Jennifer Bohn, a 13-year veteran from Evans High School, won the Orange County school district's 2009 Teacher of the Year award. Bohn, 34, began her career as a social-studies teacher but is now coordinator of the school's new International Baccalaureate program.

"Really, I accept it in honor of the students of Evans," she said Wednesday night. "They make me a better teacher and a better human being." Bohn said she began her teaching career at 5, when she dragged her neighbors into her un-air-conditioned garage and forced them to sit through full-session classes. But the University of Central Florida graduate interned at Evans 13 years ago and never left the troubled Pine Hills school, where some teachers burn out in their first year. "This is more than just a job," Bohn said in an earlier interview. "Your heart has to be in it." At Evans, Bohn volunteers for several after-school organizations, including the Future Educators of America.

As the sponsor of the BETA Club, a group that teaches leadership skills, Bohn steered her students to publish a book. Everyone Has a Story to Tell is a 138-page collection of interviews of 30 homeless people from the neighborhood. Her students, she said, many of whom live in deep poverty and dire conditions of their own, were humbled by each account they wrote. "How incredible these kids are," she said. "They're genuinely concerned about helping others." Bohn is known for her firm rules and sunny disposition. She answers her cell phone, "Beautiful morning!" and calls students "sweetie pie." In return, her students say, Bohn has their devotion.

Bohn was chosen from a group of five finalists, including Tamara Daugherty, a third-grade teacher at Lakeville Elementary; Stephanie Johnson Possell, a health teacher at Olympia High; Emily Thorpe, a freshman English teacher at Apopka High; and Donna Walker-Knight, an ESE Resource teacher at Grand Avenue Primary Learning Center. Bohn won a one-year lease on a car, among other awards, at the ceremony Wednesday night at Disney's Contemporary Resort. Bohn is now a contender for the state's teacher-of-the-year award.

(Courtesy of Erika Hobbs, Sentinel Staff Writer-Orlando Sentinel)