Connecticut History Teacher Named National Teacher Of The Year
HARTFORD, Conn. (CBSNewYork/AP) -- A Connecticut high school history teacher chosen as the National Teacher of the Year says she was surrounded by poverty, drugs and violence as a child but imagined other possibilities for her life with help from educators.
Jahana Hayes teaches at John F. Kennedy High School in Waterbury.
All the mistakes that I have made… It really reminds me of what it means. -- @JahanaHayes on lessons learned #NTOY16 pic.twitter.com/pGw8AyYI69
— CBS Mornings (@CBSMornings) April 28, 2016
The honor by the Council of Chief State School Officers was announced Thursday. Hayes will be recognized by President Barack Obama at a White House ceremony on Tuesday.
"I have so many emotions -- it's exciting, I'm nervous, thrilled, blessed, grateful," Hayes told "CBS This Morning."
JUST IN: Congratulations to @JahanaHayes on being named 2016 National Teacher of the Year! #NTOY16 pic.twitter.com/9IYI3T3kIQ
— CBS Mornings (@CBSMornings) April 28, 2016
The 44-year-old Hayes grew up in a Waterbury housing project and became a teenage mother while still in high school. She says the influence of her own teachers taught her that a school's job sometimes overlaps with the job of parents, and she wants her students to know there are no dead ends.
"Everyone has a gift and I think that once you figure out what that gift is and you make a connection with them and meet them wherever they are, that learning occurs," Hayes said.
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