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Family friend of Ms. Megan Smith

Ms. Smith showcasing her collection of books, including Suzanne Collin's "Hunger Games" series.

This year, St. Joe welcomed many new teachers, one of whom is Ms. Megan Smith. Ms. Smith is a social studies teacher and teaches freshman American government. She shares a room with psychology teacher Dr. Jacob Yorg. 

Ms. Smith is from De Soto, Missouri, which is an hour south of St. Louis. She attended high school at De Soto High School and college at UMSL. After college, where she majored in philanthropy and German, she began substitute teaching at her previous high school and realized she truly enjoyed teaching high school students and, more importantly, was good at it, too. 

Ms. Smith shared her most embarrassing story as a substitute. She explained that she was filling in at a middle school, where the kids were doing group work, and she was helping a group of students with her back to the door. An unknowing teacher glanced in the room. Not realizing Ms. Smith was a teacher, the teacher reprimanded the class for being alone in a classroom. At this point, Ms. Smith explained to the teacher that she was the substitute and they laughed it off.

One of Ms. Smith’s favorite hobbies growing up was obsessing over Harry Potter. She always liked reading.

 “I was a little nerd,” Ms. Smith said.  “I was obsessed with any book, and [since] Harry Potter was coming out, I went to the midnight releases and dressed up.”

The obsession with Harry Potter began after she had read all the books in the classroom, so someone handed her a paperback, the third book in the Harry Potter series, in hopes it would keep her busy. 

Ms. Smith still has this copy of the novel and is “[grateful] for the friends [she] made,” but has since moved on. 

Being an only child, Ms. Smith kept close with her extended family when she was young. She often babysat her cousins and spent summers with her grandparents. She was particularly close with her grandmother and grandfather. Interestingly, her grandparents lived in Germany in the 1960s giving easy access to first-person experiences. This later led her to major in German during college. During these summers, Ms. Smith would watch historical documentaries and would discuss them with her grandfather. 

A prized piece of Ms. Smith’s life is her dog, Sami. Sami started as a 13-pound beagle, but now weighs in at a whopping 60 pounds, and likely is not a full-blooded beagle. Ms. Smith said that Sami is sneaky and clever–he often steals a seat or a snack if it is left unattended. When Sami allows Ms. Smith to win, he makes it clear that he allowed her and that he did not lose.

Freshman Molly Pardeck is in Ms. Smith’s Spanish I class.

“She makes lots of history jokes and truly makes school fun,” Molly said.

Ms. Smith is happy to be a part of the community of St. Joe. She cares for her students and puts effort into making class fun. She is a wonderful addition and her pup Sami would agree!