Shauna Waters Named Mississippi’s 2024 Teacher of the Year

Allison Allsup

Shauna Waters, the 2024 Mississippi Teacher of the Year, has spent the past 20 years building an impressive career.

As a second-generation teacher at West Lauderdale High School in Collinsville, Mississippi, Waters instructs dual-enrollment English Composition I, AP English Literature and Composition, senior English and honors sophomore English. She also serves as the Academic Team sponsor, newspaper adviser and National Honor Society adviser.

While she’s made quite an impact over the years, it wasn’t always Waters’ dream to be in this position. Growing up watching her mother, Pam Waters, teach junior English, she was adamant about finding a different career path. Because of this, when she started college at Mississippi State University, she went pursuing a degree in biology. Realizing by the end of the first semester it wasn’t meant to be, however, she switched her major to English, reaching out to those roots she knew so well.

It was through this change that Waters also found herself immersed in foreign languages, soon discovering a love of Spanish. This newfound interest prompted her to travel to Costa Rica with the Business School/Foreign Language Summer

Internship program during the summer of her sophomore year. During her stay, she became invested in teaching English to speakers of other languages (TESOL) when she saw the need for English proficiency for those who had family members working in other countries.

Wanting to help others advocate better for themselves, Waters went on to Indiana University to pursue a master’s degree in TESOL and Applied Linguistics after graduating from MSU. While there, she taught in the Intensive English program, where she was able to work with college students from all over the world. Her continued dedication for this field of work led her to Toyohashi, Japan, where she taught in the Comparative Cultures department at Aichi University for two years.

After years abroad, Waters felt called home to be closer to her family. When Waters moved back, she found herself doing the one thing she never thought she would: teaching high school English classes. To her surprise, she discovered that teaching high school English became the very thing she loves to do most in the world.

“I am the teacher who gets up excited to teach argumentative writing,” Waters said. “That may make me a very special kind of crazy, but even here in year 21 of this job, I find it the most fulfilling thing I can imagine.”

In fact, Waters now teaches behind the same podium and desk as her mother did before her. In her classroom, Waters fosters an eclectic vibe with the goal of exposing her students to different paths they might not have considered and assisting them as they equip themselves to walk those paths. She does this by immersing her students into various ways of thinking by basing her classes around the 4Cs: the 21st century skills of communication, collaboration, critical thinking and creativity. These four things are at the core of each of her courses because Waters knows if students can do these things well, they will have a world of opportunities available to them.

“We live in a world that seems like it is changing every five minutes,” Waters said. “While I may not know exactly what technology is going to be dominating society or what jobs may develop as time progresses, individuals who can communicate clearly, work well with others, solve problems and create new solutions will always be in demand.”

Waters understands the necessity of school, undertaking responsibilities that often have her going above and beyond no matter her multiple, current obligations. This passion to serve students shows her love and care for them and is one of the many reasons why she was named Missis- sippi’s Teacher of the Year.

Brayden Alford, a former student and current freshman at Mississippi State University, can’t help but agree. After having Waters not only as a teacher but as a coach, Alford notes the major force of good Waters has been in his life and credits her teaching style for helping him to navigate through college: “Her mentoring led me to the scholarship that made me the first person in my family able to go to a university,” Alford said. “Being able to confidently reference the works that we analyzed in high school during a college level seminar has only increased the respect I have for her teaching style.”

Being so well-versed and traveled has given Waters a strong foundation to help students like Alford succeed in their future endeavors. Her dedication to helping her students accomplish their goals often keeps her going when things get tough. It’s why she likes to remind others to look for ways to “be the change” when dealing with challenges within the school system.

“What we get out of a situation is in large part determined by the attitude we bring to that situation,” Waters said. “I love what I do deeply and hope I can represent all the hardworking teachers of Mississippi well.”