Dear Students,
I am excited to be here at Joshua High School, and am looking forward to being your instructor. This will be my first year with JISD and I will be teaching Dual Credit English Composition for Hill College and Senior English (College Prep).
I am from the Republic of Panama and graduated from Balboa High School in 1989 where I was also a dual credit student taking core classes at the nearby Panama Canal College. I came to the United States after high school and graduated from Texas State University (then Southwest Texas State University) in 1993 with an English major and Sociology and Spanish minors. I recently completed my Master of Education in Curriculum and Instruction with a content specialty in English.
This is my 13th year of teaching. Previously I taught at Cleburne High School where I served as the English department chair and taught Pre-AP English II, EOC STAAR prep, OnRamps Rhetoric, and Senior English over the course of my seven years there. For the past five years I was the language specialist at a bilingual elementary school campus in Cleburne where I worked with teachers and small groups of students to provide English language support and reading mastery skills. I am also an adjunct instructor for Hill College teaching an online integrated reading and writing course for students who were unsuccessful on the Reading and Writing portions of the TSI test.
I am a self-described English nerd, so I love reading, rhetoric, and writing. My teaching philosophy is that there are no concepts or ideas in English that are inaccessible for students. Anyone can become a proficient reader and writer. It just takes practice and passion. When students or adults say they don't like reading, I say they just haven't found the right book yet. I enjoy giving and receiving book recommendations, so I look forward to finding out what types of books each of you enjoy.
My husband Brian is the Dean of Business and Industry for Hill College, and we have been married for 31 years. Our oldest, Jack, got married earlier this summer and is a fourth grade reading and social studies teacher in Waxahachie. He and his wife Madison live in Maypearl. Our daughter Veil is an artist and is currently finishing her bachelor's degree in fine art at the University of Texas at Arlington.
I look forward to working with each of you this year, and if you have any questions feel free to reach out!
Sarah Bennett, M.Ed.