Veteran Carey teacher honored as Lewis Family McDonalds Teacher of the Month

CAREY, OH (CRAWFORD COUNTY NOW)—A longtime teacher who has found her niche in the Carey Exempted Village School District is being recognized as Teacher of the Month sponsored by Lewis Family McDonald’s.

Shelley Collet teaches K-6 for the Wyandot County district, but her classroom is an old library. That’s because she oversees a project-based learning method called STEAM, or Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, and Math.

“I try to cover all the components of STEAM for them,” said Collet, who took over the active learning program this school year. “A lot of my projects are based on read-aloud books. This is more my passion, where I like to put my energy. I love this job.”

First-grade students, she said, recently finished “Balloons Over Broadway,” a project based on the picture book by Melissa Sweet. Second-graders designed and built catapults, while third graders explored the properties of magnetism, she said.

Although Collet is new to the STEAM program, she’s no stranger to the district. She formerly taught third grade at Carey’s Colonel Crawford Elementary School and was also a sixth-grade teacher at the middle school before switching to STEAM.

A native of Kansas City, Collet and her family moved to southern Ohio when she was a senior in high school. She graduated from Unioto High School in Chillicothe, then attended Ohio University where she earned a bachelor’s degree in 2001.

She taught for many years in both public and private schools in Pickaway and Ross counties. Marriage to her husband, Kevin, brought her to Wyandot County and to his hometown of Carey where they now live just five miles from the school.

Collet, 54, is also a student enrolled in Grand Canyon University’s online program for a master’s degree in school counseling. And while she has taught, tutored, and even subbed for more than 20 years, this educator has finally found her passion.

“My favorite thing has always been being present when a kid has a moment of discovery,” she said. “Those moments when a kid realizes they know something new. That’s the best for me.”