Long time St. Paul’s teacher and coach, Joe Dickens has been promoted this year to the position of Director of Curriculum and Supervisor of Instruction of St. Paul’s School.

“Long story short, I’m a Curriculum Coordinator,” stated Dickens.

Dickens noted that this position has him going into classrooms and observing the teachers to see if he can “coach them up,” as he does with his students and athletes in English class and football.

Many students know how much time and effort Dickens puts into his classes, but with this new position, he no longer has a permanent classroom.

“I definitely have to get use to being nomadic,” said Dickens. He also stated, “It’s fine moving from classroom to classroom; I just need to go with the flow and learn to be more flexible.”

This new position takes much training, and Dickens has been preparing for this new position for years.

“I’m putting all that training into good use now,” said Dickens. “It’s like hitting 4,000 curve balls at baseball practice. You want to try and hit one in the game to see if you are any good at it.”

Dickens will continue to be Chair of the English Department and teach his two English II honors classes. He will also continue in his coaching positions with both the football and powerlifting teams and is looking forward to those upcoming sports seasons. The football team is looking to capture the state title, while the powerlifting wolves are looking to win their 3rd state championship in three years, says Dickens.

Prior to coming to St. Paul’s, Dickens was the Athletic Director at Holy Cross High School, so holding an administrative position is not something completely new to him.

“My main goals this year are to work on Curriculum Alignment, which will bring uniformity to the school, and see and evaluate all teachers, once if not twice,” said Dickens, noting that getting teachers to align to national standards in each course and teach the same material across each grade level will aide all students in getting a quality education.