By Summer Crawford
Staff Writer

The CHS spotlight has shed its rays of light on a new person of interest this school year. Joining the CHS crew is a new and passionate biology teacher, Cathy Douglas.

As a former teacher at Coppell Middle School West and cherished by many previous students, Douglas has been promoted to a freshman teaching position at the high school. She has always possessed a drive to educate young learners about the basics of biology. Douglas and biology have had a long history together, and she hopes that the new chapter in her life at CHS will be even better than the last.

“The fact that I get to remain focused on biology instead of an integrated science approach is very different but at the same time exciting,” Douglas said. “My degree is in biology so I love how in depth we will be able to go with the content.”

Getting transferred from CMSW to CHS has been an intriguing change for Douglas, bringing her a fresh environment to help facilitate the learning process for students. During the first week of school, Douglas worked on getting herself used to CHS and planned for her classes.

“I am adjusting to the change quite well. I love the classroom that I am in and believe that I have set it up to be a welcoming environment for the learners,” Douglas said. “With change, comes adjustment and I was ready to make the change.”

As Douglas has been getting acquainted with her fellow staff, she has noticed a fine line between teaching middle school students and high school students. She is enjoying her new freshman students and their maturity level.

Both Douglas and her son, sophomore Trace Douglas, are trying to assimilate into their new roles as teacher and student at CHS.

“She’s doing great because she gets to teach her favorite subject all the time and she has put in a lot of effort to make class fun,” Trace said. “She loves biology so here she gets to teach it all the time, plus she has got the chance to make new friends.”

Teaching at the same school her son attends is an added bonus for Douglas. It is convenient for her since she does not have to drive to two different schools in the morning to drop Trace off before going to work.

“Most of the days I don’t realize he is here because I rarely see him except for when we arrive and leave together,” Douglas said. “Since he is driving now, it makes it nice to be chauffeured to work each day.”

As a mother and a teacher, Douglas is juggling multiple responsibilities, always trying to both spend time with her family and teach her students. A positive part of teaching at CHS is that she gets the pleasure of seeing all of her previous students that she taught at CMSW. Douglas has the best of both worlds; she can keep a part of her past experiences with the students at CMSW and still move forward and meet new freshman.

Some of her previous students who now attend the high school are thrilled to see her name on a new classroom plaque at the high school. They remember the old days of when she was at CMSW.

“I have always thought that Mrs. Douglas was a great teacher. She always knew her stuff and was a hard, but good, teacher,” junior Olivia West said. “High school will be a good fit for her. She can easily teach a harder curriculum while still being a good teacher.”

Along with West, other students of all grade levels have mixed feelings on new teachers in general. Some wonder how they will teach the material or how effective of an instructor they will be. Douglas is only one of the many new teachers at CHS, but she has had years of experience teaching her field of expertise to students.

“New teachers are good and bad at the same time,” West said. “Unfortunately, you never know what to expect with them because you never know what they are like, how they grade and really anything about them. However, they can usually bring something to the table that other teachers can’t and have new ideas.”

Fellow science teachers at the high school have begun to form bonds with Douglas and get to know her on a personal level. A second year chemistry teacher, Monica Ortigoza, thinks Douglas will succeed at CHS because she has been teaching in the district for years and knows a lot about the community. Sunny Richardson, another biology teacher at CHS, has gotten to interact with Douglas at school meetings.

“She seems like a very patient and eager teacher. I have students who had her in middle school who think a lot of her. She will be an asset to CHS and our students,” Richardson said.

Douglas has plans to make her classroom a fun place to learn science, and is excited to start getting to know new people. She will keep working hard at CHS and hopes to bring her own twist to the high school. School may have just began, but Douglas has a lot in store for the rest of the year.