{"id":7143,"date":"2015-08-10T15:31:42","date_gmt":"2015-08-10T19:31:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/photonics-programs\/?p=7143"},"modified":"2026-03-17T15:31:56","modified_gmt":"2026-03-17T19:31:56","slug":"george-degregorio","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/photonics-programs\/2015\/08\/10\/george-degregorio\/","title":{"rendered":"George DeGregorio"},"content":{"rendered":"

RET Teacher of\u00a0the Week!<\/span><\/h3>\n

Week Six:<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"Screen<\/a><\/p>\n

George Degregorio, also known to his students as Mr. D, is an experienced teacher. He is beginning his seventeenth year of teaching, all of which have been at East Boston High School. East Boston was his parent\u2019s neighborhood, \u201cit is truly where I\u2019m from,\u201d DeGregorio explains, so it only fit that he began and grew his career at East Boston High.<\/p>\n

George has taught everything from Biology and AP Biology, AP Environmental Science, Anatomy and Physiology, and in levels ranging from tenth to twelfth grade. He says teaching, \u201cis very much on the job skills training. It\u2019s a personality job, it\u2019s how you relate to the kids.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"IMG_4108\"Although he enjoys teaching very much, before George decided to become a teacher, he considered joining the Boston Police Department. He preformed well on the written exams so the decision came down to what he really wanted to do, and where his passions lied.<\/p>\n

\u201cI got a call (from the police department) and it was literally like the Robert Frost poem; you have two paths you could choose to go down. My father was a detective in Boston, so I could have gone that way. But I ended up going to teaching. I thought that would allow me to have a schedule similar to my kids, because eventually I would have kids and it would work better for a family. Not that I have ever had a summer off,\u201d he laughs. \u201cBut also I really enjoyed it and I enjoy being with young people.\u201d<\/p>\n

As DeGregorio talks more about his decision, it proves clear that working to help others was an important factor in his career choice, \u201cI also think I could have enjoyed being a police officer too, though, just interacting with the community and seeing what I could do to help. You see a different side of humanity too, which is cool. I\u2019m okay with that. Seeing different kinds of people and different kinds of families.\u201d<\/p>\n

He describes that he had a good upbringing and it is important to him to help people who may not have had a similar experience. This quality shows in his classroom. Mr. D has students at all different academic levels, and he is able to relate to and make an impact in all of their experiences in his class, making sure they all get as much out of it as they can, \u201cit\u2019s part of building a part of culture of science in the classroom.\u201d<\/p>\n

This is not the fist summer program George has participated in, but he says this one at the Boston University Photonics Center has been the best.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is the best working summer in the seventeen years I\u2019ve been teaching. Every aspect to doing this was the best, everything from the grant, to meeting these people. These people are geniuses.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201c[This program] is a win-win. Everybody seems to win. I\u2019m winning on a personal level and my students are going to win [on an academic level].\u201d<\/p>\n

DeGregorio also leads the chess club at East Boston High and is an active father to his young children.<\/p>\n

We were lucky to have George with us this summer, and know that his students are lucky as well.<\/p>\n

Watch George discuss his research:<\/strong><\/p>\n

Watch George speaks at RET forum:<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

RET Teacher of\u00a0the Week! Week Six: George Degregorio, also known to his students as Mr. D, is an experienced teacher. He is beginning his seventeenth year of teaching, all of which have been at East Boston High School. East Boston was his parent\u2019s neighborhood, \u201cit is truly where I\u2019m from,\u201d DeGregorio explains, so it only […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":22341,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/photonics-programs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7143"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/photonics-programs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/photonics-programs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/photonics-programs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/22341"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/photonics-programs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7143"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/photonics-programs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7143\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7161,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/photonics-programs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7143\/revisions\/7161"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/photonics-programs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7143"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/photonics-programs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7143"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/photonics-programs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7143"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}