- January 20, 2025
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School could be tough for Matanzas High School 2019 Teacher of the Year Gloria Barton when she was a girl: Her family had moved to the U.S. from Russia, and she arrived knowing little English.
"To facilitate the students’ grasp of the significance of the responsibility borne by investigators, I always say, 'What we do can mean the difference between relief and grief for the victim or the victim’s family.'"
— GLORIA BARTON
But that experience, she wrote in her Teacher of the Year statement, taught her about overcoming barriers — as did watching her own mother use education to transform herself from a nail technician with little schooling into a nurse practitioner.
“I struggled with my own adversity as a student, but was able to overcome my challenges and obtain a rewarding position in education, although this was the same area that once held many barriers for me,” she wrote. “No matter what kind of circumstances a student comes from, we as educators have the opportunity to empower our students.”
Barton teaches forensic science, end enjoys watching students learn about the field she’s passionate about.
“Watching the engagement of these young adults as they analyze and evaluate the varying pieces of evidence of a case, and then as they put those pieces together to complete a vastly complex puzzle, is the strongest motivating factor in my career as an educator,” she wrote.
She’s coordinated with the University of Central Florida to create mock crime scenes for students.
Learning to carefully evaluate information also helps students in other areas of their lives.
“Students become more critical as they evaluate material evidence and how they interpret situations they view or experience day to day,” Barton wrote.
