With a degree in Economics from La Salle University in 1982 and a master’s in Education from Arcadia University in 1997, math teacher Paul Poiesz pursued a career teaching high school students for the past 43 years. Poiesz started teaching at Bishop McDevitt High School, where he taught from 1982 to 1997. He then began working at Conestoga, where he has taught for the past 28 years. This is Poiesz’s final year teaching at Conestoga, and he will retire at the end of the school year.
Q: What is your favorite class to teach?
A: BC Calc will always have a special place in my heart, because I really enjoy the revelation for many students that it doesn’t have to be impossible, even though it’s got an aura of being really hard. It is a difficult course, and the pace is really fast, but the moments when students put concepts together are really awesome. Multivariable Calculus is different but also a love affair for me. I built the course when we first started it. I’m going to steal a line from Dr. DeSipio, the physics teacher: it’s a value-added course. There’s no AP exam to race to, and we get to explore things. We can pause and consider something that is maybe tangentially related. We can consider a really wide range of topics, because there isn’t that timeline of getting done by the AP exam.
Q: Do you have any special memories from teaching?
A: The people I’ve met, the people I’ve been able to work with and get to know and develop relationships with, that’s what it’s come down to. Whether colleagues or students, the ability to get to know people and also have them get to know you, is so important in life, far more important than Calculus or Algebra II.
Q: What will you miss about the connections you’ve formed with colleagues?
A: The math department is a great group of people. There are people that I’ve been with here for as long as the 28 years. You get to see people’s ups and downs, their growing families. You see the joys that they have in their lives and appreciate them, for them and with them.
There are other people, science teachers and other departments that have people that I admire, and that when I see them in the building, I must pause and no matter how brief, I have to have a conversation with them. Sometimes there are certain people that you just don’t come across on a regular basis because of your schedules. There are certainly people that I force myself to take that minute or two to catch up.
Q: What’s something you have learned from students during your career?
A: Everybody comes from a different background, a different place, different emotions, and they’ve got to be recognized. Sometimes it takes a while to break down barriers that might exist to get through to somebody and know their story. You teach individuals, you don’t teach a subject. You don’t teach concepts, you teach people. The more that you recognize that, the better you’ll be as a teacher.
Q: What do you look forward to post-retirement?
A: I’ve spent 31 years as a track and field coach at a couple different places, and I’ve been a track and field official for 45 years. I’ve officiated the U.S. National Championships 13 times, U.S. Olympic trials three times, and I’ve been able to work a world championship as a track and field official starting races. I’ll have that in my back pocket as I retire now, and I can do as much or little of that as I want. I’ve got track and field to keep me busy and engaged and having fun.
Isabelle Emmanuel can be reached at [email protected].
