The English department at Chapel Hill High School has hired a new teacher to fill the vacancy left by 2023 North Carolina Teacher of the Year Kimberly Jones going on sabbatical to serve on the State Board of Education.
Sarah Paterson has replaced Jones, having previously taught the past five years of teaching at Northern High School in Durham. Paterson teaches English 10, as well as English 12.
English teacher Matthew Spencer, who taught alongside Paterson at Northern, describes her as a “great colleague.”
“She has terrific positive energy with a mind that is nimble and ready,” Spencer said. “She’s a great problem-solver, the sort of person who will dive right in wherever you need her with steady sureness. We worked together at Northern for six years as part of the AP Program team and, most memorably and proudly, coaching the graduation speakers. We are thrilled to have her here.”
Paterson was initially a communications writer, but changed careers altogether to pursue a “less monotonous” job.
“I didn’t want to sit in a cubicle all day,” Paterson said. “I wanted a career that was more intellectually challenging.”
Her earlier jobs prior to communications also influenced her decision to begin teaching.
“I had some earlier experience as a camp counselor and recalled that I liked working with teenagers,” she said. “Eventually, I came to the conclusion that I really missed doing that kind of work. As an undergraduate student at Elon University, I worked in the writing center and really enjoyed consulting with people about their writing and walking them through the process. Teaching English lends itself well to that type of work.”
Students have found her to be an engaging educator.
“She makes class fun and really tries to get us interested in topics like poetry, which many students think is boring at first,” sophomore Troy Deniz said.
Paterson has also taught AP Language and Composition, but prefers to teach sophomore English courses.
“I’ve been teaching sophomores for the past couple of years,” she said. “It’s a fun grade level to see kids change over the course of the year. I think you go through a lot of change as a sophomore because you’re going from still being new to taking things more seriously.”
She has noticed some differences between Chapel Hill High School and Northern since the start of the year, especially in terms of course scheduling.
“At Northern, I was teaching a certain group of students for half the year, and then totally new students for the second half,” she said. “While I do like the longer class periods, I think that teaching the same group for the entire year will be a nice change.”
