Colorado Teacher of the Year helps students reach their potential
Janet Damon transforms lives through supportive, innovative education.
This story appears in the spring 2025 issue of RED Magazine.
When DELTA High School history teacher Janet Damon was surprised with a ceremony naming her the Colorado Teacher of the Year, her colleagues and students used the words “selfless,” “supportive” and “innovative” to describe the educator’s extraordinary accomplishments. But Damon would rather use the spotlight to highlight the endless potential of public education.
She should know: Damon has spent more than 25 years as a literacy interventionist, librarian and history teacher, helping Denver Public Schools students reach their potential.
Damon graduated from Metropolitan State University of Denver with a bachelor’s degree in History and Africana Studies in 2000 and earned an Alternative Teaching License in 2003. Her MSU Denver education prepared her well. “It helped me to be very resilient,” Damon said.
Throughout Damon’s career, said Colorado Education Commissioner Susana Córdova, she has worked to create “a safe and supportive learning community in her classroom where students feel empowered to own and drive their own learning.”
DELTA High School, where Damon teaches, is a pathway school that serves 14- to 20-year-old students facing challenges on the road to graduation.
In every role, Damon said, she finds inspiration from her students and their families.
“I serve a student’s future self and all the people who have loved them on their way to my classroom,” she said. “Having those two North Star points allows me to have a lot of desire to serve, especially in a district and school that are heavily impacted.”
Often, Damon said, she represents a student’s last opportunity to return to school and thrive.
It’s a heavy responsibility but one she tackles with the help of her students and their life experiences. Damon incorporates her students’ everyday challenges, such as contact with the criminal-justice system, gun violence and social inequities, into her lessons. The result is transformative.
“They do the work of archiving, storytelling, connecting, and they practice communication skills,” she said proudly. “It also helps them realize their obligation to their family members in terms of their choices.”
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Acknowledging her students’ real-life experiences shows them that they matter, Damon said, reengaging them in their own education along the way.
For Damon, education is a lifelong passion and part of a family culture.
“My father grew up in a segregated school system,” she said. As a child in Jim Crow-era Texas, Damon’s father was barred from the local public library and better-funded classrooms that excluded Black students. The result was a lifelong pursuit of knowledge. He and Damon’s mother, who also faced educational barriers as a female in South Korea, passed that passion on to their children.
“I grew up in a home filled with books,” Damon recalled. “School was the fundamental vision of both of my parents for their children.”
When the time came, Damon chose MSU Denver for her undergraduate education and her alternative teaching licensure. “MSU Denver was a very special place to me,” said Damon. “It took me a while because I was also a young mother, but it also offered remarkable support to students who were parents.”
Along the way, the University became a family affair — not only did Damon meet her partner at MSU Denver, but her oldest daughter is an alumna.
For Damon, the Teacher of the Year honor offers a chance to engage with other teachers. As Colorado Teacher of the Year, she will not only become the state’s nominee for National Teacher of the Year but will also travel the state as the public face of Colorado teachers.
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Her message is one of hope. “I want the next generation of teachers to feel supported,” Damon said.
By sharing her experiences with other teachers, she hopes to help them tap into their resilience while driving their careers and schools forward.
“Schools can reimagine themselves as a healing place,” she said. “I think we can make a space where all human beings can reach their potential at school.”
