Ido Shwartz
We won! Hind Alayan is the National Teacher
We are glad to share our excitement with our readers and to inform you that Hind Alayan, a teacher at the KIAH School for the Deaf, received the National Teacher of the Year Award on June 11, 2015.The prize was awarded, as it is every year, in the presence of the President of the State, Reuven Rivlin, and the Minister of Education, Naftali Bennett.
The Kiah School for the Deaf in Jerusalem is a unique educational institution, located in the Kiryat Yovel neighborhood. The school was founded by Kol Israel Haverim in 1930 and has, to this day, served a broad and multi-cultural range of hearing-impaired children and adolescents in Jerusalem and its surrounding area. The school is attended by some 90 students aged six to twenty-one. The institution has a distinctive character, the result of the rich weave of diversity expressed by its population of students and staff: Jewish, Arab, religious or secular. Together, they create a human mosaic of Israeli society. The unique encounter made possible by the school makes it a model for multicultural work and for treatment of this specific population.
The National Teacher competition is a social awareness project that highlights the work of outstanding educators in Israel. The competition is a joint initiative by the Pais National Lottery Fund, the Yedioth Aharonot daily newspaper, the Teachers' Union and the Ynet news website. Thirty-six teachers have been awarded the prize to date, chosen for their outstanding professionalism, devotion and educational approach.
Hind Alayan, the thrilled award winner, excitedly shared her feelings with the audience: "The contest was a special opportunity for me to feel the love and appreciation of those surrounding me. I felt immense love from them all: family, friends, work colleagues, students, teachers, and even distant people. I was very excited throughout every stage of the competition. Each stage I passed gave me strength and confidence to go on. The experience gave me the opportunity to look back and reflect on my work over fifteen years. I felt proud that the source of my success was the ability to lead numerous issues and to be the teacher I always sought to be, the one who leaves her mark on every subject and individual with which she comes into contact. During the competition I was myself, quiet and calm. I felt that thanks to my abilities and personality I was going to make it to the finish line – and I did! The closer the day of the ceremony came the greater was my excitement.
On the day of the ceremony itself I had butterflies in my stomach, but from the moment the ceremony began I felt a powerful inner strength and calmed down. I enjoyed every minute. It was very important for me to win so that I could see the smile, joy and excitement of every person who thought that I did deserve the award. For me, the award means the beginning of a new, different and special journey, that I am to fulfill with action, content, successes, achievements and lots and lots of love."
We are proud to report that in addition to the National Teacher Award, the KIAH School for the Deaf received awards and prizes this year that highlighted the exciting activities that take place in the school. The school was awarded a Certificate for Excellence for leading scholastic achievements by the Regional Director of Jerusalem; our physical education teacher, Lulik Amira is the Jerusalem region's excelling teacher in this domain, and teacher Dorit Menashe is the region leading teacher in teleprocessing.
