Taylor Shannon moved up from Clark Lane Middle School (CLMS) to Waterford High School (WHS) this year and has been a physical education and health teacher for 10 years.
This year, she teaches two Team Sports classes, two Lancer PE classes, and a Unified PE class. She said, “I never anticipated being as excited as I was when I first learned about the PE opening at WHS. I took that as a ‘gut feeling’ that it was time for a change in my career and time for growth both professionally and personally.”
The difference between WHS and CLMS in PE is that she doesn’t have to give “constant reminders to students to keep their hands to themselves.”
Shannon said, “It is the most amazing aspect of this transition…I feel so lucky that I have this opportunity to reconnect with all of the students I had at CLMS who are now at WHS.”
When Shannon was younger, she wanted to become an FBI agent. In her high school years at Waterford High School, she played soccer, basketball, and lacrosse; she participated in the class council. She was a secretary for two years and vice president during her junior and senior years.
Since Shannon went to high school at the same school she is now currently teaching at, she said, the physical aspect is different than when she came here during her high school years. The Waterford High School was built differently from how it is now. There was one floor, and now we have three floors.
She said, “It helps to feel like I am not in high school again since the only part that is the same is the gym,” which makes her feel like she’s at “home.”
The rest of the school feels different in a good way, and she said seeing the teachers she had when she was in high school to now having them as her co-workers, she commented, “It is nice to see, [but] it is funny at the same time.”
Shannon attended college at Eastern Connecticut State University.
Now that she is at the WHS, she expressed how she has absolutely loved it and it is the best decision she has ever made, but she will definitely go back to visit her students and coworkers.
