On the first day of school, English I and AP Language and Composition Teacher Michael Burwell walked onto the Heritage campus with a new job assignment.

After struggling with his undergrad major, he wanted to revisit a topic he had liked for a long time, English.

Fresh out of college, Mr. Burwell knew he wanted to teach. He wanted to relate experiences he had in high school and college to students that were about to go through the same thing.

During the fall of 2015, Mr. Burwell stepped foot in B104 for his first time. “I have always known that I wanted to teach a higher grade level.” Mr. Burwell said. After teaching English II, he made a shift to Pre-AP English I the following year and earned his Advanced Placement (AP) Certification.

Three years later, during the summer of 2018, Mr. Burwell got the email from the school regarding the opportunity to teach AP Language and Composition.

“At first I was hesitant,” Mr. Burwell said. “But after I realized the opportunity to teach students that he had as a freshman was a pretty exciting possibility, on top of being able to teach the higher grade level in the class that I enjoyed personally.”

He attended a week long course strictly dedicated to AP Language, studying the test, refreshing his memory over the in and outs of the course.

Finally, the first day of the school year came upon Mr. Burwell. When he walked into his 3B class, he felt relieved when he saw familiar faces. Excited to see how they’ve matured over the year apart, he wanted to dive into deeper topics off of their strengths.

Unsure on what the future holds for him, Mr. Burwell still believes his junior students have been great and is excited to spend the rest of the year with them.

“It’s different right now and it’s new to me so I enjoy it a lot,” Mr. Burwell said. “I’ve taught freshmen for so long and I do enjoy it, so I don’t think I could say I prefer one over the other because they have their pros and cons.”