With springy, curly hair that juxtaposes a quiet, yet witty personality, Patrina Bly is Kempsville High School’s newest math teacher. A self-proclaimed Pinterest addict, Ms. Bly graduated with her graduate degree from Elizabeth City State University in May of 2014.

“I think everybody has a niche,” says Ms. Bly. She has always been good at mathematics, but she admits that she has struggled in her educational career with certain math classes. “Math is just practice,” she explains. She believes that anyone, regardless of their current level of skill in math, can improve their knowledge of and performance in the subject.

In high school, Patrina Bly participated in her school’s Yearbook. She affectionately recalls being Editor-in-Chief. To improve Kempsville High School, Patrina Bly believes that if she can help cultivate the discipline of the students of Kempsville High, then we will be “moving along in the right direction.”

Appreciating variety and options in life, Ms. Bly explains that she won’t teach at Kempsville High School forever. “I don’t like the concept of staying at a job for twenty years,” she explains. She would really enjoy a job as a physical scientist.

“You have to be very passionate about it,” Patrina Bly advises students that aspire to teach math. She praises the options that contemporary high school students have to benefit their education, such as YouTube videos that can provide examples of more difficult math problems.

Ms. Bly laughs off the trials and tribulations of being a new teacher. “I lose everything – the Smart Board doesn’t work; I lose my notes; I steal my students’ pencils,” she jokes.

Ms. Bly’s students decidedly enjoy their new teacher. “I think she is doing incredibly well, especially because she began teaching in the middle of the year,” says Dana Cohen, a senior enrolled in Ms. Bly’s AP Calculus class. “Her young age motivates students,” according to Cohen. Students are able to see themselves in Ms. Bly due to her young age, and thus are able to envision a successful career for themselves in the not-so-distant future.