Guest Kate Shanahan, Dartmouth ’96, had grown up in Hanover in her elementary years and searched for colleges elsewhere. But nothing compared to the College on the Hill and so returned to rediscover the campus she knew so well. It took her time to find her groove but English literature lit a spark for her. Later, she found the Education department and the encounters she had there with professors and the material was life-changing. Upon graduation, she spent six more months in Hanover in the teacher preparation program, student teaching in a classroom that she’d been in as a nine-year-old.

While she loved teaching and knew she was good at it, she did wonder whether she wanted to make it her life-long profession. A wise adviser suggested that her focus should be not so long term but rather about what to do right now. That laid her on the expected path to teaching. But in taking spending time on the west coast during the six months before taking on her first full-time classroom, she took a by-road would set an unexpected course for a geographic switch.

In this episode, find out from Kate how focusing on the first step can take the pressure of off forever, but lead you there anyway…on ROADS TAKEN...with Leslie Jennings Rowley.

About This Episode's Guest

Kate Shanahan taught at several private schools on the East Coast before moving to California and joining the Harker faculty of the Harker School in San Jose, California, in 1998. During her long tenure at Harker, she has led the English department and has taught both upper elementary grades, chiefly grade 5 English and writing. She lives with her husband and two sons in sunny San Jose.

Executive Producer/Host: Leslie Jennings Rowley

Music: Brian Burrows

Find more episodes at https://roadstakenshow.com

Email the show at RoadsTakenShow@gmail.com

Find more episodes at https://roadstakenshow.com

Executive Producer/Host: Leslie Jennings Rowley

Music: Brian Burrows

Email the show at RoadsTakenShow@gmail.com

Lesson Plans: Kate Shanahan on focusing on the first step and keeping at it

Roads Taken