In her tenth year of teaching, Shelly Galusha has proved herself to be an extremely resilient individual, overcoming a variety of obstacles throughout her life in order to succeed. She displays great enthusiasm within her classes, inspiring her students to embrace their passions and work towards their own goals.

What classes do you teach?

I teach Freshmen Biology, AP Biology, and Biotechnology.

Where did you grow up?

I grew up in Fall River, Massachusetts, in a very small third-floor apartment; my sister and I had to share a teeny little bedroom. I grew up in a very poor, uneducated family; both my parents dropped out of high school at the beginning of ninth grade. We were poor growing up, so when I look back on my life, I am proud of myself for getting out of that lifestyle.

Where did you go to college?

When I first went, right out of high school, I went the to the University of Tulsa in Oklahoma. At the end of my freshman year, I got pregnant with my daughter, so I took a few years off to get her raised and into preschool. When she was two years and nine months, and Head Start was willing to take her full time, I did two years at community college, and two years at Bridgewater State.

You mention your daughter often during your classes. Were you two always very close?

Kelsie and I are really close. There was a time during her senior year of high school when we were sometimes not getting along, but I think that comes with the territory of teenage girls and their moms. However we’ve always been pretty close; I had her when I was very young, and for a while it was just the two of us. I think that bonded us in a really special way. I haven’t seen her in months and months; since the last time I saw her, she’s been to India for a month. I’m very excited to see her.

What is she studying in school?

She’s going for her Masters of Nursing. Her last semester in her program is her next semester, and she has the opportunity to do it abroad. She’s currently applying for some clinicals in some Middle Eastern cities, and I’m proud that she’s so brave and wants these international experiences.

Did your involvement in science influence her love of science?

I’m sure. I remember her coming in with me during my first job in a lab on weekends, when I would have to check my cells or my mice. She was really little, and she would look in the microscopes. It’s interesting because I always tried not to push her into sciences; I remember when she was a freshman or sophomore in high school, and she had no idea what she wanted to study at all. I suggested something in the sciences and she got really mad at me, but she ended up going into the sciences anyway.

What did you do before you became a teacher?

I worked in cancer research; I’m very proud of my former career. I’ve had some first-author publications; I did a lot of good, biological research. I worked both at Dana Farber and Children’s Hospital for the same scientists, and I worked for a few years at Umass Medical for a scientist that studied immune cells more than just cancer. I did basic science research; we would manipulate the genes of cells and sometimes animal models. We would try to understand the science behind cancer cells and would publish the research for pharmaceutical groups to use to come up with their medications.

How long did you do that for?

It took me four years to get through school, so about eight years.

What inspired you to become a teacher?

I had a successful career in research going, and then my daughter had a couple of bad experiences with teachers in middle school. She would come home crying; she had one male teacher that yelled at the students, one that was always very crabby, and another that would always follow her around and ask why she was sad all the time. She was sad because of these teachers. I woke up one day and I said “Maybe I can make more of a difference in the world if I become a teacher”. I took the teaching test, and I never looked back.

Most rewarding thing about teaching?

This is very idealistic and cheesy of me, but I feel rewarded each day. When I go home, I’m usually stressed out and tired, but I feel rewarded each day because I can see that students are really learning from me, not just biology, but how to be a good person and how to be a good student. I guess the most obvious reward is when I get that thank-you letter from a student that’s graduated and has started college biology courses, and they tell me how much they appreciated my work in pushing them to work hard. I save those letters, and on my tough days I’ll actually dig them out and read them over.

As an AP teacher, how has the new schedule altered the way you fit all the required material in?

I’m still working on that. Recognizing I only have roughly half the time that I did last year, I’m trying to follow my curriculum map a little more closely. Over the summer, I decided I had to set firm deadline of when we had to be done with each topic. Last year I was able to be a little bit more flexible with that, but it often still resulted in a bit of a time crunch at the end. I’m trying to avoid that this year. I’m concerned in AP Bio that we may not get to do all the labs, but I’m starting to realize I’ll have to cut out some of the activities in order to have time for all the material. It’s been  challenging; it’s definitely the class I’m most concerned about.

Opinion of the new schedule?

It’s very difficult to get used to. I’ve taught in this schedule before, so it’s not totally new to me. As a lab-science teacher, it’s been difficult for me to coordinate labs for multiple different classes, especially when the AP labs take three or four days. I like that everything is rotating, but it makes it difficult to set up and break down labs for multiple different classes.  A lot of my challenges this year in all of my classes are figuring out how to get things done with this rotating schedule, but it helps that I have some of the best behaved students in the building.

What music do you listen to?

I have a very eclectic taste in music; if you were to scan through my iPod (yes, I still have an iPod and yes, I still buy my own music) you would find anything ranging from classic rock, like Led Zeppelin, to current music, like twenty one pilots, and everything inbetween. I tend to not ever be into country music, or classical. When I was younger, I used to have a taste for heavy metal music, but as I’ve gotten older I’ve drifted away from that. I’m a little bit all over the place with my musical interests.

Any hobbies?

I have some, I just don’t have time for them! I love to garden; it’s one of my biggest passions, but winter is coming, so I probably won’t be doing that too much longer. However, I do have some indoor plants; I keep an herb garden, and I grow some leafy vegetables for my pet tortoise. I’m also pretty into video games.

Favorite movie?

If I had to come up with my top movies of all time, I think at the top of the list would be The Princess Bride. Some other movies that would make it into my top five would be the first, and only the first, Matrix, My Cousin Vinnie, and Scott Pilgrim vs. The World.

Favorite TV show?

I’m a big Walking Dead and Game of Thrones fan. I’m all pumped up for the Walking Dead, and I’m hoping it stays really good.

Any advice for your students?

Try to be a good person. I see kids making fun of other kids, and I see adults making fun of other adults. There are people out there that are mean and want to hurt other people. I’m not that person; I wake up everyday and try to be a good person and do the right thing. My advice to any human being on this planet is to try and be a good person. My advice to students would be to work hard and not worry so much about getting an A; focus more on learning the material, like truly learning it. The grades will come after.