With the 2024-2025 school year starting, many new faces have been welcomed to The Hill. New students and freshman pour into the school annually. This year has brought several new teachers to join the Center Hill High School family. Regina Humble, a new Visual Arts I teacher has truly embraced the love of teaching and is excited for what the year has in store.

Question: So where else have you taught besides here? 

Humble: So, most of my teaching was in Marshall County. I taught 6th and 7th grade at Byhalia Middle School, but I was an English teacher. Up until this year I always taught English. My first three years I taught in an alternative school in Holly Springs and Tupelo.

Question: So how did you make the switch from teaching English to Art—have you always enjoyed art but just wanted to teach it?

Humble: Well, yes, but that’s not how it happened. I said most of my teaching was in Marshall County, but the last five years I was in administration. I was an assistant principal the last three years in Tate County. I was at Strayhorn High School as the assistant principal and then Independence High School. I just got to a point where I wanted to make a switch back into the classroom. While I enjoyed being an administrator for many reasons, it just doesn’t bring the joy that teaching does.  

Question: Where did you go to college? Did you study education in college or something different?

Humble: Ole Miss, started as a forensic chemistry major. I wanted to be a forensic pathologist. But ultimately, I ended up changing to English. I have a degree in English. Then I went an alternate route to get my teaching license after my son was born.

Question: What do you like so far about Center Hill High School?

Humble: Oh, my goodness. I love so much. I mean, coming from being an administrator to teaching again, there’s just so much that I love about just the joy of teaching and being in my own classroom and not having to worry about all the other adults in the school. I really like that the admin here is very present and they communicate very well to the students and the staff about the expectations on behavior and academic rigor and so forth. I think things here run very smoothly. It’s easy for me to just come into my classroom, do my job and go home at the end of the day.

Question: So, what would you like Center Hill High School to know about your family?

Humble: My sons make me a better teacher. When I taught middle school, my older son was still in elementary.  I had wished that by the time he was already in middle school, I wished I had experienced that as a parent before I did as a teacher because it would have made me so much more patient with sixth graders. With my older son, who’s almost 17, and I see all the things that he struggles with and how much I struggle as his parent and what a task that is. That it gives me a patience in the classroom and a new perspective that I wouldn’t have had if I hadn’t gone through that personally.

Question: What’s one interesting fact about you that might surprise people?

Humble: It used to be that I ride a motorcycle, but I don’t do that anymore. Probably that I am training for a 50K Ultra Trail Race in November. Also, I’m running a St. Jude marathon, but I’ve done that a few times before. The 50K in November is the biggest thing I’ve ever done. That’s 30 miles. People probably wouldn’t look at me and think, “oh, she’s going to go run 30 miles in the woods”. But I do, I love running in the woods.

Question: Is that [running] your hobby?

Humble: Probably that [running] and camping. When I get tired of running.

Question: Growing up, what teacher inspired you the most and why?

Humble:  I always really adored my teachers. I grew up in Marshall County. No one in my family had been to college. I was the first one in my family to go to college, graduate, and do the things that I’ve done with education. So, all the teachers that helped me along the way, I really got attached to them and looked up to them. But I had this one, Ms. Lassiter, I had something with her every year in high school until she got married. Her biggest class she taught was U.S. History. She really stood out to me because she taught me how to take notes. I had always been the quiet, good kid in class that the teachers don’t really have to worry about. So, nobody really pushed me or anything. I went to an underfunded school, so there wasn’t a whole lot of challenge for me. But she would push me and challenge me and refuse to accept anything less than my best effort. She also was a model.

Question: What is one life lesson you want to pass down to your students?

Humble: Money isn’t everything. I mean, I hesitated to become a teacher because of money. But then it ended up being the best thing. I went into administration for multiple reasons. But one of the biggest reasons was I want to make more money, put more money away from my sons. Did I make a lot of money? Yeah, I made more money than I expected to make when I became a teacher. But I missed so much with my older son and so many times. Being back in the classroom now, knowing I took a little bit of a peck of it, it’s totally worth it, you know, I want the kids. It’s one of the things I appreciate about teaching art, is this is not a state-tested subject.  If this is the thing that brings you happiness and gives you the key to your success, it doesn’t matter that there’s not a state test that says you’re a five on it. If this is what makes you happy and brings you success in life, then go do it. It doesn’t matter if society says it’s worth a big paycheck to them.

Question: Which fictional teacher do you feel your teaching style resembles the most?

Humble: I have a dinosaur dress that I would wear because both my sons love dinosaurs, the kids would tell me I look like Miss Frizzle. I think there’s times I was not like Miss Frizzle, especially when I was teaching middle school, I was very strict, very structured. But I think that’s who I want to be the next 15 years is Miss Frizzle.