Beaver Area says “Au revoir” to a beloved English—and former French—teacher.

Ms. Melanie Barker has been a teacher at Beaver Area High School for 29 years beginning in the 1993-1994 school year. However, Beaver Area wasn’t where Ms. Barker’s teaching career began.

In the spring of 1986, Ms. Barker began student teaching at Beaver Falls High school before getting her first teaching job in the fall of 1986 at Conemaugh Valley High School in Johnstown, PA. At Conemaugh Valley, Ms. Barker taught French for one year before moving to Seton School in Meadville, PA where she taught English, Social Studies, and French for six years.

However, Ms. Barker found her home at Beaver Area in 1994 where she taught French for 25 years before the French program was phased out of Beaver in 2019. After the program was phased out, Ms. Barker was asked to teach English and has ever since.

Ms. Baker’s favorite part about teaching English is “getting a glimpse into students’ hearts through their writing,” but teaching French always was her favorite because “it was especially satisfying to me because students could go from knowing no French at all to being able to read, write, and speak in the language.”

Beyond the traditional classroom setting Ms. Barker has been an important sponsor of many Beaver Area clubs, as well as clubs and activities in the other schools where she taught.

At Conemaugh Valley, Ms. Barker started their drama club, and at Seton Valley she was the sponsor for the eighth grade Cedar Point trip ever year.

At Beaver Area, Ms. Barker started the French Club which has taken many interesting trips. For many years, the club did alternating trips to France and Toronto and Quebec. The club also took smaller trips to the Gateway Clipper French Cultural Cruise and the Carnegie Museum.

Most recently, Ms. Barker sponsors of the Fellowship of the Word Christian fellowship group taking over sponsorship from Mrs. Jody Shugert when she retired in 2020. After Ms. Barker’s retirement, middle school math teacher Mr. Steven Maker will lead the program.

Ms. Barker had many wonderful teaching experiences at Beaver Area, but her favorite moments of all are when “French students come back and tell me how well they’ve done using French in their jobs, travel, or college experiences.”

One thing she’ll miss the most about teaching in general is “Having a part in the growth of students and families in this community. I’m now teaching children of former students and grandchildren of friends from church.”

However, there is one thing Ms. Barker can say that she won’t miss won’t about teaching and that is spending time after school hours to grade schoolwork.

Once the final bell rings June 3, Ms. Barker will start her fun-filled list of retirement adventures. Some of the activities Ms. Barker hopes to do in retirement are join a book club, spend more time with her twin grandsons, spend time with family, learn to speak Spanish, and especially travel.

Of course Ms. Barker plans to travel to France; she also wants to visit a French-speaking African country as well as Amsterdam or Barcelona.

Thank you, Ms. Barker, for your dedication to your students! Beaver Area students and the ECHO send their best wishes for a happy, safe, and exciting retirement—bon courage!