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She got her own chant at the last Friday Night Basketball, she was chosen to be one of the two faculty to be sung to in the Valentine’s Day collection, and she had a Quill article dedicated to her, yet very few know Friends’ resident physics teacher: Shelly Watts. Many seniors in Physics classes know Ms. Watts for her vibrant personality and love of teaching Physics, but, save her study halls, advisees, and sophomore hall co-inhabitants, hardly any other students have gotten the chance to know the Trinidad native.
Ms. Watts enjoys playing volleyball and listening to R&B and reggae music. She loves traveling and has traveled to countries all over the world. While living in Italy for a year, she met a professor who invited her to study in Baltimore and who would eventually become her college mentor. She agreed to come to Baltimore and has lived here ever since. Ms. Watts loves Friends School and says she has learned a lot. Everything from trying Fruit Roll-Ups for the first time to participating in Spirit Week has made Ms. Watts happy to be a part of the community.
Along with traveling, Ms. Watts loves airports. She says that the whole experience is fun. There’s a routine, though: getting to the airport, checking in, going through security (yes, even that part is fun), getting a book at the airport store (an essential step), getting some good ol’ airport food, waiting to board the plane, boarding the plane, getting to the seat (getting the ones towards the front requires some planning ahead when buying the ticket), and reading that book. “It’s great; I love the whole experience,” she says.
Growing up in the British West Indies, Ms. Watts says her schooling was very strict. She and her classmates used to have to use pen for all the time; pencils were not meant for serious academic work. If they made a mistake while working on a test problem, they were to put a single line through the faulty work and write “error” next to it for a penalty of only a small number of points. Failure to do so would receive a harsher penalty, as if they had left the error uncorrected. They were not allowed to scratch out work – once something was written, it was there to be judged.
Ms. Watts says her teaching is in reaction to the more inflexible British school system. “I think communication is really important,” she says. She believes students and teachers should try to communicate with each other and try to solve problems. Ms. Watts says she has found Friends to be a good environment for this kind of working together.
-Miles Calabresi '11
Friends School of Baltimore Since 1784 | 5114 North Charles Street | Baltimore, MD 21210 | 410.649.3200
