May 3, 2021
During Teacher Appreciation Week, we’d like to highlight one of our outstanding RHA teachers — Shannon Sutton. Shannon is a special education teacher at RHA’s Bear Creek facility and her dedication to her students is inspiring. She was born and raised in North Carolina, and from a young age Shannon knew that she wanted to dedicate her life to teaching just like her three sisters.
Teaching has given Shannon the opportunity to make individuals’ lives better. She believes that to be a good teacher you must be, “compassionate, open-minded and enthusiastic.” She also says that as a teacher you must understand that everyone is unique, and you may need to change your teaching style to help each individual learn.
As Shannon points out, her students are not the only ones learning when she enters a classroom: “I learn from every student I work with. I love watching them achieve their goals.” Her advice to someone thinking about entering teaching is to go into it knowing there will be challenges, but at the end of the day it will be worth it!
When Shannon is not in the classroom with working with her students, she loves spending time with her family and journaling.