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Kayla Ferguson, a Kearns Junior High teacher, says she wants to "make middle school less miserable" for students
Summary
Kayla Ferguson, a sixth-grade math teacher at Kearns Junior High in Granite School District, described her goal of easing students' middle-school transition, noted her recognition as an award-winning teacher and shared quilting hobbies during a brief hallway interview.
Kayla Ferguson, a sixth-grade math teacher at Kearns Junior High School in the Granite School District, said she has taught at the school since 2021 and that her goal is to “make middle school less miserable” for her students.
Ferguson made the remark during a short hallway interview with a school interviewer, describing her move from West Kearns Elementary to Kearns Junior High and how that influenced her approach. “Because I didn't like my own middle school experience, I decided that my new goal would be to make middle school less miserable for these guys,” Ferguson said.
The statement underscored the transition many students face when moving from elementary to middle school, a stage Ferguson said requires extra support. She described initial uncertainty about switching from elementary to middle school but said the experience has been positive: “I actually, I love it. I didn't, I didn't know if I would, but I was like, I'll try anything for a year. And, and I tried it and I'm like, I like it. I'm here.”
Ferguson said she has been at Kearns Junior High since about 2021, making this her fourth year at the school, and that she previously taught fifth and sixth grade at West Kearns Elementary. She also described recognition she has received: she has been nominated for the district’s Excel award multiple times, won in 2017 and received a Jazz MBE Award the previous year.
Outside the classroom, Ferguson described quilting projects she is working on, including t-shirt quilts and a restoration of a roughly 100-year-old quilt made by her great-grandparents. “I finished my son's because he just graduated from Currancy. And so I finished 1 for him and then I did 1 for my nephew. And now I'm working on a like, hundred, hundred year old quilt,” she said.
The interview concluded with the interviewer thanking Ferguson for her work in the district. Ferguson replied, “We're very grateful,” as the conversation wrapped up in the classroom.
The discussion was a brief, informal profile recorded in a hallway outside a classroom at Kearns Junior High and does not report any policy action by the Granite School District. It highlights a teacher’s stated classroom priorities, awards, and personal interests as presented in the interview.
