Monett grad honored with teaching award 

  Tuesday, December 11, 2018 8:00 AM
  People and Society, Academics, News

Pittsburg, KS

 

When she was a child, if you had asked Adriel Madison what she wanted to be when she grew up, she would have said “a mom.” 

“But beyond that, I was always interested in some kind of service, somewhere where I felt I could be involved in peoples’ lives and help them in some way,” she said. 

After assisting with a preschool program at her church each summer for several years, the answer was clear: become a teacher. 

It was a good choice, Madison said, and the College of Education concurred: she was chosen as one of two recipients of the annual “Teacher of Promise” awards, which she will receive during the College of Education Recognition Ceremony on Monday. 

The Monett, Missouri, native will graduate with a degree in Early Childhood Education on Dec. 14, then will start her job hunt in the Bolivar, Missouri, area. 

“I came here because I applied for a scholarship in the Honors College and was accepted, and that was a huge factor,” she said. “But then I realized, once I got here and started classes in education, that I was getting a really in-depth look at interactions with children and hands-on experiences to a level I didn’t expect.” 

Those experiences included working in a lab preschool in operation at Pittsburg State. Called Little Gorillas, it provides Early Childhood majors the chance to work in a preschool setting before they graduate. 

“I got to be there three semesters, implement my own two-week unit with them, work with lead teachers, and it was just a really wonderful practical experience,” she said. 

This week, Madison ends her student teaching in a first-grade class in Carl Junction School District, where among other things she dressed as a pirate and conducted a treasure hunt to teach them to read maps, and set up a Project-Based Learning initiative — a grocery store — in the classroom. 

“I love these kids, and it’s an ending, but it’s also provided me with a beginning to my own teaching career,” she said. “I’m excited to get started, and honored I’d get this award to cap off my college experience.”