Subject: Fwd: In town pool report #3
From: White House Press Office<[email-masked]>
To: <[email-masked]>
Date: Tue, 3 May 2016 16:15:22 -0500

Begin forwarded message:

From: Matt Viser <[email-masked]<mailto:[email-masked]>>
Date: May 3, 2016 at 5:07:19 PM EDT
To: <[email-masked]<mailto:[email-masked]>>
Subject: In town pool report #3

At 4:20pm in the East Room, teachers began walking onto a stage, saying the state they were from to loud whoops from the crowd. All 50 states, DC, and the territories were represented standing on risers.

The crowd included educators from around the country, as well as US Senator Chris Murphy (who is from Connecticut, the same state as the national teacher of the year)

Before the event, the crowd was twice told,
"As a reminder, keep cell phones and cameras down." They laughed. And when the event started, no one, it seems, kept their cell phones down.

The ceremony began with the 2016 National Teacher of the Year, Jahana Hayes of Connecticut, urging the room to do better for kids and to hire more minority educators before emotionally introducing POTUS.

"There are few events that make me prouder," he said at the start.  "It's a good day, with all of you here in Washington, to say thank you."

"It's also," he cracked, "a pretty good day for substitute teachers!"

He spoke for 20 minutes, giving a warm tribute to Hayes, and all teachers (check with transcript).

"This is a profession where you will have more influence than any other," POTUS said.

"Say it again!" a man yelled. POTUS did.

He closed by mentioning a teacher from central Virginia who wrote him a letter saying no one in his classroom wanted to be a teacher.

"This is the gods honest truth," POTUS said, channeling VPOTUS. If his daughters told him they wanted to become a teacher, he would be proud and supportive.

He then presented Hayes with a crystal apple.

POTUS took a group photo, exchanged a few "I love you-I love you back"s with the teachers, and then shook hands.

Shortly after 5pm, he was gone.

--

Matt Viser
The Boston Globe, Washington bureau
cell - 617.821.5684
office - 202.857.5133

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