Department of English

Natalie Popovich

The first time I seriously considered being an English teacher, I was 10 years old and had just assigned myself a book report on Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, while I was at the beach with my family for our summer vacation. I have always loved to read and discuss all kinds of texts; whether it’s novels or nonfiction, I want to read it and I want to understand. Although my path to becoming an English teacher was not the most direct, I can see that it was definitely the right path. After graduating from UNC Greensboro in 2012 with a B.A. in Piano with a minor is Psychology, I did what most musicians do, I became a bartender. I spent a year serving up drinks and playing music on the side before I returned to UNCG to earn my degree in English and pursue my love of literature. I had the opportunity to work with two of the greatest teachers in Guilford County; Diane Long at Western Guilford High School and Katie Roquemore at Weaver Academy, both of these powerful women instilled in me the drive to be the best teacher I could be.

In 2015, during the week of my graduation from UNCG, I was offered a job at Walter Hines Page Senior High School, which I gratefully accepted. I spent my first year at Page teaching English I, Honors English II, and Inclusion English III, which was incredibly overwhelming to say the least. I had no experience with the 9th grade curriculum nor with ninth graders in general and the students in my English III class ranged from a seventh-grade reading level to an eleventh-grade reading level. Through all of the diversity and challenges, I was still named Page High School’s Rookie Teacher of the Year, cementing my belief that I had finally ended up where I was supposed to be. Now, in my second year of teaching, I have the joy of teaching four sections of Honors English II as well as a section of Honors Speech and Debate. My colleagues at Page are some of the most brilliant and caring teachers I have ever met and continue to inspire me to bring my best for my students every day. Teaching can be an overwhelming and sometimes thankless job, but having my former students come to visit me on a daily basis and seeing the excitement of a new group of young minds grasping the father/son theme in Night by Elie Wiesel reminds me why I do this every single day. To teach is truly to love and to inspire with every fiber of your being.