The Teacher of the Year award for Norwin High School has been announced for the 2025-2026 school year! Congratulations Mr. Joseph Agnew!

How many years have you been teaching?

This is my 19th year teaching at Norwin High School in the math department.

Why did you decide to become a teacher?

I was getting quite bored in my engineering classes at Penn State. And I was interested in coaching at an early age. I know that helping people also brought me great joy. Teaching seemed like a good fit. I was actually planning on starting my own landscaping company and doing substitute teaching on rainy days and during the winter! Right before the summer after my senior year ended, Mr. Brozeski called me and said that there was an opening at Norwin and that I should apply. I am glad that I listened.

In those years, what have you liked the most about teaching?

I just hope that my teaching style will allow students to gain confidence in math. And thus, confidence in themselves. Math is a terrible subject when you do not understand what is going on. But when you are getting questions correct, all of a sudden, it’s a lot more fun.

What kind of impact do you hope to have on all of your students?

We still do homework every day, but not a lot. I know that students have other things going on in their lives. Things that are more important than math class. So, one thing I’ve done in my Schoology classroom is record our lessons each day and post the completed notes.  That way, if a student has to miss for some reason, or they just had a bad day and weren’t really “present” in class, they can go back and watch the video of class and get caught up. It’s also a nice thing to watch while you’re doing your homework or reviewing for an exam. I think the way I treat my students hopefully gains their trust.  When we trust and respect each other, we’re setting each other up for success.

What has been your favorite memory from teaching so far?

My favorite memory is Mr. Butina trying to run a 7-minute mile in front of the entire faculty. That was a fun day. But really, the best memories are when students come back to see me. Or when they send me an e-mail. I love hearing from former students, and when they say nice things about our class, it’s really touching. When a former student takes a few minutes to do that, it just means so much to me.