Ray Pavlik – Science

 

What is your favorite part of your job?

Without question, my favorite part of the job is working with the students, particularly the freshmen.  I feel blessed to teach, coach and interact with so many amazing people.  Every day I am impressed by someone’s kindness, caring, intelligence and spirit.   I love teaching about earth science and seeing students get excited as they learn about all of the amazing things that exist on our planet.  I love that at the same time I get to laugh every day.  Finally, since I teach primarily freshmen, I get to witness the tremendous growth that my students experience during their four years at CCHS

What are your goals for your students?

My goal for my students is that they see the world in a different way in June than when they arrived in September. I want to open their eyes to an amazing world that has always been around them but they have never been able to or taken the time to see.  I want them to understand the significance of these features, whether it’s in interpreting the geologic past of their surroundings or the weather for the next few days.  I want them to develop an inquisitive nature and an appreciation of the world around them. Finally, I hope they come to understand that learning, while work, can also be fun.

What is the best activity/experience you get to do at CCHS?

Far and away it is when I get to take my students on field trips to see first hand what we have studied.  Whether to the coast of Maine as part of my geology class or to the Grand Canyon, Hawaii or Iceland on summer trips, nothing compares to watching students see something we have studied in class up close and personal.  They are able to make connections and understand in a way that we just can’t replicate inside the classroom. I will n  forget the time I was hiking with a student on a glacier in Iceland, and they turned to me to say, “Now I get it!”