With the new school year starting, Edmond Memorial High School has welcomed many new teachers into its family. This year, the math department at Memorial has gained a new trigonometry/calculus teacher, Shannon Phelps. 

Phelps has a history with Memorial as her daughters have graduated and her son still attends school here. 

Phelps wanted to join the school so that she could become involved in all the sports and different fine arts programs.

“I’m going to come see games and performances, and I’m just going to get involved with this school,” Phelps said.

Another reason Phelps wanted to come to Memorial is because many of the teenagers at her church also go to the school.

“I love the community, and go to a big church where a lot of my [church] people go to school here as well,” Phelps said.

The reason Phelps originally became a teacher was because she didn’t want to work an ordinary desk job.

“I knew I didn’t want to sit behind a desk my whole life, so I decided why not teach. I stayed in teaching because I like working with the kids,” Phelps said.

She went to college at Oklahoma Christian University and majored in math so that she could become a math teacher. She has worked at many different schools since she graduated.

“This is my 18th year [teaching]. I’ve taught at Guthrie Junior High and Edmond North and then at Deer Creek for the last 11 years,” Phelps said.

Phelps plans on staying at Memorial and being involved in many different activities until she retires.

Contact Adeline Gruen at [email protected]