By Lara Paglinawan
For seventeen years, Mrs. Ruffner has helped students sharpen their thinking and find meaning in the pages of the stories they read. As an Honors English 9 and 10 teacher at Chatham High School, she brings both experience and energy in the classroom—qualities shaped by nearly two decades of guiding students through the study of English Language Arts.
Before joining CHS in 2010, Mrs. Ruffner taught in Hillsborough in Somerset County, where she first realized how much she loved watching students puzzle through a text and reach a deeper understanding. That feeling hasn’t faded. “I love interacting with students and being able to push their thinking and come to a new understanding of a text together,” she explains. Teaching, for her, has always been a shared process—one where students and teachers can coexist together to uncover shared meanings side by side.
One of the aspects she values most is the ability to teach students across two years, first in Honors English 9 and then in Honors English 10. “I think it has been really fortunate for me to be able to teach freshman and sophomore honors because of their growth in those two years together.” she says. That continuity allows her to watch students transform—not just as writers, but also as thinkers who become more confident in their interpretations and more willing to take creative risks.
Her classroom reflects this approach. One of her students, Preston Crowley, explains, “Her class environment is very welcoming, thought-inducing, and uplifting. She gives us a lot of wiggle room to really think critically, and she is open to a wide range of interpretations as long as they are grounded within the text,” he says. “Oftentimes, she uses students’ ideas to really shape the discussion, which I really love.”
For advice to future students, she keeps her message simple but sincere: read widely. She wants students to explore a wide genre of books to immerse themselves in their different voices and perspectives—not for the sake of assignments but to experience the ways in which reading opens a window into other lives while helping young adults feel more understood on their own. “It’s a unique way to see the world,” she says, “and sometimes, it lets you see yourself more clearly in the pages you read.”
