Teacher soaks up learning, teaching
Published: February 20, 2006
Bonne-Marie Doughty-Jenkins isn’t your average eighth-grade science teacher. In the past four years, the former Plainville resident has received or been nominated for a number of awards and recognitions, including Teacher of the Year and Disney’s American Teacher of the Year.
She has also been featured in the 2006 edition of “Who’s Who In America”.
A 1985 graduate of Plainville High School, Jenkins earned her bachelor’s degree in elementary education and special education and her master’s degree in special education from St. Joseph College in West Hartford.
She then went on to receive her doctorate in education leadership in December 2005 from Central Connecticut State University as part of the first group to receive doctorates from the university.
Jenkins said she wouldn’t have been able to come as far as she has without good role models and the support she has received from her friends and family, including her husband of five years, John.
“Who the heck ever thought that I’d get a doctorate?” she said.
Jenkins began her career as a special-education teacher, a position she held for nine and a half years before taking the job she currently holds as an eighth-grade science teacher, at Harry S. Fisher Middle School in Terryville.
The doctorate will allow Jenkins to become a school administrator, such as a department chair.
She said she would love to become an assistant principal at the middle-school level, which is an age group she enjoys working with.
“They change so much from the beginning to the end of the school year,” she said. “They come in as little kids and leave ready for high school. Just to be part of that growth process is amazing.”
Jenkins has received other recognition for the work she has done with middle-school aged children.
She was a 2003 and 2005 honoree of the American Heart Association for co-founding a CPR Club at Fisher Middle School, where 673 students have become certified and nine lives have been saved in the past 10 years.
When Jenkins wasn’t in a classroom either teaching or earning a degree, she was writing articles featured in educational and medical publications, including “Techniques,” a publication of the American Career and Technical Educators Association, “Currents in Emergency Cardiovascular Health Care,” published by the American Heart Association and the “School, Home, and Office Products Association’s Best Practices Guide.”
She also co-authored a publication entitled, “Don’t Leave Anyone Behind: A Quick Reference Guide to No Child Left Behind.”
Jenkins, now a resident of Terryville, said she hopes to move back to Plainville someday.
Her parents, Dennis and Patricia Doughty, and grandmother, Florence Doughty, are all former employees of General Electric.
Jenkins has fond memories about growing up in Plainville with her friends, going to high-school football games, going to Roz’s for penny candy and walking downtown to get pizza rolls at Rogers Bakery
“It’s where I grew up, it’s where my family is ..it’s what I know,” she said.
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