Korina Horvat and Diana Prudius

March 27, 2021

The Panther Spotlight for March is the one and only Shana Conroy, who is a seventh-grade science teacher. She has been teaching for ten years, and this is her second year teaching at Glasgow.

Shana Conroy grew up in Princeton, New Jersey. She started teaching right after college, in LA  but then moved back home to teach there for 2 years.

After that, she was teaching in DC for the next five years. We asked her what made her want to be a teacher. “I didn’t know if I was going to like teaching. So when I was little, I had two younger brothers so I used to make worksheets for my brothers to do, so I had this idea I liked teaching people. But I didn’t really know what I liked, I like to read but I’m a science teacher. When I was in college I majored in science, not in teaching or education. Someone kind of brought up the idea to me so I thought that would be good if I really liked doing it.” She then talked about trying it out and loving it.

“I really liked my first set of high school students. They taught me so much so I just kinda kept going and kept doing it, and here we are 10 years later. I think if you find something you like to do in life you’re really lucky, and I just, I like to teach. I didn’t know if I would like it right out of college, but you never know until you try something.” She told us that she liked school when she was younger but that she didn’t actually like science, “I wasn’t really good at it.  I didn’t think it was for me, but then I got into college and I was a little hesitant to take science classes, but then I had a teacher that really made me like science… I think when you have a really good teacher, it can kind of push you to like things you didn’t think you’d like… I definitely leaned more towards English and classes like that. So it was always strange to me that I ended up a science teacher!” 

Shana Conroy had a fantastic time, teaching her first year at Glasgow! “Everyone was really welcoming, I think the science teachers were really supportive and worked together.” Even with the pandemic starts, the staff was very supportive and made Ms. Conroy’s first year a year to remember.

Ms.Conroy likes to run. One time she ran a 26-mile marathon with one of her high school students! She also likes to go outside, hike walks her dog, hang out with him, spends time with her friends, read, and exercise. She juggles home life and school life by trying to do something every day that’s outside of school. “It’s hard because your mind tries to stay focus on how can I be a better teacher, or what can I do differently, but I try to find an hour a day or a little bit of time to find something I enjoy, whether it’s walking my dog or going for a run, or watching a tv show or reading a book, I try to make sure there is the time every day. To try to find that balance.”

“My favorite part of teaching is meeting all the students every year. I think most teachers probably say that. It is, it really is. It’s really fun to like meet people, see what they are interested in, “says Ms.Conroy. “I’m trying to think about my least favorite part. I don’t like to give tests, I never liked tests when I was in school, so I don’t like giving them, but I know they are important to see what you learned. But I don’t like them, cause I also didn’t like them when I was in school.”

We asked Ms.Conroy how her routine has changed when teaching online. She told us that she wakes up a lot later than she used to. “I wake up a lot later than I used to wake up to get to school, that’s been changing since we’ve returned to school. But I was working a little bit later, after school. I think that it generally felt the same just because I was on a computer, instead of in the classroom…” We then proceeded to ask her about her relationships with students. We wanted to know how she stayed connected to online students, to truly have relationships with them. “It’s hard. It is hard this year. I try to find out what people are interested in, I try to pull them into groups to talk to them. I think kids like talking in smaller groups, than in front of the whole class. I think I just try to find out what people are interested in, outside of school too.”

Ms. Conroy is a kind and hardworking teacher! She truly cares about her students, and they care about her too!