In the public eye: WMS educator helps inspire future for community leaders of tomorrow

Editor’s Note: This is another in an ongoing series of Windham and Raymond town employee profiles.

By Ed Pierce

Shelly Cook believes that effective teachers do more than provide students with the necessary knowledge and skills to develop a career. She also thinks it’s important to inspire them and to impart values such as empathy and respect for others and integrity to her students.

Shelly Cook has taught at
Windham Middle School for
26 years and currently teaches
seventh grade mathematics.
Over the years she has served
as WMS Srudent Council
Advisor, Certification 
Chairperson, Building 
Achievement Council
Representative and a member
of the school's leadership team.
SUBMITTED PHOTO 

Cook is currently serving as a seventh-grade math teacher at Windham Middle School and has taught there for 26 years. She started by teaching sixth grade, moved to eighth grade for eight years and has taught every subject including English and Language Arts, Social Studies, Science, and Math.

“My duties as a teacher extend far beyond teaching students math skills. I teach students about kindness, helping others, being a good human and encouraging them every step along the way,” Cook said. “I inspire students and help them to grow. I want to be their biggest cheerleader and to also be there to help them through the tough times. I have had to cover wounds with band-aids, mend broken hearts, wipe tears, package teeth in envelopes for the tooth fairy, and listen to students who needed a voice in their corner. Teaching and instructing students are a small part of a teacher's day.”

She says that the best thing about being a teacher is receiving students in the fall who are young, shy, and optimistic for a successful year and being able to watch them grow during the year, become independent thinkers, risk takers, and feel confident in their skills and themselves.

“The most challenging aspect of teaching is the demands of each day. Teachers no longer just teach academic skills,” Cook said. “We are helping students navigate their socio-emotional issues by offering support for students, strategies to help them through tough times, and being their biggest cheerleader. We are helping to bridge the gap between home and school to better support students. We are taking care of some of the basic needs that are needed for students to learn. The students that we receive in the fall aren't just students in our classrooms, they truly fill our hearts, and we think of them as family.”

After attending high school at Woodstock Academy in Woodstock, Connecticut, Cook went on to study Elementary Education at Saint Joseph’s College and graduated in 1995.

“Those four years had so many fond memories. I graduated with a diploma, but so much more; the friends that I made are still friends today. I met my husband and later started a family in Windham,” she said. “I have lived in Windham for almost 25 years and am proud to call it home. I love going places in town and recognizing previous students and catching up with them.”

According to Cook, she first applied to WMS for a sixth-grade teaching position, and she recalls receiving a call from the superintendent at the time.

“I was so happy that I would be teaching in the school that I student taught in, placed on the same team as my mentor teacher, and in the same classroom that I student taught in. It was truly my dream job,” she said. “The staff at WMS made me want to first apply. Everyone was a family, and supported one another, and I was always in awe at how they balanced their family and home life. The group of teachers that I was first paired with had my heart. They were my mentors, my confidants, and my friends.”

During her time at WMS, Cook has been a teacher for sixth-, seventh-, and eighth-grade students, served as Student Council Advisor, Certification Chairperson, Building Achievement Council representative, and a member of the school’s leadership team.

Her family has always been supportive of her teaching career.

“They have supported me with fundraisers, with late nights of planning and grading, with lending an ear and helping to give me advice on how to handle a situation or help a struggling student and have been patient when I see students out and about and catch up with them,” she said. “They may get slightly frustrated when I see students in town and catch up, but inside they know it warms my heart.”

But the most important thing that Cook says she has learned about working at WMS is to hold on.

“Some days may be bumpy rides, and other days may be easy sailing, but it is always new and exciting and worth the ride,” she said. <