Barbara Middleton is one of the first grade teachers at Robertsdale Elementary School. She hasn’t always been a teacher. Actually, Middleton worked at the University of South Alabama for 15 years before she decided to teach.

“I brought my son to kindergarten on his first day, and when I walked into the room I knew I had to teach,” she says. “I thought, ‘If I’m going to work the rest of my life, I need to enjoy it.’”

Middleton went back to school at USA at night while continuing to work during the day and graduated five years later.

She loves waking up and coming to work every day, and Middleton says she is always one of the first people at the school in the morning to prepare for the day ahead of her.

For Middleton, her favorite part about teaching is seeing the students jump and really start reading.

“I love seeing the light come on,” she says. “They get so excited because they can read and want to read something else. It’s so rewarding watching their progress.”

Middleton also loves organizing the curriculum for her classroom.

“I love figuring things out,” she says. “I love challenges, too.”

When her students leave her first grade classroom in May, Middleton hopes to stay connected with her past students as much as possible.

“I try to stay in touch and keep up with them,” Middleton says. “I hope my students learn something positive while they’re here with me.”

When Middleton isn’t in her classroom teaching, she is involved with her church and her family. Her husband Mike is the minister of music at Loxley Church of God and she plays the piano in the orchestra.

Some of Middleton’s hobbies include sewing, crocheting and quilting. She is currently in the process of making a quilt from fabric scraps her grandmother left when she passed away.

“I was very close to my grandmother,” Middleton says. “This is a priceless treasure. Some of the fabric scraps are from my mother’s clothes when she was young.”

Middleton and her husband have two children, both math teachers. Brad teaches math at Baldwin County High School and Deanna teaches eighth grade math at Fort Loudoun School in Tennessee.

TEACHER: Barbara Middleton

SCHOOL: Robertsdale Elementary School

SUBJECTS TAUGHT: First grade

SOMETHING UNUSUAL ABOUT YOURSELF: In elementary school, I was quiet and shy. Now there’s not a shy bone in my body.