AP World History teacher, Ms. Noffsinger, is always bringing up the past… but it’s okay, because that’s what she gets paid to do! Ms. Noffsinger, affectionately nicknamed “Ms. Noffy” by her students, “started teaching at Sunlake in August of 2014.” She didn’t always plan on becoming a teacher, though. “While I attended UNC-Asheville, I recall walking between classes and thinking… (insert thought bubble) … Wouldn’t it be so cool to be a college professor? I could just spend my days learning, teaching, and having deep, meaningful, intellectual discussions. My barrier to that was that I also thought it would be cool to be in business and I had a real interest in marketing. That is how I spent the first half of my career. I worked in marketing management for high-end golf and country club developers. After the real estate market crash in 2008, I decided to switch careers and become a teacher.”
Ms. Noffsinger chose to teach history because her “degree was in Economics, but I also had a real passion for the Humanities. World History was the closest high school subject that I could teach like Humanities.” That doesn’t mean she doesn’t love World History, though. “I really love teaching about ancient civilizations, Greece and Rome, the Renaissance, the Crusades, Central and South American early civilizations, and imperialism. Probably my most favorite is the imperialism unit because there is so much to learn about global, industrial expansion and how it impacted cultures and societies.”

While her students learn a lot, Ms. Noffsinger learns from them, too. In nearly a decade of teaching, the most important lesson her students have taught her is that “everyone has a story to tell if you take the time to listen.” She loves being a teacher at Sunlake thanks to all the amazing experiences she’s had. “I wish I knew how much I would love this job and started sooner!”

If she had to pick one thing to be her favorite about being a teacher, it would be “laughing with my students. You all are so funny sometimes! Beyond that, I just hope that at least in some small way, I touched the lives of my students.”