Pressley seeks to help students find their voices

“It’s been an amazing experience,” said new to WF English teacher Hugh Pressley about coming to West.

He said that his fellow B hall teachers have been amazing as well. Everyone has been accommodating and he was able to get into his classroom early before school even started to plan and get ready.

Pressley said the most challenging part of teaching during a pandemic has been the time frames in which curriculum and skills need to be covered. Everything has been shortened. Of course, being new to the school and the curriculum are added challenges.

Pressley is teaching English 4 and AP Research, which is the companion class to AP Seminar. Students taking these two course, plus three other AP courses, and passing the exams at the end, are given a special Capstone diploma when they graduate.

“AP research takes a topic and develops a long paper, for which students will do lots of research and make a question to answer their 4,000 to 5000 word paper,” Pressley said. AP Research is a year long class and Pressley was trained to teach it this past summer.

Pressley describes himself as a teacher who is big on developing relationships with students and encouraging them to find activities and learning opportunities that develop their own voices. He sees himself as a facilitator and expects great things from his students.

“A big thing is for them to want to learn and participate, and to be great teammates; for the team to be a success everyone must do their part,” he said.

Pressley was born in northern Virginia and then moved to North Carolina when he was in grade school. He attended UNC and then joined the military, being a part of the Navy for 10 years. He then went on to Charleston Southern for his Master’s degree. He is now taking classes through Texas Tech, working toward his Phd. in English.

Pressley has been married for six years and he and his wife have three children, a son and two daughters, one of whom is a baby (eight months old). In his free time, he loves sports, especially the Carolina Panthers and the Charlotte Hornets. He also loves spending time with his family.

A big focus for Pressley in his teaching is developing writing skills in his students, something he sees as extremely important to future success in college and beyond. He also has a background in journalism which helps in his teaching of writing skills. For both AP Research and English 4 students, Pressley thinks “having a good foundation” in writing is key.