North East ISD roots run deep for Ali Hill.
It’s where she got her start in the classroom as a student at Thousand Oaks Elementary School. It’s where she discovered her passion for teaching at MacArthur High School. Now, she’s making a difference in the halls she used to walk as a Bradley Middle School student.
“My junior and senior year at MacArthur, they had an elective called Ready, Set, Teach,” said Hill. “You got to go to one of the elementary schools for one of your class periods. I loved it. That was the first time I realized that I wanted to be a teacher.”
That experience teaching NEISD elementary students set Hill on a path back to the classroom, this time as a teacher. She’s now in the middle of her seventh year as an educator and fourth at Bradley, where she teaches honors-level reading and English to sixth-graders. She strives to provide the same level of unconditional support, encouragement and guidance that she received as a student. The positive experience growing up in the community she now works in eventually inspired her to come back.
“I always felt supported in anything I did as a student,” said Hill. “I felt like my teachers cared and that hasn’t changed. I think the kids still see that their teachers care for them and support them and want to see them succeed. I see that now with my colleagues. They still want to see the kids succeed in life and will do anything to help them.”
Bradley truly is a second family to Hill. She especially felt their love and support after the birth of her daughter.
“My daughter was born at 27 weeks,” said Hill. “I was still pretty new here and hadn’t met everyone yet. They all dropped everything they were doing to help me with anything I needed. No one even questions whether or not to help you - they just do it. Bradley is like one big, giant family.”
Bradley, and all of NEISD, will always be home to its students, teachers and staff.
