them
into the joys of adulthood.

How can parents and
teachers work together
to empower and engage
children? This question is deﬁ nitely
an important one
in education, and I
appreciate how our school
actively seeks parental
involvement throughout
the year. From sending
home weekly newsletters
that include what we are
learning to calling parents
in order to share a positive
story from the day, we
want to emphasize
the uniﬁ ed efforts in
educating children. In
this way, children know
that their parents are
on the teacher’s team,
and we’re all working
together for the good of
the child. I think there is
comfort there for everyone
involved. Finish this sentence: If I
weren’t teaching,
I’d be …
jobless.