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Shari Templeton helps senior Cass Carr with an Honors Physics assignment Dec. 13. (Kathy Onorato photo) |
By Kathy Onorato
After 31 years of teaching, Wiscasset High School teacher Shari Templeton has decided to close the door on her public teaching career effective Jan. 24, 2014 and has accepted a
position with the Maine Department of Education as a state science specialist.
The 22-year veteran teacher is known for her sense of humor and the many pranks she has pulled over the years at WHS.
Templeton and her students have developed the saying, “What happens in room 201, stays in room 201.”
Some things Templeton wouldn’t share, but did admit to using some unique approaches to education. “I have had my students standing on tables [or] dropping items from rooftops to
demonstrate physics,” she said.
As a physic teacher, she said some of the staff are jealous because she gets more toys than anyone else.
Wiscasset High School Principal Deb Taylor said Templeton has been a favorite among students and some of her projects are famous in the school for their ingenuity.
“Students have created catapults and trebuchets, combined Pepsi and Mentos to watch the reaction, and otherwise explored concepts in physics through toys and experiments,”
Taylor said. “Her love for teaching, for science, and for her students is infectious.”
Templeton recalls one of her most memorable pranks was when she got quite a rise from her neighboring teacher, Sue Perkins.
Without Perkins knowing, she planted a walkie-talkie under the plastic liner of Perkin’s classroom trash can, and after a while, Templeton using the other walkie-talkie in her
classroom, called out ‘help me, let me out of here.’
There has been payback for her stunts over the years by vengeful staff members. “The staff knows I hate bananas. One year for Christmas, I got this beautifully wrapped box
filled with banana peels,” Templeton said. “If I dish it out, I’ve got to be prepared to get it back.”
Whether involved in faculty skits, the competitiveness of winter carnival, or emceeing variety shows, she said she will miss the zaniness of being goofy with the kids. “In some
ways, I’ve never grown out of adolescence,” Templeton admits.
Templeton said children have definitely changed over the years. Early in her teaching career in Connecticut when she first taught reproduction in biology class, “the kids were
red-faced and you could hear a pin drop,” she said. “Now the kids are very open and ask questions. Kids are used to a world that is not censored.”
Templeton said she enjoys high school aged students. “The relationship is adult to adult, but yet there is still room for sway in their thought processes.”
“It’s been exciting be allowed into the lives of my students,” she said.
Her journey has been one of celebration and one she is fortunate to have had, she said. “I am happy to have been a part of the lives of so many young people.”
She won’t miss the politics that she said has, “long plagued the system. There have always been hoops in the field of education.”
In her letter of resignation dated Dec. 11 to Principal Taylor, Superintendent Howard Tuttle, and RSU 12’s Board of Directors, Templeton wrote, “I am a passionate science
educator with a vision of building a strong K-12 science curriculum, but realize that this is not the direction the RSU has chosen to go.”
Templeton said her new job will allow her to help develop statewide science curriculum.
She will serve as the liaison between the state legislature as new standards for science are implemented.
In her letter, she wrote, “This will be an opportunity to have a greater impact on science curriculum,” she said. “This is an opportunity to make a vertical move in my career
that comes along once in a lifetime.”
“My departure is bittersweet. I invested much of my heart and soul into Wiscasset High School and despite the politics of the Wiscasset community, I have been proud to be part
of a staff that cares so much for the education and well-being of our students.”
Further, she wrote, “Any school or organization has its’ own idiosyncrasies. WHS is no different; however, the public perception portrayed by the media and by the Wiscasset
Educational Research Panel is often quite different than reality. Wiscasset has a history of shooting itself in the foot and the inability to think long-range has been
problematic.”
Her new year-round position will be a big change from the school calendar schedule she has been accustomed to for 30 years.
She said some adjustments will be needed for caring for her 28 llamas, bees, cats and chickens. “Getting the hay in will be a challenge,” she said.
Before coming to Wiscasset 22 years ago, Templeton taught in Connecticut, Boothbay and at Lincoln Academy. “I love the students and staff at Wiscasset High School, I will
miss them immensely,” Templeton said.
“Shari is one-of-a-kind, and we will miss her,” Taylor said.
