Feature Teacher: Alice Flarend

Teaching Isn’t Rocket Science, But If It Was, She Studied Rocket Science

Alice+Flarend+brings+a+unique+educational+background+to+her+job+at+Bellwood-Antis.

Alice Flarend brings a unique educational background to her job at Bellwood-Antis.

It’s not rocket science…

You don’t have to be a nuclear engineer to figure it out…

Well that’s not true in Ms. Flarend’s case. Ms. Flarend is not only a high school physics teacher,  but shehas her bachelors and masters degrees in the field of nuclear engineering.

Ms. Flarend said, “Back when I was in college my dream job was to be a nuclear engineer, but now it is to be a teacher.”

She added, “I like teaching because it is difficult and interesting. People don’t always do what you tell them, and I like the challenge of trying to not only get my students to listen but to learn. That’s why, in a way, teaching is harder than being a nuclear engineer.”

And how lucky are her students to have such an intelligent, and nice, person teaching them?

Ms. Flarend also said, “I try to make class fun, but also try to get students to learn deeply and think for themselves.”

One of her colleagues, Mr. Goodman said, “What makes her such a good teacher is she has a different approach to teaching. It’s not just notes and book work, and she worries about how students apply the information and can actually use what they learn.”

Senior Alex Bartlett said, “In class, Ms. Flarend doesn’t just put notes on the board and make us copy them down, but she lets us apply what we learned and we talk about it together.”

From how much pride she takes in her work, to how she affects her students and colleagues, Ms. Flarend definitely made a good choice in becoming a teacher.