Salem Middle School seventh grade social studies teacher Adam Barabasz wants to inspire students to connect to the world around them and become leaders.

One recent surprise honor suggests he is getting through to them.

Student Ryan Bartone wrote a strong nomination statement about Barabasz for the American Chillers "Teacher of the Month," and Barabasz was selected for March 2010.

American Chillers is a series of books for young adults.

After three years in the Person County Schools and three years at Salem, Barabasz plans to continue introducing students to countries, experiences and people beyond the Triangle.

Q: Isn't Bartone's nomination exactly the kind of proactive involvement you encourage in your students? Yes. I want students to get involved, to make connections. I used to be in the business world, in account sales, and I try to bring my "real world" experience to the classroom. I like to make connections all the time because sometimes subjects are hard for students to relate to.

For instance, I had some employees at a former job who were from Sudan, and I share some of their stories with my students so that a faraway place becomes interesting to them.

Q: In the nomination for Teacher of the Month, Bartone mentions that you use books and projects to share information about Africa. Have you traveled to Africa, or do you just keep up with world events? I try to keep up with world events. I have a son who is about to turn nine, so I haven't been traveling. Our teams at school try to do age appropriate interdisciplinary units about certain areas of the world.

This year, we read "Conflict Diamonds" about diamonds used to pay for wars. And in the past, we have had African dance groups come in, a parent speaker who grew up in Nigeria spoke to students and a group from India wore saris to our classes and spoke about India.

We try not to limit our units to just language arts and social studies. Our team's math teacher gets involved, too, for instance, by creating a flag to scale. And our science teacher discusses some of the diseases you might find in the area.

One great project we did, because we cover southwest Asia and the Middle East, is making care packages for Iraq. The students enjoyed it and made more of a connection to the area--they realized it was more than "just a place."

Q: Why is leadership an important theme for you when you teach? At age twelve and thirteen, is empowerment an easy concept or a difficult one to put into action? It is a great age to teach because students are not so cynical. They want to feel like leaders. Even those who seem apathetic--if you hit upon the right topic--want to be leaders, too.

I believe that encouraging them to be leaders in sports or academics is just as important as learning facts and figures.

They are deciding whether they want to be hard workers or let the world pass them by.

What is great about being a teacher is that sometimes you don't even know that you have hit on something, and later, they will mention that something you said touched them.

Q: Sports has been a big part of your life. How is the sports experience important for students, and how does it relate to succeeding in school? I did high school track and played hockey and football. Now I am an assistant coach with Salem's football team and assist the track team.

What I think is irreplaceable about sports is the sense of team--not letting the team down. Even track, which seems like an individual sport, actually supports the team.

I try to assign group projects to my students to help them become good team players.

Q: When a student moves on to high school and college, what do you want them to take away from your class and from you as a teacher? I want them to be thoughtful, good listeners. I want them to give things their full consideration and make good choices. I believe it is important to walk away [from middle school] more responsible.

As a teacher, I try not to focus on the minutiae but on the major concepts, and to help students find things in common with anyone.