After five years of enlightening students and conducting exciting lab experiments at WA, physics teacher Richard Posch has decided to retire. While physics is known for stressful math equations, his classes don’t fall under that category. Posch’s goal has been to make his classes enticing and stress-free for his students.
Although Posch is looking forward to retirement, he will miss walking into the building every day and seeing his students. According to Posch, he gets energized just by the presence of his students and being able to interact with them each and every day.
“It’s fun to get to talk about something that I really enjoy in front of people and teach it to them,” Posch said.
As is the case with most science classes, labs play a large role in the dynamic of Posch’s classes. Physics labs are Posch’s favorite since they are more creative during the building process. This allows Posch to watch his students get creative and use their imagination to complete the lab assignments.
“When we are studying ramps, we build ramps and drive toy cars down it. Taking things to an extreme like that is always fun,” Posch said.
During his time at WA, Posch has worked closely with the rest of the science department, specifically physics teachers Callie Bateson, Bill Bowen, and Tim Burns. Together, they would have meetings to create and discuss upcoming lesson plans, and Bateson even convinced Posch to complete a triathlon together this past summer.
“Mr. Posch and I both started at WA in 2019 so we started our journey here together,” Bateson said. “He was the best partner in physics that I could ask for. His love for physics is contagious and I always looked forward to our meetings where we could collaborate on our shared classes.”
Bowen describes Posch as someone who always wants to learn more. Not only that, but he is always sending emails or telling stories to the rest of the department about new experiments or data that he recently saw.
“Rick Posch revels in his nerdiness. He is carefree, fun loving, outgoing and has been a pleasure to work with,” Bowen said.
Burns echoed both Bateson and Bowen in that Posch’s confidence in the subject led to his successes as a teacher.
Posch also had a positive effect on his students. Senior Sanjay Vijay is currently in one of Posch’s classes, and has had a meaningful experience in learning the subject due to Posch’s teaching methods.
“Mr. Posch is a great teacher who truly contributes to the strength of the science department,” Vijay said. “His teaching style helps students to effectively learn the course material, while also incorporating fun and casual activities into class to engage his students.”
Currently, Posch has no definitive plans for retirement. However, he wants to travel to the southern parts of the United States to experience more areas of the country. In addition, he plans to figure out a way to lightly stay in the educational field, and contribute to the debate surrounding energy and energy policies. Despite those interests, none are what he is most looking forward to.
“[I’m looking forward to having] white space on my calendar. I want to have a lighter schedule and spend my time doing what I want to do,” Posch said.
Whether you had Mr. Posch as a teacher or not, he is someone who both the faculty and student body will miss.
“It’s quite unfortunate that future physics students won’t be able to enjoy Mr. Posch’s class,” Vijay said.
Principal Dan Twomey will also miss having Posch in the building every day. According to Twomey, Posch always brought energy, enthusiasm, and a positive attitude to his classroom.
“Thank you Mr. Posch for being an excellent educator and I wish you all the best in your future endeavors,” Twomey said.
