For Paul Thompson, the shift from sitting in class as a student to standing in the front of the room as a teacher came abruptly. When students arrived in his classroom at PS 692 High School for Math, Science, and Engineering at City College on Sept. 2, it was Thompson’s first day of school, too.
“When I first walked in, the security guards thought I was a student,” Thompson joked.
Thompson, who will graduate from Teachers College in October, is one of the newest teachers at HSMSE, where he teaches one chemistry class, one health class, and all five of the chemistry lab courses offered there. His classrooms are filled with sophomores, about 120 in total, who come from all of the five boroughs.
“You know, they tell you not to smile on the first day and just be serious. I tried to lay down the law,” Thompson said. “I was happy that I got through it.”
Despite the fact that Thompson wears a tie to class every day and aims to be an authority figure, his students appreciate that he can relate to them in areas outside of the school. One student recently jokingly awarded him “bonus points” for recognizing a reference to the popular sitcom Family Guy.
Thomas called his students “a really good group of kids. They’re very patient, they help each other out a lot,” he said.
When asked how he keeps his students engaged, Thompson said that he often uses a rewards system. “I’m quite amazed at how much sophomores love stickers,” he said.
Thompson also incorporates lots of hands-on activities in his classroom that sometimes unexpectedly increase excitement. When a thermometer exploded after being left too long in boiling water, Thompson embraced the commotion. “It was, like, this huge drama,” he said.
Like some of his classes, Thompson also learned to be flexible with his own schooling. Though he was passionate about chemistry in high school, Thompson planned on becoming a surgeon and enrolled in the University of Pittsburgh in 2003 with medicine on his mind.
After tutoring his peers in science classes, his thoughts turned to teaching, and Thompson transferred to Rutgers, where he graduated in 2007 with a Bachelor of Science in chemistry. Thompson then enrolled in Teachers College where he could concentrate specifically on teaching chemistry.
While at Teachers College, Thompson enjoyed exploring the diversity of New York City schools and spent his time student-teaching at an East Harlem middle school and a high school off of Wall Street.
Thompson has stayed close with his friends from the College, and they have started a Google group to keep in touch, which he said is also a good resource to bounce teaching ideas off one another. Almost all of them are working locally. “We have a happy hour coming up next week,” he said.
Interested in extracurriculars from the start, Thompson serves as co-adviser to HSMSE’s Gay-Straight Alliance and attends the discussion meetings that the group holds every Monday.
“I’m really happy that I’m there,” Thompson said of HSMSE. He likes that the school is small and that it has a blocked schedule. So far he has found a supportive staff and a motivated student body.
Thompson said he looks forward to picking up tips from colleagues and learning to adjust his instruction to meet all students’ needs. Jotting down notes on his lesson plans, Thompson is already thinking about how to make next year’s class even better.
“I feel like I’m learning a lot more than the students,” he said. “It’s been an interesting roller coaster, but a good one.”
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