Waterbury’s Kennedy High Is Home to National Teacher of the Year

Congratulations to Waterbury, Connecticut history teacher, Jahana Hayes for being chosen as the National Teacher of the Year for 2016!

According to the Hartford Courant, Jahana has been a social studies teacher at John F. Kennedy High School in Waterbury for over 10 years, and when asked by Gayle King from the CBS This Morning news show what she liked most about being a teacher, she replied, "The kids."

Ms. Hayes also told Gayle King that finding that one point of interest in each of her students helps her to communicate with them one on one. Her reputation for involving her students in community service is known throughout the Waterbury School system. She went on to say that it is so very important that her students learn a sense of "wanting to help others."

Hayes herself grew up surrounded by poverty, drugs, and violence in a housing project in Waterbury. Because she was a teenage mom, and her mom was addicted to drugs for a time, it helped her to relate to what some of her students were experiencing.

Hayes also told King that what really helped her become the person she is today was "all the mistakes she made growing up and learning from those mistakes." The National Teacher of the Year, Jahana Hayes will travel to Washington, D.C next Tuesday, May 3, where she will be recognized by President Barack Obama in a special White House ceremony.

Congratulations Jahana on your exemplary achievement, you have made the City of Waterbury and the great State of Connecticut very proud!

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