For Jennifer Thompson, teaching at Hill Learning Center has always been about relationships.
In fact, her three favorite aspects of teaching at Hill are collaborating with her colleagues, enjoying the “community feel” of the organization, and building connections with her students.
“I work really hard to establish a relationship with each student I have,” she says. “I try to make sure I get to know all my students so that I can be cognizant of what their particular weak spots are, so I can both address them but also not make them a big deal.”
For Ms. Thompson, this balance is key to what makes Hill effective, especially for high school-aged pupils: Their caring and knowledgeable teachers understand their learning differences but destigmatize them. Teachers emphasize students’ strengths and, after establishing trust, bolster their weaker points in ways that reach them individually.
Now in her twenty-eighth year of teaching at Hill, Ms. Thompson has taught everything from lower school writing to middle school math. For the past few years, she has served as the upper school coordinator and taught upper school English, mainly eleventh-grade literature. “I like teaching about early American literature and the Puritans because there are so many interesting insights about how our country was founded,” she explains.
Her favorite unit to teach, however, is The Great Gatsby. Years after leaving Ms. Thompson’s class, her former students “tend to remember the books they liked, especially Gatsby. But that’s also because I love it,” she says with a grin. “They remember all my little cartoons I have up on the wall and the funny stories I tell them. But most of all, I hope they remember feeling like I really care about them.”
Ms. Thompson, who holds a BA in English from Furman University and a M.Ed. in learning disabilities from NC State University, spent her first few years of teaching in public school — first in suburban Atlanta and then in Carrboro.
She began teaching at Hill Learning Center (then called “Hill Learning Development Center”) in the school’s former building, fondly referred to as “The Yellow House.”
“Of course, this was back when everybody, including the director and admissions counselor, taught classes,” she explains. She initially shared a classroom with Bonnie Cheek, who later taught her daughter math.
“At Hill, I feel like I’m making a difference with the students,” says Ms. Thompson. “When I taught special ed in public school, I knew what I had to do or what would be good for them, but I didn’t have the time or materials to do it. When I got here, I felt like students really benefited from being in my class.”
She wishes the more local students took advantage of all that Hill’s upper school program has to offer. “We are an incredible resource for all types of students,” she explains. “I would love for people to know that the courses students take here are rigorous and thorough and that we teachers really work towards students’ mastery of material.”
Besides her teacher career, Ms. Thompson is proud of her two adult children. Alex, 27, recently married his longtime girlfriend Sally and now works as a client management associate at CAPTRUST. Lauren, 22, will soon graduate from UNC-Chapel Hill with a degree in human development and family studies before beginning graduate school in UNC’s masters of arts and teaching program.
“They are both genuinely good, kind people,” Ms. Thompson says. “I’m grateful to them because they make it seem like I did a decent job.”