Joseph Melillo Middle School (JMMS) math teacher Caroline Heshema is the East Haven Public Schools Teacher of the Year and feels “incredibly honored and happy” to have received the award.

“I felt that it doesn't only acknowledge my work and the effort I put in classrooms, but it does give me motivation to keep going, and it gives you a motivation to seek excellence in what you're doing,” Caroline says. “It puts the responsibility on you, as well, that if I'm the district Teacher of the Year, I have to continue to do better.”

Caroline says that being named Teacher of the Year is considerable given the inspiration it can serve for people such as immigrant and English-language learner students and families in East Haven. Caroline is originally from Lebanon and, despite dealing with the frequent interruption of her education due to the country’s civil war and her family’s movement to Egypt and eventually the United States, she now speaks four languages, has a bachelor’s degree in accounting, and has taught at both Brown Intermediate School in Madison, where she lives, and currently at JMMS.

Caroline recognizes her journey as a source of inspiration, having mentioned so in her speech at a ceremony honoring her as the district’s educator of the year.

“It also inspires every immigrant family, our English-language learners students, and every woman who cares for a family, but has a dream to pursue higher education,” she said in her speech. “There is hope…If I can do it, you can do it.”

Caroline teaches 7th-grade math at JMMS, focusing on disciplines in pre-algebra and geometry. She is well aware that there will always be students who are not particularly skillful in math, if not uninterested in the subject. Nevertheless, Caroline has her philosophy on teaching which focuses on how building relationships with her students and understanding “what they like, what they don't like” is the first step in promising success for students.

“This is the foundation of everything. You meet them where they are,” she says.

Aside from standing before a whiteboard and explaining equations and methods to students, Caroline employs activities in her class in order to engage them and depends “a lot in my class on questioning the students and using the Socratic Method of asking.”

Caroline makes herself available for students when not in the classroom, being open for extra help during lunch periods and also part of “scattered-down Saturday,” where students can meet her at the high school for help.

Ultimately, for Caroline, it’s engaging her students and seeing their participation and effort unfold which matters more than the end result. It’s a rewarding feeling when Caroline realizes that she has established a connection with her students, some of whom are expressing more interest in math than before.

“If they are putting their best effort forward, they are participating in the class, that's good enough for me,” she says.

Of course, there are skills in mathematics which students need to be aware of like everybody else, specifically as they relate to personal finances. This revolves around understanding percentage changes, such as buying food at the grocery store.

“We do a lot of activities about discounts,” Caroline says. “I really like to teach the kids those skills, and then maybe they can use it one day, and then there’s something that they can relate to.”

On top of her teaching role, Caroline is the leader of the Tenacious Tigers teachers cohort at JMMS, acting as a liaison between the team’s teachers and the administration.

“I have a meeting on a weekly basis with my teachers. I plan activities like fundraising events…organizing team activities like teachers-students volleyball games, also organizing field days, field trips,” she says.

Caroline is also looking to introduce new programming at JMMS. She recently acquired a $5,000 grant for the school through the East Haven Wellness Center to implement an anti-vaping curriculum. She also created a “teacher’s toolkit,” a booklet which includes “all demographics of the district, our school, important information for teachers to help them, especially for new teachers.”

Caroline lives in Madison with her family, volunteering around town and its school system, including serving as the vice president of the PTO at Daniel Hand High School for the last two years.