Receiving congratulations from across the school, Christina Barnhart cherishes her Teacher of the Year award with a bright smile and a joyful heart.
“It’s an honor, first and foremost,” she said.
Barnhart has taught Economics and Personal Finance, Digital Applications and Desktop Multimedia for nine years. In the past, she taught Computer Information Systems as well.
She attended college on a volleyball scholarship and studied business. The major drew her in from day one, and she stuck with it proudly.
However, she didn’t begin teaching right away.
“When I moved back here to Virginia Beach, I was asked to come work with the volleyball team because I’m left-handed and there was a left-handed girl on the team,” Barnhart said.
As she guided the volleyball team, one of the assistant principals asked if she wanted to become a permanent substitute. As a new Virginia Beach resident in search of a job, she said yes.
“From there, I progressed really quickly,” Barnhart said. “I went from that to being a security assistant and a substitute coordinator.”
Along the way, she met her husband, Christopher Barnhart. With his help, Barnhart started her teaching journey.
“He and I had a couple of talks and he said, ‘Listen, we have to figure out what you want to do.’ He said, ‘I think you’d be really good in a classroom.’”
After much discussion and a conversation with principal Dr. LeBlanc, she began working towards her teaching license by taking four to five classes. With the help of her business degree, she was hired to be a Career and Technical Education (CTE) teacher. From there, the rest is history.
As a new teacher, she relied heavily on lectures and notes. She constantly stuck to the book for her first three to four years of teaching. However, over time, she slowly realized that this method didn’t work. Nothing stuck. She realized that students needed to have hands-on time in order for information to be retained. Accordingly, she applied more project-based learning and positioned herself as a guide for her students.
“[My students were] now able to grasp it and pull it back into their own lives,” Barnhart said.
She admits that keeping a student’s attention is hard; however, once she was able to make real-world connections and tie those into her lessons, she found that her students gave her eye contact. Phones were off and away. Most importantly, everyone was excited.
“She was a fun and really good teacher. She made teaching interactive,” senior Jordan Flores said.
Barnhart emphasizes the importance of a welcoming classroom environment, which is inspired by her fourth-grade teacher from Providence Elementary.
“She made learning so enjoyable for me,” said Barnhart. “She herself made that connection with every student as well.”
Barnhart hopes to make connections with her students just like her fourth-grade teacher did.
According to Barnhart, students should feel like they belong and that they’re in a safe space. She works to ensure she has a positive relationship with each of her students, having witnessed students walking in and out of classrooms daily, lacking a personal connection with their teachers.
“Before her class, I’d have math,” sophomore Bisaj Shrestha said. “I didn’t really like math, but going to her class lifted my mood.”
At the end of each day, Barnhart comes home to sit around the table with her family. Her three boys are her motivation and she wants them to have as much passion for learning as she does.
“I would not have obtained this award if it weren’t for my husband and my kids,” Barnhart said. “They are the guiding light behind everything that I do.”
In addition to support from her students and family, her colleagues have endorsed her work as well.
“She’s good at what she does, and she has respect from students and staff. I always look at her and am impressed by her,” art teacher Abbigail Sullivan said.
“She [is] very deserving of it since she is such a hardworking teacher,” Sullivan said.
As the Teacher of the Year for Ocean Lakes High School, she will now go through a series of nominations for potential VBCPS (Virginia Beach City Public Schools) Teacher of the Year, Virginia Teacher of the Year and National Teacher of the Year awards.
In the meantime, she will continue to tiptoe in the darkness every weekday to not wake up her kids as she gets ready for another day of school.
“That’s how it happened,” Barnhart said. “That’s how I fell in love.”
