For Mr. Zawadski, who is ending his 25th year of teaching at Morgan, it wasn’t history lessons or biology lessons that made him pursue a career, it was a cat in a college biology class.

“In my college biology class, I had to dissect a cat that looked exactly like the one I had at home. That’s when I decided teaching history was the better option for me,” said Zawadski.

Before becoming a teacher, Mr. Zawadski’s path wasn’t completely set. While he attended Morgan as a student in 1992-1996, there was no internet in teaching yet so everything was hands-on. Because of this, his favorite classes were Biology and U.S. History, which later led him to a big decision in college – whether to pursue nursing or teaching. That choice became clear during a biology lab.

His journey into teaching was also shaped by the teachers he had growing up. Specifically a man named Mr. Dauer. Mr. Dauer was a smart man who taught Zawadski through lectures, which he actually enjoyed. He gave Zawadski a passion about U.S. History through the civil war, to the current time period.

“The teachers I had here at Morgan inspired me to become a teacher. Especially my U.S. History teacher, Mr. Dauer,” said Zawadski.

That inspiration from Mr. Dauer ultimately brought him back to Morgan after graduating from Southern. Three years later, after teaching at Valley Regional for two years, he now has been teaching at Morgan for 25 years, where he now uses ideas from Mr. Dauer to make history relevant. Zawadski uses these teaching methods and hopes to make a similar impact on his own students.

Outside of the classroom, Mr. Zawadski likes doing his own things, and one of those things is his strong connection to tennis. After some time off, Zawadski took back the tennis team this year, leading them as their coach.

“One of my hobbies is tennis. I spend a lot of time coaching on the tennis courts. Unfortunately, I don’t get to play as much as I used to,” said Zawadski.

Zawadski has been playing tennis ever since he was four years old. When he was in middle school and high school, he was constantly at tennis courts at the Joel School. Joel was the only school with lights on their tennis courts, so he spent most of his summer evenings there playing with friends.

After high school, Zawadski stopped playing tennis in college, as his college did not have a tennis team. Even though Zawadski can’t play as much anymore, coaching still keeps him connected to the sport he enjoys.

Like many students, Mr. Zawadski worked while he was younger. He got his first job at Arthur Drug in Clinton when he was just 15. From a young age, Zawadski was a community person, as he worked in customer service just talking to people everyday. He also learned what work ethic was like and how to save money at a young age. Later, while in college and during his first five teaching years, he worked at Shaw’s grocery store as an assistant department manager in New Haven. Unfortunately, it is not open in Connecticut anymore today, but is still open in Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and Rhode Island. Balancing work and teaching helped shape his work ethic early in his career.

Starting out as a teacher wasn’t easy. He admitted that when he first started, he had some fears, one of those being student questions.

“My biggest fear when I first started teaching was being able to answer all the questions my students had about history,” said Zawadski.

Over time, though, he realized that teaching isn’t about knowing everything, it’s about helping students stay curious and engaged. That realization led to what he considers the most important moment of his career.

“The defining moment of my teaching career is when I realized the biggest influence I had was to get the students excited about what I was teaching. True learning goes beyond the classroom. My job is to inspire students to want to know more,” said Zawadski.

This defining moment came from a lesson one day early in Zawadski’s teaching career on the Rwandan genocide. The next day, students came in talking about it and wanted to find out more. Hearing this, Zawadski scrapped the lesson he had planned that day and talked about that with the students because they had so many questions on it.

Years later, Mr. Zawadski values the memories he made as a student at Morgan, which played a big role in his decision to return as a teacher.

“I wanted to come back to where I went to high school. I had a lot of good memories from my time here. I wanted to have an influence on Clinton students like my teachers had on me,” said Zawadski.

Through his passion for history, dedication to his students, and belief in inspiration, Mr. Zawadski continues to make a lasting impact at The Morgan School, both inside and outside the classroom.