photo by: Derek Redd

Representatives from Horace Mann Educators Corp. present Wheeling Middle School teacher Tiffany Barnes, the West Virginia Teacher of the Year, with a $5,000 check on Friday. Pictured are, from left, corporate agent consultants Matthew Zinn and Danielle Disciscio, Horace Mann local agent Devin O’Sullivan, local agent David Brenneman and Barnes.

WHEELING — Even after Horace Mann Educators Corporation awarded Wheeling Middle School teacher Tiffany Barnes with $5,000 for her victory as West Virginia Teacher of the Year, her thoughts were with her students.

Barnes, a special education teacher at Wheeling Middle, said the money would go toward a sensory room for her students. That devotion to students is among the traits that catapulted Barnes to the Mountain State’s top teaching award and, just because she has reached that pinnacle, it doesn’t mean Barnes — affectionately known as “Miss Tiff” to her students — isn’t looking for ways to keep growing.

Representatives from Horace Mann walked into a Wheeling Middle faculty meeting Friday morning with an oversized check to hand Barnes – along with a real one that will go toward her school’s sensory room.

“Educators and school staff shape the lives of students every day, often in ways the broader community never sees,” Horace Mann agent David Brenneman said. “Honoring leaders like Miss Tiff is our way of recognizing the extraordinary heart, commitment and service they bring to their schools.”

Ask Barnes, though, and she’s quick to point out that any of her fellow Wheeling Middle teachers could be standing in the spot she now occupies. They all have the talent and devotion to be winners.

“We all put in endless effort,” she said. “It’s a hard job and you have to love kids to do it, and those who stay do love them.”

Barnes’ love for students is what led her to switch gears in her professional career following two tours in Iraq with the U.S. Army. She had started working toward a social work degree through the G.I. Bill and was working in Ohio County Schools to help pay for it as a single mom of three kids. She began as a cook, then became a teacher’s aide, then a long-term substitute in Wheeling Park High School’s autism room.

That last experience, she said, sealed the deal.

“I met all the kids and I was like, ‘OK, I’m changing my career.'” she said. “There are all kinds of ways of communication, but the students, they’re nonverbal, but they do communicate.

“So going in there and seeing them have no words to say what they have to say and still being able to say it, we just had a connection.”

Wheeling Middle School Principal Rich McCardle said Barnes is an essential presence at his school. He said school administrators knew early on how good she could be as a teacher and helped her however they could in making that happen.

Being a teacher has become her calling, McCardle said.

“It’s her motivation to be the best she can be,” he said. “Her heart is unbelievable. When she received her Teacher of the Year Award in Charleston, there wasn’t a dry eye in the house. She spoke from the heart. She talks about who she is and how she is and what she wants for the kids. That’s just Miss Tiff.”

As West Virginia Teacher of the Year, those speaking engagements haven’t stopped for Barnes. She continues to travel the state talking to different schools and groups. She said she always wants to learn from the teachers she meets and hear their experiences.

She also makes sure to tell others that their connections to their students are the most important piece to the puzzle of teaching.

“Connection is everything,” she said. “If a student doesn’t feel connected, they’re not going to learn. So it’s important to take the extra time to love them and connect with them and get to know them on a personal level.”