During my senior year of high school, my favorite teacher ever, Mrs. Paul, convinced me to compete in the Houston Science and Engineering Fair. That decision changed my life forever. Up until that point, I planned on majoring in chemistry and becoming an anesthesiologist. But that competition taught me that I have an engineer's heart. With the help of my mentor, I learned to solder and construct a complex circuit board to detect physics particles called "muons". The website, about fifteen years old, still exists. 

It turns out, I LOVE engineering! From that science fair, I won an internship working on circuits in the University of Houston's physics department.  My work played a very small part in the Daya Bay Neutrino Experiment. Next, at the University of Texas, I majored in electrical engineering for one year before ultimately changing to physics to become a high school teacher. Choosing to sacrifice a very lucrative career to become a teacher was not as difficult as people think. Just like how Mrs. Paul changed my life, I wanted to dedicate my life to helping students. Over my career, I'll impact over 5000 student lives. That's worth much more than the $200,000 annual salary I gave up.

I received my bachelor's degree in physics from the University of Texas (Hook'em) and my masters in physics education from WGU. Additionally, have a National Board Certification in physics teaching. Obtaining that certification was very difficult – only 40% of teachers get it during their first attempt. This will be my twelth year teaching, my second at Cascade High School. 

My wife and I moved here from Austin, Tx in 2017. Other than saying "y'all" several hundred times daily, I have no accent. But I'm very Texan. Ask me where the best Tex-mex is – my wife and I have done extensive research.  That said, I'm an Everettite now (Everettonian? Everettian?). I love flannel, drink coffee three times a day, and refer to weather as "sunny" when virtually everyone else in the US calls it "partially cloudy". 

I'll wrap this up by saying a few things about me. have two sons – Anderson, who's about to turn 4, and Beckham, who turns 2 in December. Kids are extremely exhausting! But they increase your capacity to love. There's a difference between something being "easy" and something being "good". Being a father is very good, even though it can be difficult. I'm a much much better person because of my family. And I deeply enjoy my wife and children. 

Some more trivia about me: I have an album on Spotify (search for Gregory Poe), I was a pole vaulter in high school, and I'm the Freshman class advisor at CHS. There's more to know, and I'm excited to share more as I learn about you during the school year. Thanks for reading!