Mrs. Karla Schaffer and her husband, Mr. Edward Schaffer, joined Williston this summer, making a great addition to our school’s math department. Besides teaching math, Schaffer is also a JV girls soccer coach and a dorm parent at Mem West. On campus, her smile is hard to miss.

Before coming to Williston, Schaffer and her husband taught at the Webb School in Bell Buckle, Tennessee, a boarding school with 300 students in total.  “We just wanted a bigger community of boarders that would allow us to focus on the teaching, the coaching, and doing the dorm parenting,” said Schaffer. “We didn’t have all the programs Williston has here.”

“We also love the technology,” she added. “The surfaces allow us to do more teachings that we wanted to do.”

Currently, Schaffer teaches Pre-Calculus, Honors Geometry, and AP statistics. She has been a statistics teacher for six years. “I think it’s a great course for the students,” she said. “It’s very interesting in all levels. It’s really applicable to everyone’s lives.”

Schaffer continued, “We see graphs and charts; we have to analyze things, see experiments, see if they are done properly, and gather opinions through it. I really love sharing that with the future generations, because you guys are going to make the future decisions for us.”

Mr. Seamon, the head of Williston’s math department, is excited to have Schaffer join the Williston Math Department Family: “She’s a tremendous talent and has a particular passion for Statistics which I can’t wait to see unfold in the coming year,” he said. “I have been so impressed by the zeal with which she has jumped right into life at Williston! It’s already quite clear that she’s a positive force of mathematical nature!”

Ellie Scott 18′ is in Mrs. Schaffer’s AP Statistics this year. “So far I really, really like my class,” Ellie said. “I appreciate how she is always in a good mood and is happy for us to be there. She is super friendly and easy to talk to. The class is very interactive, and I am excited for the rest of the year.”

As the JV girls soccer coach, Schaffer is looking forward to the season. “It seems like a great group of girls,” she said. “Twenty came out, which was an awesome number.”

She added: “The energy felt good. I think the girls really encouraged each other. And we are going to learn and grow together. We have about one and a half week to prepare for our first game.”

Dorm parenting is another part of Williston life that Schaffer enjoys. She was on duty on September 10 for her first night. “We have forty girls now; before, I only had eighteen or twenty,” she said. “It was great to finally get to know the girls. I really loved that I could really making a difference.”

Schaffer’s husband is also a math teacher. Mr. Schaffer teaches Honors Geometry, Pre-Calculus, and Algebra, and offers extra help at the math lab during nighttime study hall. He is also the assistant varsity water polo coach.