Meet a New Teacher!

Linken Newman
Staff Writer
  With the 2025-2026 school year coming to an end, there are still several teachers that were added to faculty this year. One addition is Jessica Payton, who serves as a Special Education teacher at Bonneville High School (BHS).
  Payton first started her teaching career later in her life. She started going to college to become a teacher in 2018 where she went to Western Governors University. After completing her degree, Payton sought an environment that mirrored her own values. She chose BHS specifically because she thought the admin was incredible. She elaborated on the topic by stating “I love how they seem to genuinely care about the children and their education.” She then joined the Special Education section of the school. Payton now teaches Study Skills and English for BHS. Payton likes to keep a healthy classroom environment by having an especially laid back teaching style. Her teaching style, she stated, is also her biggest flaw as she often finds it difficult to be the bad person when students become distracted. She keeps relationships with students by offering different types of candies during class as a reward for active engagement. Her class often has a warmer atmosphere. Instead of having the lights all on at once like most teachers do at BHA, Payton chooses to dim the lights and play different music to keep a friendly environment. On top of that, Payton has her students converse in a lower pitch so students do not get too distracted. To maintain a healthy relationship with her students, she speaks to students with playful banter and more of a friendly voice than an authoritarian tone. Payton commented on her environment style, stating “It helps the students feel more comfortable in the classroom and makes them more relaxed.” This makes the teaching aspect easier for her. In her teaching career so far, she has had some challenges every now and then. Her biggest challenge is grading. Payton finds the grading aspect of teaching time consuming and repetitive. That is a big aspect as to why she keeps her grading more relaxed. Payton does not assign homework because of this reason as well. Payton plans to continue her teaching journey through BHS and students can hope to see her in the 2026-2027 school season.

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