Mr. Haley Wins PA History Teacher of the Year
Mr. Haley Wins PA History Teacher of the Year
Maddie Martin
Staff Writer
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@maddiemartin.0
Mr. Haley giving student Sebastian Nguyen a shirt off of his wall.
US History teacher, Jason Haley, was awarded the title of Pennslyvania History Teacher of the Year over the summer. The prestigious award is given through the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History.
Mr. Haley has been teaching at Cumberland Valley for nine years, influencing the lives of many students in the high school.
“He's a very positive human being, every time I was in the classroom I got a great experience. Not only does he teach you about American History but he also teaches you valuable life lessons," Senior Ady Machamer said.
The Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History is one of the highest achieving non profit organizations for educating history students in grades K-12. The institute was founded in 1994 and offers everything from teacher lesson plans to student courses, along with history education for the general public. Every year they choose one teacher from every state to receive the award, and our very own Mr. Haley was chosen 2022.
Mr. Haley approaches teaching in a way that is quite rare. His top three tenets are relationships, relevance, and rigor, his 3 R’s.
“One of the main things that I like to do in any of my classrooms is my saying on the first day of school, which is people first and students second,” Haley said. He views his students as normal people with outside lives, not just as students who come to school to do work for his class.
While the relationships that Mr. Haley builds in his classroom are one of the main reasons students love him as a teacher, he also knows that the course he teaches is far from easy. The rigor is definitely there, but it is there for a reason.
“We can actually accomplish something while having a good time. So, the mixture of enjoying where you're at and the community that's safe but also accomplishing things that maybe you didn't think you could achieve before in a safe environment” Haley said.
Mr. Haley will forever go down in CV history for being the Pennslyvania History Teacher of the Year, and the way he runs his classes and treats his students got him there. If you see Mr. Haley in the hallways make sure to congratulate him!