New physics teacher Kenneth Schmidt is eager to show West Essex students how physics can be applied to everyday life. Even with over 30 years of teaching, Schmidt has never taught upperclassmen in high school, and he says he looks forward to this new chapter. Having taught middle school for so many years in the past and supporting a son with special needs, Schmidt has many superpowers that benefit his teaching. Schmidt hopes to both engage his students and provide them with confidence in their work.
Schmidt graduated from Cornell University in 1991, but he first fell in love with teaching in the summer of 1996 after teaching a sailing class. He quickly realized his passion and found pleasure in watching the light bulbs turn on as his students retain new information. Having a son with special needs, Schmidt says, has helped him with his own ability to understand students on a deeper level. He shares the difficulty in fully understanding how his son perceives the world therefore, Schmidt can easily recognize when a student doesn’t fully get what he has taught and can take a new approach.
“First I’d like to unpack where the issue is,” Schmidt says. “Where is the disconnect? And then try to find an example that will help. If it’s a misconception, try to find an example that will help cause the cognitive dissonance to break up that misconception.”
After 36 years of teaching middle school, Schmidt says, he was drawn to West Essex by how much it has done for his son. He is forever appreciative of his son’s success, and says he applied when he heard a physics teaching position was open as an opportunity to return the favor. He said he’s enjoying his time at West Essex so far.
“It’s very seldom that you get to be in the same place with your child, and so it’s great to see that,” he said.
With physics being a difficult class, Schmidt tries to put his best foot forward when teaching and strives to make it as easy for students to understand as possible despite the difficulty. He likes doing a lot of physical labs with his students because it helps them dig deeper into the concept they are learning, he says. However, what he finds most important is letting students talk to each other. Talking out a problem with a classmate helps a student better understand what is happening, he says, making them stronger as physicists.
“Talking and doing something with the information is so important–writing it down, speaking about it, asking questions about it,” he said.
Schmidt says his main goal is to keep his classroom a lighthearted space where his highschoolers engage and participate in as many activities as possible. With his style of teaching and friendly personality, he hopes to be able to create an environment where people aren’t afraid to communicate to other classmates, ask questions and learn more about the physical world around them. He is eager to see where the year takes him and is ready for it all.
