03/10/2025InnovationShawnee State University School of Education professor Sandra Beam grew up planning to do anything but becoming a teacher as her future career. Beam’s mother was a teacher, and she watched her mom work every waking hour on things for her students. So, in her mind she wasn’t going to be a teacher. However, during her senior year of high school Beam was required to shadow a professional and as the deadline approached, she had no plan. Beam panicked when asked, leading her to say she was shadowing a friend’s mother, a second-grade teacher.