Walking into her room, it’s hard to tell that Whitney Sorensen has only been teaching here at Highland for a little over a week now. After Ruthie’s retirement, Sorensen rose to the occasion of taking her place. Teaching regular and honors Language Arts to sophomores and juniors, Highland has embraced her as one of our own.

“The students, all the teachers, the administrators, the whole faculty…everyone has really been very welcoming,” Sorensen said. 

This is her fourth year teaching, and it’s also not the first time she’s taught in a situation like this. Previously working at Canyons School District she was the third teacher hired after the one that started off the year left halfway through.

“The next teacher they hired left after two days, and then the next teacher they hired left after a week, and then they hired me, so that was a lot more difficult of a situation,” Sorensen said.

The transition to Highland has been made easier for her thanks to the school’s kindness and help from Ruthie. She taught remedial reading at Midvale Middle School last year and before that at Butler Middle School teaching language arts, remedial reading, and journalism for two years. Doing literacy work at Canyons School District she has had experience in working at a high school, but this is her first time as a teacher. Some big differences she’s experienced with teaching at high school are the more intelligent conversations she’s able to have with students during class and going from being taller than her students to having kids being as tall as or taller than her.

“I was pretty much taller than every middle schooler, but here there’s kids that are actually as tall or taller than me. So, that’s a big difference,” Sorensen said. 

Outside of the classroom, Sorensen enjoys reading, like many English teachers do, and doing fun activities with her kids like going to the zoo. She also really likes to ski and go biking. While humbling saying she’s not close to a being pro or anything like that, she usually does a couple bike races a year. Even though she has just started teaching here, she plans on attending different school activities and becoming a part of the Highland community. Although Ruthie’s retirement has been a big change for this school, the addition of Whitney Sorensen has made that change a lot easier.