Mrs. Strand – an accoladed teacher with humble beginnings – arrived at Fargo South for the 2023-2024 school year. But who is she? I sat down with her for an interview to find this out.
“I started teaching at Princeton High School (Princeton is a small town in Central Minnesota), and then I moved to Nebraska and taught high school for 8 years, where I started physics. I taught three years at a community college, then moved back and taught a year at Oak Grove. then 12 years at West Fargo High.”
When she started teaching, Strand didn’t actually want to teach physics!
“I wasn’t actually drawn to teaching Physics – when I graduated I wanted to come out and teach Bio and Chem and that’s what I did the first four years and made fun of the physics teacher, but then when we moved to Nebraska the job I found was teaching physics and it was kind of an ‘oh crap’ what have I done. It was sort of trial by fire – I had an advanced physics class which I filled bell to bell so they couldn’t ask any questions. But after three years of doing it and going to summer workshops I was like I’m never going back, it’s way better than biology and chemistry.”
What do you enjoy about teaching physics?
“I love showing students how their world works, because it’s all based on physics.”
I know you went to Washington D.C. for an honor, can you tell me a little about that?
“I was named an Albert Einstein Distinguished Educator Fellow. It’s a program run by the department of energy that takes K-12 stem teachers from across the country and puts them in D.C. for a year to give a teacher perspective in a federal space. There were 15 of us selected last year from across the country, 5 of us were on capitol hill working in legislative offices, and the other 10 were in federal agencies working on STEM outreach.”
Strand went to D.C. in 2022,putting a teacher’s voice and influence on capitol hill.
“I was placed in the office of Congressman of DeSaulnier from California – I was his legislative assistant for all things education agriculture science and technology – I answered his citron mail, I accompanied him to committee hearings for education and labor, prepared questions, prepared memos for any speaking engagements he was doing, I helped set up an educational listening tour where we visited schools out in his district, and I set up a teacher town hall… I was looking at national educational policy the whole time I was there – it was incredible.”
Strand was also the first teacher from North Dakota to receive this prestige in the 33 years the program has existed.
How did you apply for that award?
It was about 4 or 5 lengthy essays – when I was looking at the application I thought that they needed 10,000 words – I thought ‘that’s a lot of words for this essay’ so I spent 2 weeks trying to beef them up – and then it was 10,000 characters – so I spent a lot of time editing.“
Being the amazing teacher you are, have you earned any other awards?
“I won the Presidential Award for excellence in mathematics and science teaching (PAEMST) – it’s a national award – two are selected – typically one math and one science from each state for high school every other year.
Strand is also heavily involved in AP Physics community. She has served as an exam leader and college board consultant for the AP Physics Test, helped develop content for the AP Physics C exam, and even taught about the class in China.
What brought you to Fargo South?
“West Fargo denied my request for leave of absence to do the program, and when I reapplied for an open position they told me they wouldn’t even look at my application. I wasn’t sure if I wanted to come back to teaching, but if I did, this was the building in this town I wanted to be in, because my kids went here and they had great experiences – I have a lot of admiration for admin in the building and the district.”
On a closing note, what are you liking about South so far?
“I think the kids are amazing, it’s been very welcoming – from Admin, from teachers, from students, I’ve felt welcomed.“
