Quartz Hill High School is renowned for its excellence in academics, which can be attributed to the fantastic teachers. One of the most notable of these teachers is Mrs. Nichter. Mrs. Nichter has been a teacher at Quartz Hill High School for over twenty years and she is arguably the best at her job. Overall, she is a well-loved science teacher at our school.

Mrs. Nichter is not like the everyday teacher that has their students go through the monotonous process of note and test taking. Her classes are exclusive to her only, meaning that she is the only teacher on campus that teaches topics like IB Biology and anatomy. If you are interested in these two classes, expect to have a learning experience like no other.
What really separates Mrs. Nichter from most other teachers is her close relationships with students. She stated, “My favorite thing about being a teacher is the students. Every day is a different day with a different set of circumstances, so it makes work more exciting and less stagnant than a typical teaching job.” There is a give-and-take relationship with Nichter and her students. In her everyday work, students rely on Mrs. Nichter for an interesting curriculum, but she also relies on her students to keep her job interesting.

Mrs. Nichter also teaches in the IB program, which restricts a group of students to a set course schedule, keeping almost all IB students in the same class periods daily. She teaches IB Biology, a two-year class, meaning she has dealt with her fair share of IB grouplings. She mentioned that IB students are typical students, but the program allows for her to get to know really spectacular students (“gems” as she likes to call them). She continued to say that “there have been times where she felt like teaching IB was not worth the time and effort, but the next year’s class makes it all worthwhile.”

Mrs. Nichter feels that the one thing that schools should do away with is grades. She feels that the grading system is distracting from the actual learning process. Any student that currently has her or has had her can honestly attest to her way of thinking based on her teaching methods. She rarely hands out monotonous worksheets, and instead, she focuses on big picture learning, like labs and tests. Nichter stated, “It gives me more time to cover the material and all for practice, if needed.”

Mrs. Nichter is one of the most established teachers on Quartz Hill’s campus, and for good reason too. She genuinely cares for the learning process, and she makes sure to establish close bonds with her students that last even beyond high school. Mrs. Nichter is not like the everyday teacher. Having her will guarantee an enriching learning experience that cannot be traded for tedious slideshows and note-taking.