Emerson High School welcomes Kayleigh Darling, a ninth-grade English teacher. She has a strong passion for motivating students to use their obstacles to improve.

Darling goes into detail about her past unique teaching experiences in Uganda.

“It’s not my first year teaching, I started teaching in Denton ISD at Ryan and then I taught in Uganda for 2 years, and then I taught in Austin at a Charter School for a year before coming here,” Darling says.

In addition, she also speaks about her college degree in Psychology and where she officially graduated from. 

“I went to a few colleges but I graduated from Texas Women and I majored in English with a minor in Psychology.”

Darling goes into detail about her subject and what drew her towards it over other subjects. 

“I teach English and what drew me towards that is I’m actually dyslexic myself and so when I was in High School I was told I shouldn’t be good at English and I kind of wanted to prove people wrong. So I majored in it and decided to teach it myself.” Darling says.

Darling is enjoying the school tremendously as a whole but in particular, she most enjoys the community.

“I really like the community it’s built off and the way the staff collaborates with one another. It really feels like a team that’s based on working together for the benefit of the students.”

Originally Darling had no aspirations to teach when she was younger, but she had a change of heart because of someone and something that made her want to start. 

“So, who made me want to start teaching would have to be my 4th-grade teacher, Ms. Folgour. She’s the one who actually noticed I was dyslexic and she didn’t treat me differently and I think that really gave me the drive to not use my dyslexia as a crutch or excuse to not do my best.” Darling says

Darling goes into detail as to why she wanted to teach freshmen in the first place.

“I love this age and my college experience. I didn’t really know what I wanted to do when I was older and I think if I had a closer relationship with my teachers. Then I’d probably be more stable. I want to provide what I didn’t have for students.” Darling says.

Darling explains how long she plans to teach.

“Hopefully forever I’d like for it to be my career til I retire,” Darling says.