INTERVIEW WITH 2011 HIGH SCHOOL TEACHING AWARD WINNER, PATRICIA MITCHLER, JUNE 2011, ST. JOHN'S, NEWFOUNDLAND

摘要

RT — Welcome and congratulations on your well deserved award, Patricia.PM - Thank you very much. RT - I was wondering if we could start off by you telling us a little bit about your background and how you came about becoming a physics teacher. PM - Well, although everyone has their own story about how they ended up in the classroom, I think my story is perhaps rather unusual. I originally had the goal of becoming a physics professor, based on the fantastic first-year physics experience I had at the University of Manitoba, and so, after my BSc, I continued on with my PhD program at the University of Manitoba. At about 4 or so years in, I started to really become disenchanted with research, and I was beginning to look at other options for my future. One day, on the bulletin board at the Department of Physics, there was an ad from a financial institution looking for physicists -physicists tend to be in hot demand at these sorts of institutions because of their analytical abilities and other skills. So, I applied and, to make a long story short, I was offered the position. Before making a decision, I asked them for some time to think about it. The next morning I came back into my lab, thinking about the job offer. While putting my things down on my desk, it was like a bolt of lightning hit me - accepting this Job meant that I would never be a teacher!