Mr. Paul Smith may be a teacher with a great stature and a magnificent beard at first glance. But once you get to know him, you will realize that he is so much more to the point, where even calling him a teacher would be discrediting.
He is an excellent mentor with a profound impact on Landstown High School (LHS), being the only Calculus teacher in the entire school, who has an endless desire to help his students become enlightened with calculus.
Smith spent most of his life growing up in Virginia Beach, Virginia, where he attended various elementary and middle schools, eventually going to Green Run High School. For the most part, he stayed in Virginia Beach where he continues to teach.
Smith described his childhood as quite normal, being the middle child with two other brothers.
“[My childhood] was very, I’ll say, straightforward,” said Smith, “I have two brothers and it was kind of the same thing that you would associate with brothers. Sometimes we’d do something together, sometimes we wouldn’t. There’d be some bickering, just kind of normal sibling sort of things.”
Once he went to college, Smith commenced his career with his vocation to major in Computer Science. Initially, he enjoyed studying the intricacies of the elaborate architecture of computers. However, he reached a point where he was starting to lose interest.
“[I] enjoyed a lot of the stuff for [Computer Science],” said Smith, “But I got to a point in that process where I was like, I don’t think this is something I really enjoy and something that I can see myself doing.”
Amid his realization, he witnessed another opportunity shine in his path and seized it.
“I transitioned to pure mathematics and then from there trying to figure out what I wanted to do with it,” said Smith, “I always really enjoyed helping other people in my classes with the math at the time. I was also doing, say, a job as a private tutor that I would get hired for, and I really enjoyed those things.”
This led him to choose teaching mathematics in high school.
“And I was like, that’s the closest to something I really enjoy,” stated Smith, “So I’ll kind of move toward teaching for that…..and I stuck with it.”
So what do students like so much about Smith? Smith understands that there is way more to being a teacher than just teaching: a teacher must be passionate about their job, support their students along the way, and make an effort to be the best they can be. Smith follows this paradigm.
“I met him in 10th grade when I started with Honor Society, “ said Brody Petronis, one of Smith’s 12th grade students recalling his first impression he had with Smith, “And he was this really tall man with this cool beard, and he’s just really kind and accepting, and he still is [to this day]. And he just seemed like a super nice guy that was actually genuinely interested in what his students feel and have to say.”
Going beyond school, Smith also has a plethora of hobbies.
“I end up doing a decent amount of reading whenever I get the chance, generally fantasy, but occasionally some other things,” said Smith, “And I play a fairly large amount of video games whenever I have the chance. I also have two different gaming groups that we get together and play board games or RPGs on tabletop.”
When you enter Smith’s classroom, you are also greeted with his enticing posters and artifacts, showing his hobbies and personality, which include reading fantasy novels, playing board and video games, and occasionally playing some sports. Even his room alone alludes to his vastly charismatic personality reflected by his teaching demeanor.
Ralph Dunbar, a 12th grade student of Smith, described his room as “very intricate” and “very neatly designed to have a bunch of random stuff in it that is very interesting.”
Although Smith loves mathematics, his passion for teaching isn’t derived from his analytical mindset alone, expressing his love for his students as well.
“The absolute best part of it is you all and getting to do things in class where it starts with you all looking at me like, ‘What on earth is going on?’ And there are moments when suddenly there’s like, ‘Wait, I think that makes sense,’ and those brief little flashes of like, ‘Wait, I think I get this,’ are phenomenal. If you ever get into a position where you are teaching someone a skill or a thing and you see those moments when you’re suddenly like, ‘Oh, that makes so much sense,’ it’s fantastic.”
Smith is more than just a teacher; he is a motivator who’s extremely fervent about helping students achieve their goal, establishing a long-lasting legacy within and beyond LHS to help his students reach for the stars.
“My favorite thing about teaching is you all,” said Smith earnestly, referring to his students.
