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The Official Student Paper of Riverside Poly High School

Staff Snapshot: Mr. Lowry Enters the Physics Department

Jan 29, 2016

PHYSICS: Mr. Alexander Lowry rejuvenates Poly’s staff to help students engage in physics.

By Kayla Iles, Editor

This year, Poly has welcomed many new teachers. Mr. Alexander Lowry, a physics teacher, is one of the newest additions to the Poly family.  Lowry and another new physics teacher, Mr. Matthew Van, have replaced Mr. Mark Colwell and Mr. Peter Krumbine from previous years.

Lowry began teaching in 2000 after earning a Bachelor of Arts (BA) degree in Chemistry and his teaching credentials from the University of California, Riverside (UCR). He also earned his Master’s degree in Educational Technology from Azusa Pacific University.  Lowry has taught in schools from the San Bernardino City Unified School District (SBCUSD) to the Moreno Valley Unified School District (MVUSD). “I think the most notable difference between those districts and the Riverside Unified School District (RUSD) is how progressive Poly is in its embrace of technologies, such as Haiku, and the deliberateness of the district in how it plans things,” Lowry stated. This year, his agenda is to “continue a lot of the work Mr. Colwell had been doing with educational technology and other applications to extend learning, provide support and build personalized learning,” Lowry expressed.

It is often difficult to fit into the community of students and staff at a new school, but for Lowry, Poly students and faculty have accepted him with open arms. “I have really enjoyed the friendliness of the students and staff and the drive everyone has to excel and be the best they can be. I feel the staff and administration have already helped me excel as a teacher,” Lowry opined. He went on to state that his favorite part of being a teacher is developing strategies to support and encourage students to go further in their learning. Lowry helps his students understand and apply physics in hands-on projects such as the “slap tube,” an activity planned for February that will study harmonics. “There is a lot of encouragement and support to try new things and push boundaries with regard to project- and technology-based instruction,” Lowry said.

He also implements Advancements Via Individual Determination (AVID) strategies in his Physics class to help a majority of students be as successful as possible by “using haiku and other applications to extend learning, provide support, and build personalized learning,” Lowry added.

Along with Mr. Van, Mr. Lowry will bring Poly into the next generation of physics.

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