When Pat Connolly was in high school, he thought he had his future mapped out.
He planned to become an engineer and had even been accepted to attend the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
All that changed, however, after he began tutoring some high school peers.
As he worked with them, Connolly saw the light bulb go on in their heads when they understood what he was teaching.
“I felt then that I’d been given a gift, and it became my moral responsibility to the universe to use that gift,” said Connolly, recently named Teacher of the Year in Pasco County Schools.
Instead of going to MIT, Connolly headed to the University of Chicago where he earned a degree in mathematics and picked up some classes in education. Even then, Connolly said he understood that there’s both an art and a science to teaching.
It’s not enough to have mastery of the material one’s teaching, said Connolly, who teaches mathematics at Land O’ Lakes High School. It’s also essential to able to convey it in a way that connects with students.
“They (students) trust me to take them on this ride called education. And, without that trust, I can’t do what I do,” he said. “I think I have earned that trust from them. I’ve shown them that I care about them. I’ve shown them I have interesting things to teach them, and that I have faith that they can learn it.”
Even after decades of teaching, Connolly still delights in seeing that light bulb go on when a student finally catches on after struggling with a concept. He often sees that light go on when he’s introducing new ideas.
“They’ve got no clue what you are talking about,” he said. “Then, after five minutes, you get a bunch of them nodding. Then, you finally get this one kid, after 15 or 20 minutes, he’s like, ‘I got it!’”
Watching students become confident in their ability to learn is satisfying, Connolly said. Students in his Advanced Placement calculus class describe him as a teacher who is not only in full command of the material he’s presenting, but also can relate mathematics to just about anything in life.
“He knows like everything,” said Carlos Osorno, the high school’s senior class president. “Anything we talk about, even random topics that come up in class, you really don’t know how he knows everything.”
Classmate Andrea Slouha agreed. “Any subject you ask him about, he seems to always have an answer for it. I don’t think he’s ever said, ‘I don’t know’ to anything.”
Vincent Trang, who has taken Connolly’s classes for two years, described him as a teacher who wants his students to succeed.
“He’s a really helpful teacher,” he said. “There are some times when I don’t understand a concept. He would take the time to make sure I understood it.
“I think he loves teaching,” Trang said.
Robin Hanna, another AP calculus student, said she took the class because of Connolly’s good reputation, and he’s lived up to the billing.
“He has turned out to be really interesting,” Hanna said. “There’s never a dull day in this class. I have learned a lot — not just about math, but about how certain things work and about how math can be applied to real-life situations. Just a lot of random facts, too, because he can go off on tangents.”
Another student, Ryan Kova, said Connolly is tuned into students and can tell if his lessons are getting through to them.
Connolly has been teaching in Pasco County Schools since 1989, first at Ridgewood High School, then transferring to Land O’ Lakes two years later.
His wife Sherri is a teacher at Centennial Elementary School, her school for 25 years. They live in Zephyrhills and have three adult children, Shanna Harper and Sara and Shane Connolly.
Before arriving in Pasco County, Connolly taught for five years in Missouri, followed by six years as an instructor at the Naval Nuclear Power School in Orlando, as well as two years at the Naval Academy Preparatory School.
Connolly had considered retiring at the end of this school year, then seeking out a teaching job overseas. But he put those plans on hold to instead run for president of the teacher’s union.
If he wins, he’ll finish out the school year and take on that role. If he loses, he’ll stay on for another year at Land O’ Lakes High and pursue overseas teaching opportunities the following year.
For now, though, he’s enjoying the privilege of teaching. He said people think he’s joking when he says he’s “thrilled to be here” or that he’s “living the dream.”
But he’s serious.
In his application for Pasco’s Teacher of the Year, he explained his love for teaching by describing a scene from the movie “City Slickers.”
In that scene, a character named Curly explains the key to happiness is finding the one thing that really matters to you and sticking to it, no matter what.
“It seems teaching is my one thing,” Connolly wrote.
Published Feb. 12, 2014
