Her Story
Shelly Moore Krajacic is a third-generation Wisconsin public school teacher who says she “desperately fought the pull to go into teaching.” She wanted to be a lawyer, and only finished her teaching certification so she could add a fifth year to her undergraduate program and serve a second year as student body vice president. Then she did her student teaching. “From the first moment, I knew that was where I belonged.”
She earned a bachelor’s degree in English, political science and theater from the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point in 1997 and a master’s in English education from the University of Wisconsin-River Falls in 2006, and she is working on a doctorate in urban education at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. She is a two-time National Board Certified Teacher. She taught English and theater at Ellsworth Community High School from 1998 to 2018, taught college English education at UW-Milwaukee in 2020-21, and since 2021 has taught juniors and seniors at South Milwaukee High School, including Advanced Placement Language and Composition. She was named Wisconsin Teacher of the Year in 2012 and received the Wisconsin Council of Teachers of English’s English Teacher of the Year award that year.
Beyond the Classroom
At Ellsworth, Krajacic built the theater program from scratch as the school’s rare licensed theater teacher. Within a year the community helped build a performance space attached to the school, and in 2004 her students won the Wisconsin High School Forensic Association’s award for best show and performed their musical before thousands of theater students from across the state. The community raised thousands of dollars to take the cast and set five hours away. She also made an American Sign Language-assisted performance a standard offering.
She has advised nearly every kind of student activity, including the musical, one-act play, forensics, National Honor Society, mock trial, quiz bowl and academic decathlon. At South Milwaukee she co-advises the Student Senate, which has earned state-level recognition, and designs sets for the school’s theater productions. She has coached more than 100 fellow educators through National Board Certification and serves on the boards of the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards and Mira Education.
Philosophy Into Practice
Krajacic describes a “Statue of Liberty theory of teaching”: whoever arrives in her room, it is her responsibility to teach them, without prejudging them. Her door is always open, her students sit in small groups that face each other rather than the screen, and her desk sits in the back corner. The best compliment she says she ever received came from a former superintendent who opened her door and found her sitting on the floor with a group of students: “I never know where I will find you when I open your door.”
A table with two comfortable chairs in her room serves for one-on-one conferences, and she checks in individually with every student every day. Students write her a letter about themselves at the start of each term and use it to set goals. When she teaches essay writing she lets students resubmit at every step, so each can get the work as close to perfect as they choose. She remembers a student named Phil whose test scores were modest but who thrived on her stage crew, went on to a college technical theater program on a full scholarship, and is now a lighting and sound designer.
“Teaching is a team sport.”Shelly Moore Krajacic
In Her Own Words
“I teach students, not English, and I get the honor of doing this everyday.”Shelly Moore Krajacic
“you can’t be wrong, just incomplete.”Shelly Moore Krajacic, a saying she shares with her students
“My classroom is not centered on or about me, but about the students and their learning.”Shelly Moore Krajacic
What Others Said
“When the Student Senate needed an adviser, Shelly stepped in. When the drama department needed a set designer, Shelly constructed three-dimensional models.”Katie Swanson, colleague, South Milwaukee High School
“Ms. Moore was the only teacher to have actually prepared me for how difficult college was.”Rebecca S. Redding, former student, now a high school science teacher
“Ms. Krajacic’s ability to engage on a personal level with her students was exceptional, transcending the formal role as a teacher.”Melanie J. Schoepp, parent of three former students
“She is the epitome of a natural born leader, mentor, and teacher.”Joseph Galarza, South Milwaukee High School student