“I’m a teacher that happens to teach physics”

If Matt Rose wasn’t a teacher, he would own a pizza shop. He loves to cook and even wants to incorporate flipping pizza dough into his physics classes so that his students could learn something from it and have fun while doing it.  

“We should get a pizza oven,” he said.

Mr. Rose is a physics teacher at Watertown High School. He is also the senior class advisor, the varsity baseball coach, and in training to run the Chicago Marathon.

“I’m a teacher that happens to teach physics,” he said Wednesday, Sept. 13, during an interview with the Raider Times.

“My goal is to teach at least one student something everyday,” he said.

Mr. Rose calmly sat on a desk in front of the reporters and seemed very chill and relaxed and ready to answer questions.  

Surprisingly, being a teacher was not Mr. Rose’s original goal. He started studying for his doctorate in physics when his advisor noticed that Mr. Rose really enjoyed his work as teaching assistant in the physics classes. He then changed course and went on to write a thesis on physics education, earned his masters at SUNY Buffalo, and became a teacher.

He has been teaching for more than 10 years. This is the third school in which he has  taught, but Watertown has been his favorite.

“I have not enjoyed myself in the previous two as much as I have here,” he said. “My favorite thing about Watertown is the students here.”

Mr. Rose likes that it is not the same thing period to period or day to day, for every new school year, he makes up half of his curriculum.

“In the morning when I wake up, I very infrequently complain about going to work,” he said. “I enjoy it.”

When asked what he thought could have been changed in the science curriculum at WHS, Mr. Rose said that they should get rid of MCAS.  He thinks that it should not be a major focus or concern throughout the school year.

“I believe that high-stakes testing has its place,” he said, “but big-stakes testing should not be the end all be all.”

He has been the Raiders’ varsity baseball coach for five years. He said his favorite thing about starting the new year is meeting all the new students. He said he likes teaching freshman because he enjoys meeting new people and seeing the progression from freshman to senior.

Grading is his least-favorite part of teaching.

“It is monotonous,” he said.

The senior class is working on fund-raising for prom. The class already had a car wash, and they are working on other ideas. The students’ goal is to have prom at the State Room in Boston, which, he says, is a little pricey.

The Class of 2018 is also planning the Talent Show, which might held in October.

Mr. Rose advises the Class of 2018 with Mr. Joyce. They have been the class advisers as the students moved through WHS.

“You get a class and you grow with it,” he said.

–Sept. 13, 2017–