Paul Pacheco Brings Authenticity to His High School Biology Class

The new notebooks and freshly sharpened pencils, the last-ditch efforts to finish summer reading assignments, the distinct sense of excitement and possibility—there’s nothing like the beginning of a new school year.

It’s something Paul Pacheco ’22, MS ’23, has experienced for years, starting with his time in the Lowell, Mass., school system through earning a BS in psychological science with a concentration in psychobiology and an MS in learning sciences and technology from WPI. This year, though, he’ll be experiencing it all in an entirely new capacity: as a ninth-grade biology teacher at Burncoat High School in Worcester.

“I just hope my students like me,” he says with a laugh. “I want to be the cool, crazy teacher whose class might be difficult, but who’s also made it clear that I want to help them succeed.”

For some, teaching is what they know they want to do from day one; they can’t imagine doing anything else. Pacheco’s path to the front of the classroom, on the other hand, was anything but linear.

He arrived at WPI in 2018 as a first-generation college student (also as the first in his family to graduate from high school) with the intention of becoming an environmental engineer and taking advantage of WPI’s collaborative, project-based education experience. After meeting Professor Lisa Stoddard during the Great Problems Seminar and participating in research on Project Inclusion, a campuswide initiative to make campus culture more welcoming to all, Pacheco started looking more into equity in the classroom and beyond.

“That’s when I first realized that I might not be meant to be an engineer, and that was okay,” he recalls.

After a brief stint in environmental studies, Pacheco stumbled upon learning sciences with Associate Professor of Psychology and Learning Sciences Erin Ottmar, as well as WPI’s Teacher Preparation Program. The program gave him the opportunity to earn both his bachelor’s degree and a Massachusetts Department of Elementary & Secondary Education-approved initial teaching license for middle or high school.

Pacheco completed his student teaching at Worcester Vocational Technical High School. He credits his Worcester Tech mentor, Jocelyn Coughlin, with guiding him while still allowing him to make mistakes, helping him implement learning strategies and routines in his work, exposing him to different aspects of education, and—most of all—confirming that he was on the right path.

“She helped me realize that teaching isn’t just something I’m good at, but something I’m passionate about, that I have a calling for, that I just have it,” he says. “And whatever it is, I’m glad that I do.”

Pacheco’s goal is to ensure that his classroom is a special place for his students, one where posters of Rosalind Franklin, Mae C. Jemison, and other unsung STEM heroes have real estate right next to Star Trek posters and a birthday wall for his students. More than anything, though, he wants his classroom to be a home base, somewhere students feel safe and like they’re all in this together—because to Pacheco, they are.

“Education’s not about where you come from outside of the classroom,” he says. “It’s the one playing field where we all support each other in our learning, even if we’re at different places. I don’t want to hear anyone tearing each other down. That happens enough in the outside world, but it won’t happen within our four walls.”

That focus on authenticity and support has already proven to have an impact on Pacheco’s students, even before he had a classroom of his own.

“It was important to me to share bits and pieces of myself when I was doing my student teaching. I never had a Latino, queer educator; I never had a teacher who was first-gen and actually talked about it. One experience that stuck with me the most was when a student felt safe enough to come out to me. I had been scared to show who I was. It means a lot to me to know that when they come to my class, students feel seen, heard, and safe.”

In addition to ensuring that his classroom is one that cultivates learning and safety, Pacheco is excited to model his own teaching style on experiences he’s had with different professors and courses at WPI.

“Science is not exclusive, and I love that I can still be creative while teaching it,” he says, citing some projects he’s led his students through: creating a virtual escape room to learn about DNA, hosting a roleplaying game about global greenhouse emissions, and drawing a flipbook to illustrate the different cycles of mitosis and meiosis. “I can show them that project-based learning is fun, and the courses I took at WPI helped me ensure that high school students would have the same type of learning opportunities that I did.”

In a time where teaching is a profession under especially high scrutiny, Pacheco focuses inward, celebrating his peers in the Teacher Preparation Program who will continue to teach, support, and be there for students through it all. “I see them and their approaches to education, and I know the world will get better,” he says. “I can see the hope that’s there, the care they have for their students.”

As a first-generation college graduate, Pacheco has a profound understanding of the importance of education, regardless of field. He’s thrilled, too, that he has the opportunity to help students build a healthy relationship with learning.

“Teaching is a profession that makes all others,” he says. “I could teach a future astronaut, a marine biologist, a dancer, a Nobel Prize winner! I’ll be happy seeing students achieve their dreams, because teaching is mine.”