PINELLAS COUNTY, Fla. — Hannah Pickering is a dedicated educator.

Pickering was recently named the Emerging Teacher of the Year at New Heights Elementary School in St. Petersburg.

Her colleagues chose her for that honor and a family member of one of her students nominated her to be featured as a Spectrum Bay News 9 A+ Teacher. 

Pickering is in her third year teaching kindergarten. She says it’s her favorite grade.

“They’re growing in so many ways,” Pickering said. “Behaviorally, socially, academically. This is where they’re beginning to read and really form good friendships.

And they’re so silly and so fun at this age.”

Her students call her “Miss P.”

She was destined to become a teacher. Her mom, grandmother, grandfather and great grandmother were all teachers.

“And it’s just something I always did growing up,” she said. “Like I went with my mom to school and helped her set up her classroom for the years.”

Now she has her own classroom, and she’s turned it into a safe place for her students to learn, play and grow. She says being a teacher is exactly what she was meant to do. 

“I had a student who could not read at all, like nothing, no words, nothing,” Pickering said. “And they were finally reading to me in a small group and I almost cried. It just really hits hard sometimes how right it feels.”

Pickering is making a difference in her students’ lives every day.

She is currently teaching herself another language so she can communicate better with her students who speak Spanish. She says she wants them to feel comfortable in her classroom. 

“It just helps build the connection a bit deeper. I’m a little closer with those kids because we’re doing the same thing, speaking the same language,” said Pickering.

She loves watching her students succeed and finds fun ways to teach them what they need to know and how to always be kind.

“Keeping that be kind mindset,” she said. “It can be easy to lose that depending on who you’re with or where you are so remaining good people. It’s as simple as that. Staying good. Working hard.”