Noyce Scholar Profile
Zachary Chandler
Undergraduate major or graduate field of study: Secondary Education
Subject area(s) and grade level teaching focus: Physics, grades 9-12
Category of scholarship/fellowship:
Noyce Scholar
Name of Noyce institution:
Towson University
Current academic or teaching status:
Senior
School and school district:
N/A
Background:
I grew up in Glassboro, New Jersey and attended Glassboro Public Schools all the way to high school graduation. I graduated fifth in my class and came to Towson University in the Fall of 2008. I knew I wanted to major in Physics, but didn’t realize until my senior year of high school that I wanted to teach physics.
Why do you want to teach:
There is no short answer for my reasons to teach, however, the most brief reason would be that I came to enjoy learning, physics in particular, from my high school physics teacher. He made learning extremely interesting and valuable. I started to tutor and help out fellow peers shortly after graduation and enjoyed the reward of them learning to enjoy the subject as well. From that point on, I knew I wanted to teach, and show students the beauty there is in learning.
Describe a memorable teaching experience:
I have not been in the classroom yet, but there are a couple of outside teaching experiences that hold strong in my memory. The first was my senior year of high school when I taught a boy with autism how to dive off the diving board at my local pool. The second would be tutoring a friend of mine for 3 days before her physics final. She received her first “A” in the class on that final.
What does the Noyce program mean to you:
Noyce has offered me the opportunity to lower the monetary burden of student loans. It has also provided me with an established teacher community in which I can compare and reflect with other students/teachers in my same position.
