Eliel Gonzalez, AP Calc Teacher, Union President, to Retire at End of the Year

By Ben Cangemi ’23

The class works diligently, with students discussing their processes to solve calculus problems. The wall is covered with photographs of Gonzalez and his former students, along with creative assignments from previous years. There is also a list of classic, “G-isms” such as “poor baby,” “thank you for shopping at G’s” and “that’s why G gets paid the big bucks.”

Mr. Eliel Gonzalez, affectionately known as G, teaches the students what they are doing right and wrong and explains how they can fix their mistakes.

“He gives us the hardest problems from the AP exam,” Connor Donovan, a student in Gonzales’s class said. “That makes the AP exam look really easy.”

Whether it is the daily quizzes, AP activities, and unit tests, Gonzalez’s students work hard to improve their calculus skills to ensure that they can score high on the AP exams in May. “Everybody has gotten a five on the AP calculus exam,” Connor Donovan says. “Almost everybody. 

However, after thirty-two years of working at East Longmeadow High School, Mr Eliel “G” Gonzalez is retiring.

G has maintained a similar routine-based teaching style which gives his students the highest chance of scoring high on the AP exam for 32 years. “Like he says, ‘Trust the process, trust G,’” Connor Donovan recounts.

Gonzalez grew up in Puerto Rico, where he completed his elementary, middle, and high school education by the time he turned sixteen years old. It was in fifth grade when he knew he wanted to pursue a career in mathematics. After completing his education, he moved to the mainland United States to attend Purdue at the age of sixteen.

He began his teaching career shortly after graduating from Purdue and UMass. 

“I taught school in South Hadley for one year as part of my masters degree program at UMass”. After working in South Hadley for one year, G found a job in East Longmeadow where he would spend the rest of his career.

It was while studying as a math major in college when G knew he wanted to be a teacher.

“I couldn’t see myself working as a researcher or an analyst where you would do a lot of your work by yourself at a desk, away from having interactions with people,” G said.

It is the same reason why G has worked on the College Board with AP teachers across the globe.

“The College Board has given me an opportunity to train teachers in AP, and interact with other adults who are trying to learn how to teach,” G said. “The job on the college board involves travel, and I get to travel to a lot of places in New England, in the United States, and even internationally.”

The skills learned in G’s classroom transcend school and help students in other aspects of their life as well.

“In AP calculus you learn skills on how to deal with challenging content and how to organize notes to prepare for an exam,” G said. “More importantly from the last few years, the people who took AP calc with me said their greatest takeaway was not in their jobs, but in their family life, because they were able to help their own children with confidence in their schoolwork throughout the years.”

G’s outlook on teaching improves the way he can communicate the material to students.

“Teaching is not a job, it is more of an opportunity to communicate what I like about math to others,” G said. “I like to see other people understand what I know how to do well, so it’s about passing what I enjoy doing on to someone else.”

Although the class is centered around math, the class has had a long term effect on the students who have taken it.

One of the takeaways of G’s class is that, “the students are capable of doing something they didn’t think they were capable of,” G said. “AP classes in general are hard, and this calculus is extra challenging, so if you can conquer something like calculus, you are on a good path to conquer just about anything else.” 

G has also worked in the East Longmeadow Educators Association, the ELPS teacher’s union, for 25 years that impact staff as well as the school system.

“We always approach problems from the perspective of finding solutions, not creating conflict and war,” G said. “I think I will leave things in a better place than they were twenty-five years ago.”

Despite his retirement, G will not be taking all of his time off.

“I will still be doing a little work here and there, but I think of myself as a free agent,” G said. 

G is looking forward to the new time off work. “There are a lot of friends and family I would like to visit and spend time with,” G said. “I haven’t been able to do so because not everyone in my life is on a school, or teacher schedule.”

As well as this, G describes how, “Being both a teacher and the union president for that length of time involves lots of hours of work, and a lot of extra time on the evenings and weekends.”

Some of the time off will be spent visiting both new and familiar places. “I plan to spend more time in my house in Puerto Rico,” G said. “I also plan to spend more time with my friends here in New England. I plan to do more traveling, some consulting for the College Board, and maybe doing some travel consulting for small companies.”

Going into his retirement, G will remember the time he spent in East Longmeadow working for the school. “East Longmeadow will always be part of my DNA.”