by Ashley Brandon

KRL is trying something a little different with some of our local teacher profiles this year–we are letting local students share about some of their favorite teachers! This first one is on Shaylee Schmidt, physical education teacher at Reedley High School.

Shaylee Schmidt makes it quite obvious through her work that she truly cares about her students; she’s constantly encouraging them and helping them in different ways. Mrs. Schmidt is one of the physical education teachers at Reedley High School. She lives in Kingsburg, where she grew up and attended Kingsburg elementary school, and later graduated from Immanuel. She has diverse working experience from working at a packing house to being a secretary and now, a teacher.

Through the years, Mrs. Schmidt has taught study skills, weight lifting, and physical education. She was teaching at Fresno Christian but wanted to work closer to home. When a spot opened up at Reedley High School for a physical education teacher, she jumped at the chance. “All the doors opened,” she says. She has been working at Reedley High for four years.

Shaylee Schmidt

As many people would agree, Mrs. Schmidt says the hardest part about her job is balancing all aspects of life: being able to put 100% into work and still having time for her family. Three days a week she gets to the high school around 7:30, two days each week she has to be there at 5:45 for weight training for the varsity volleyball team. Now that’s dedication! After teaching four PE classes at the high school, she heads over to Grant Middle School to teach two more classes. Already having a lot on her plate, she rushes right back to the high school for volleyball practice.

Mrs. Schmidt says that she enjoys seeing students set and achieve goals. She finds it rewarding watching them grow for the better. One year there was a student who was struggling with the one mile run. The student had to make up a run and Mrs. Schmidt ran with the student, encouraging the student the whole way. That student ran the fastest mile they had ever run. It was so good they passed the state test.

Shaylee Schmidt enjoys playing sports with her students during class. She also loves getting to know her students and developing relationships. In her opinion, a good student is someone who has enthusiasm, comes to class every day, dresses out, and participates 100%. She believes that a successful student is one that is positive and helps other students with different concepts.

I am lucky, Mrs. Schmidt is my P.E. teacher. I find myself walking away every day inspired to achieve a new goal. Goals like running quicker, doing more push ups, doing more sit ups, or just being a better person. When you have Mrs. Schmidt as your teacher, you can’t really help but to be encouraged to be better.

Ashley Brandon is 14 years old and a freshman at Reedley High School. She enjoys playing guitar, writing and track and hopes to attend UCSF to become a psychologist. Ashley is an ongoing contributor to our Teen Talk.