By: Mark Seplaki
In his second year teaching here at East Mr. Zygmunt is still a relatively new face to many students. But to those who have taken regents/honors Physics or AP Seminar he is known as an understanding, young, and supportive teacher. Mr. Z has already ingrained himself as an essential part of the East community and science department whose door is always open.
Mr. Z has been at East for three years, he started in 2023 as a student teacher to Mr. Dalesandro, and was then hired to teach his own classes full time the following year. Mr. Z wasted no time getting involved at East as well, advising both Medical Outreach club and Science Olympiad in his first two years. Currently, in his second official year of teaching, he has new skills he has learned and wisdom to share. With the biggest thing he applies to his teaching being “I only know what I know, and I can only teach what I know”, and he provides multiple resources to them and encourages collaboration to cater to all the different ways students learn. But when it comes to the things he doesn’t know, he most appreciates the openness of East and the opportunities to collaborate and learn from some of his more experienced colleagues.
Before teaching, Mr. Z attended The University at Buffalo, and through his time achieving a bachelor’s degree in both mechanical and aerospace engineering, Mr. Z discovered his passion for collaboration and helping others learn more than learning and studying the content he was being taught. “As I went farther and farther into the engineering world, I realized I didn’t enjoy the work as much as I enjoyed helping my classmates and peers with their work, teaching them something that I understood,” he said. He then shifted to teaching and went on to receive a masters degree in physics education.
Mr. Z grew up in the southtowns of Western New York and attended Iroquois high school in Elma, NY. In high school, he most enjoyed taking the science and math courses, but when asked what his favorite class was he responded with French for a variety of reasons. He “genuinely enjoyed learning something brand new” for the first time, not something that has been building on itself since kindergarten like math or English. Also, the teacher made it enjoyable because “she was very open to adjusting her teaching to the way that worked best for her class overall.” This is something that Mr. Z tries to bring to his own classes to help students learn in the best ways possible.
In high school he was involved in various clubs and sports and outside of school would hang out with friends. If you have ever driven through the southtowns you’ll notice the abundance of open land. For fun, Mr. Z and his friends would ride ATV’s in the summer and snowmobiles in the winter.
While sitting down and talking to Mr. Z, you realize he is genuinely a down-to-earth good guy. I think his philosophy of “I’m stuck here all day, you’re stuck here all day, might as well be enjoyable for everybody” perfectly sums up his mentality teaching here at East. You can really tell his passion for teaching and connection to the students when attending his classes. He said. “I wake up and I don’t dread having to come here.” He says he enjoys teaching AP seminar most, and it is the first year this class has been run here at East. But depending on the unit physics is fun to teach as well, some topics are more engaging than the others, this was an idea he shared with students.
I asked Mr. Z, what he most wants students to learn from his classes. Mr. Z didn’t just want to teach physics, he wanted to help students be the best people they can be to succeed in life. He thought “a big issue with science in general is that a lot of it has become just spitting back facts, as opposed to thinking through a new process, or applying a process to a new scenario, and it doesn’t even have to be like a science or a math scenario.” Mr. Z focuses on applying the scientific processes to life in general. “You’re gonna be hit with scenarios you’ve never had to deal with before, can you reason your way through that scenario, and I’m using physics as a vessel for that,” he said. With a focus on helping students learn more about themselves and how to be successful the way he teaches is truly admirable. Mr. Z’s class structure and the way he teaches is really built around this. This is what he most enjoys about teaching– the classroom decorum, leaving it to be open to be more enjoyable.
Mr. Z is a great teacher who will go on to inspire many in what I know will be his very successful teaching career. His personal number one goal of “being more open to everything,” and the idea that “ you are the only person who is going to hold you back, so go for it and be open to new experiences,” is a really positive outlook to have. It is no wonder that students enjoy his classes. Mr. Z wanted to leave me with one final piece of advice from him to those reading about him, “life comes at you, you just gotta roll with it.” .