Many students struggle to find a teacher they can feel truly comfortable around, but English teacher Shanna Gardner’s favorite part of teaching involves forming connections with her students.

“I like creating those relationships with them where you can talk outside of class and joke around and have fun,” said Gardner. “They make my job the best occupation in the world, basically.”

Gardner has been teaching for 11 years—10 of those years have been spent at South where she has made many close friends with both her colleagues and her students.

“Mrs. Gardner isn’t like your average teacher. She’s mellower with her teaching and treats all of her students as actual people rather than students,” said senior Tyler Suddreth. This is Suddreth’s second year having her as a teacher.

Suddreth said that he is able to stay after class every day to talk with Gardner. He believes this makes Gardner unique because not many teachers are willing to go out of their way to get to know their students on a personal level.

Bella Cesario, a junior and current student of Gardner’s, said, “You can tell that she genuinely cares about her students’ futures. She really makes sure that we’re engaged and actually learning and understanding what she’s trying to say.”

Aside from her positive influence on her students, Gardner is also a great friend. Hannah Christie, another English teacher, has known Gardner for almost a decade. They met when they both began working at South and have been close friends ever since.

“What makes her stick out from the crowd is that she’s incredibly honest and she’s incredibly loyal as a person, as a friend and as a colleague.”
Gardner is also extremely good at pranking, according to Christie.

“We live 57 seconds away from each other—yes I’ve timed it—and she pranked me last Halloween by putting a super scary scarecrow on my doorstep and then leaving it for me to find and be terrified of,” Christie said.

Overall, Gardner seems to possess a strong influence over her students and friends, pushing them in and out of the classroom to be better students and people.
“Always be true to yourself. I think that’s a very important thing to live by,” Gardner said.