Long term substitute social studies teacher Abigail Shenot joins the Susquehannock High School staff for this school year.

Shenot (pronounced Shin-o) teaches U.S. History One and Two to freshmen and sophomores. She graduated from a small high school in Athens, Pennsylvania and knew from a fairly young age that she wanted to work with students.

“In high school, [history] was the one class I really liked and really enjoyed,” said Shenot. “So in college, I knew I wanted to do something with history, but I still went in undecided because I was like, ‘what can I do with a history degree?’ One of my friends was like, ‘why don’t you just teach it?’ and I was like ‘huh, that doesn’t sound like a bad idea.’ I wanted to be a teacher since I was in eighth grade, so then I just fused the two together.”

Shenot’s passion for history stems from her belief of studying the past to see the progression of society and prevent certain problems of the future. In her classes, she hopes her students can find something new or interesting to love about social studies too.

“…a lot of people, they’re like ‘history is so boring, we learn the same thing all the time,’” said Shenot. “But if they take away one new thing about history they didn’t know before, if they learn something or there is just one topic, one subject that really sparks their interest. I just want them to get excited about history because it is important. It is something that they need to know… People say it can’t be fun, but it can.”

Shenot enjoys working with high school students because of their talkative nature and strong opinions that lead to complex conversations in the classroom.

“High school kids like to talk, and you like to discuss things, and I like to talk,” said Shenot. “So having a conversation with people who really truly get what’s happening, what they’re supposed to be doing like they don’t just sit there…not really paying attention. Like you guys are involved. You’re talking with me. You’re really paying attention into what it is we’re learning about. You’re figuring it all out, and I just like to observe, watch, and learn kind of like how they learn. I’m learning along with them.”

What drew Shenot to Susquehannock was the perceived excitement of the students and the positive reputation of the teachers.

“I saw the ad for the long-term sub at the middle school, and I clicked on it,” said Shenot. “I started looking through your website, and the first thing I think I saw was a group of just a bunch of kids, and they looked like they were having so much fun. I don’t know what they were doing, but… they just looked excited to be there. And I was like ‘who wouldn’t want to work somewhere where the kids are excited to be in school and so that’s what first drew me in was that everybody just looked excited, and then reading more about your school…and the teachers are all great, so I was like ‘if I have to learn from someone, I want to learn from teachers who are great and this school has great teachers.’”