The Coaches

Jim Poirier

United States

I am a 57-year-old American teacher who was born and raised in a little mill town in the northern part of the state of New Hampshire. Following high school, I did my undergraduate work at one of the state's teacher colleges, got married and went right into teaching from there. My first teaching position was teaching math at White Mountain Regional High School in Lancaster, New Hampshire.

We found we were expecting during our second year there and decided to move to my wife’s home state of Louisiana so she could be near her home for the birth of our first child. I found a math position at a newly integrated high school there so we picked up and moved south that summer.

Toward the end of our first year there, I was offered a job at the American International School in Torino Italy. It was an offer that was too exciting to pass up so after only a year of teaching in the deep south and with our one year old daughter in tow, we moved to Torino where, in addition to being the athletic director and photo club advisor, I was the sole math and science teacher for grades 7-12. I never worked so hard nor enjoyed teaching so much in all my life. I remember each and every one of those kids to this day.

The international school closed at the end of my 2nd year in Torino so I returned to the University of New Hampshire to accept a teaching assistantship and complete my Master's degree. By this time, my wife and I were tired of moving and were looking to establish roots somewhere. So once I completed my degree, I accepted a position as a math teacher at Pinkerton Academy in southern New Hampshire, bought our first home and have been here ever since.

During the 30 years I’ve been at Pinkerton, I designed, introduced and taught 9 new courses, introduced computers and networking to the Academy and established and chaired their first computer department. I am currently a computer-programming instructor teaching Visual Basic, C++ and Java.

It was in this last capacity that I met Ammu. She was one of the brightest programming students I have had the pleasure of working with. I have much respect for this young lady, not only for her academic ability, but for the person she is inside. It would be very easy for me to rant on about all the things I love and admire about her, but I don't want to stray. Ammu asked me a few months back if I would be a coach for her ThinkQuest team. I had never coached a ThinkQuest team before and didn’t think I had the time to do the job justice so I declined. She persisted however and between her and her mother, convinced me to take on the job, and I haven’t looked back since.

I thank Ammu for her persistence because it didn’t take me long to discover that working with this group of kids was both an honour and a privilege. I have never seen a tighter knit group of kids. They are motivated, indefatigable, innovative, perfectionists and team players in every sense of the word. As a teacher I find it refreshing for a change to be in the back seat being driven by the kids rather than in the front seat doing the driving.

My role on the team has been to help complete some of the paperwork, proofread what the kids were writing, lend an attentive ear and encourage and excite wherever I could. The real work however was done by:

• the kids who did all the research, came up with every original idea, and then worked together to design and implement all of it on their own, and
• by Carol who kept the lines of communication open, kept the team focused on the important issues, made sure everyone felt confident about the tasks they had been assigned by the group, and made sure everyone adhered to the timeline set up in the beginning.

I hope some day to meet all of them in person so I can tell them face to face, the impact they have had on me, and the joy and honour it has been working with each and every one of them. These kids are AWESOME!

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