Humans of SJK: Mr. Paul Boyd

As the School prepared to celebrate its 50th anniversary, Mr. Boyd and I took some time to chat about another major milestone — his 25th year of teaching at SJK. 

Mr. Boyd applied to SJK in July of 1997 after hearing from his former University of Guelph chemistry professor, a Science Fair volunteer, that SJK was hiring a chemistry teacher. At the time, Mr. Boyd was teaching science and math to students in Grades 6 through 8 in Oakville, but this was an opportunity to return home to Guelph so he applied, received the job, and began teaching at SJK that September.

In his 25 years at SJK, Mr. Boyd has taught Grades 11 and 12 Chemistry, Grades 8, 9, and 10 Science, Grade 7 Science and Design as well as Grade 10 Civics. This current school year, he is teaching Grade 7 Design, Grade 8 Science, and Grade 10 Civics. Design is a particularly exciting class because it is a hands-on, engineering course that teaches students the IB Design Cycle. In Mr. Boyd’s class, students have four major projects to design and construct – a tall, free standing straw tower, a paper airplane, a model car that will travel from a mouse trap, and a wind turbine to pick up a mass off the ground. While the first is a group project, the other three are individual, but all of them require the practical and creative application of design problem-solving skills. They also sound like pretty fun learning activities!

Fun in the classroom is what Mr. Boyd is known for, and he enjoys thinking of fun ways to teach the curriculum. When asked what students would say about him, he thought they would recall the fun ways he had them remember content such as the “Nick the Camel” poem in chemistry class where the first consonant of each word in the poem is the name of the polyatomic ion. Fun for Mr. Boyd also translates to hands-on learning activities. One of his favourites is a demonstration he performs to teach students the important differences between an observation and an inference. We don’t want to give anything away to current students, but past “golden” students and alumni will likely recall this “delicious” demonstration to help “illuminate” the difference between an observation and inference.

Outside the classroom, Mr. Boyd is known for coaching in the Varsity Program and he has been involved with soccer and basketball for many years. It was no surprise that he picked the Gymnasium as his favourite spot on campus. He was actually there when it was constructed! He recalls using a tennis bubble to house the Chapel and the Gym, but the set-up prevented them from hosting basketball games. Thus, the construction of the Gymnasium meant the School now had a brand-new facility to host and watch Varsity games, which Mr. Boyd says is truly a great place on campus. 

You might think Mr. Boyd would pick sports as his favourite aspect of SJK, but when asked he immediately replied, “Without a doubt the community…it’s incredible.” Of course, one of the examples he provided of community in action came from sports! Mr. Boyd remembered when Rousseau Lake hosted the Division 2 soccer title during a blizzard and at least 12 parents made the trek out for the game. He will never forget how far they traveled, in horrible weather, to support the team. He says SJK parents truly make our community something special, especially their consistent support and generosity. 

When I asked Mr. Boyd what he was most looking forward to about SJK’s 50th Anniversary Celebration Weekend, he said the alumni soccer game and seeing former students, which I suspect won’t be surprising to his former students. Discussing how impressed he is with alumni accomplishment and achievements, Mr. Boyd said, “I really get blown away when I go on LinkedIn or I meet people I taught 20 years ago…it’s not just the odd exception, it’s a regular occurrence, most people are doing very, very well.”

Outside of SJK, Mr. Boyd enjoys playing golf and listening to audiobooks on Audible.

Please join us in congratulating Mr. Paul Boyd on 25 years of teaching at SJK School! Welcome to the Quarter Century Club!    
 
About the Series:
SJK School is a community of members with unique backgrounds and interesting perspectives to share. The Humans of SJK series is a chance to introduce some of these community members across SJK socials and publications and shine a light on their special contributions to SJK. This is inspired by other projects such as Humans of New York and Humans of UWaterloo.