Heritage’s New Teachers: Meeting Mrs. Dillard

Mrs. Dillard is a new language teacher here at Heritage High School; she teaches 10th and 11th grade English. She says that she wanted to apply to Heritage because of the school environment being happy and positive. “Mr. Bradford leads with such a positive example and his optimistic attitude is contagious,” says Mrs. Dillard. She believes that Mr. Bradford establishes high expectations of the students of how a general should be. “Its Heritage. I mean come on,” Mrs. Dillard exclaims. 

Mr. Bradford says that Mrs. Dillard stood out to him because “she worked hard over the summer to get her room ready, and worked very well with her other colleagues.” “You can see when teachers are really enthusiastic about what they’re teaching,” Mr. Bradford says. Not only that, but several people here at Heritage know her in different ways, and all the people that knew her said great things about her. For this reason, Mr. Bradford thinks that Mrs. Dillard is fitting in very quickly here at Heritage, and is able to make connections with her colleagues.

This is Mrs. Dillard’s 19th year teaching. She taught for eight years at Dalton High School, and 11 years at East Ridge High School in Hamilton County. Previously, she was in the banking industry for 10 years. Before teaching, banking allowed her to gain organization and socializing skills. “It’s all about presentation and it’s not what you say, it’s how you say it,” explained Mrs. Dillard. This has helped her throughout her jobs. Therefore, Mrs. Dillard wanted to become a teacher due to her newly learned skills, and to “give back to our future.” 

She wants students to be able to relate with her, and isn’t the type of person to act better than someone else. She enjoys discussing topics and ideas with students as well as learning from them. She hopes that her students pass with a B or higher and for her juniors to “have proficient and advanced scores to exemplify their level of education,” within her classroom. Overall, Mrs. Dillard is looking forward to helping her students learn to the fullest, and is excited for this school year.