Blasting “The Lion Sleeps Tonight”, talking with his booming voice, and teaching using unconventional methods are just some things Mr. Robert Shettsline, more commonly referred to as Shetts, is known for. One would think this math crazy North Penn grad, who has been a NPHS teacher for 18 years, would just stay at home jamming to the Doobie brothers and doing math problems with his son. But Shetts’ activities go far beyond the norm of your average high school Algebra 3 and Geometry teacher.
The love of Shett’s existence, other than his wife, is cooking. However he does not just cook simple meals on the weekends; to Shetts cooking is a lifestyle. He is constantly looking for new recipes and collecting them on his wiki http://makematheasy.wikispaces.com/Recipes to share with his students and anyone who asks – or doesn’t.
Shetts brags, “I have all recipes from America’s test kitchen for the last 13 years; the list of titles alone is 33 pages. At home I have 3 big three ring binders full of them.” His favorite recipe of all time is Maryland style crab cakes that he found a liking for when he worked in Maryland for six years. While he was teaching there, Shetts was also the assistant wrestling coach. He is now the head wresting coach at North Penn and sees it as another opportunity to teach, which he absolutely loves to do.
In order to have ingredients to cook with, Shetts has a pretty impressive garden. A few of the plants he has grown: asparagus, pumpkins, bird house gourds, garlic, oregano, and he is currently growing cotton for the first time just to see what it is like, but he has no idea what to do with it once it is full-grown. Shetts also loves to garden, because he is a “total outdoors man” and claims, “I can sit in a tree dawn till dust, for however long that is.” While in that tree, Shetts will probably hunt, especially during deer and turkey season. When he is not hanging out in trees, hunting, or cooking, Shetts can be found training his two horses or another horse right down the road.
Being a seemingly farmer type one would expect Shetts never to leave his ranch, but he would not be Shetts without the spontaneous round trip. One summer he trailed up and down the east coast with his horses ground breed jumping. And the impulse trips do not just occur in the summer. Shetts took a weekend trip to California. On these road trips he could drive a truck, tanker, hazard materials vehicle, or double or triple, because he has his truck driver’s license – a feat he views as a great accomplishment. Another vehicle many do not know Shetts can drive is a motorcycle. He used to own many motorcycles and wishes he still did.
Inside and outside the classroom Shetts has an adventurous spirit but that does not prevent him from helping anyone who needs assistance. He is a math teacher by day, but certainly has much more to offer to his students and wrestlers than just numbers and take-down moves- making him a veritable open book of adventure and education.