Teacher Feature: April 2025
Steve Strait
Math Teacher
Westfield High School, Fairfax County Public Schools
Steve was a member of the 2024 STEM Teacher Leadership Academy!
From Steve:
“I recently moved to Virginia from the Too Much Sunshine State of Arizona. I have been teaching math and science for the past 22 years and have Masters Degrees in Secondary Education and Leadership. My passions include learning, traveling, meeting new people and building relationships. As a Marine, a police officer, and now a teacher, my goal has always been to make people’s lives a little better than they were before.”
Read our full interview with Steve below:
1. We were so happy to hear that you have moved to Virginia to teach! What brought you to the Commonwealth?
During the 23-24 school year I was picked to be part of a Fellowship through Arizona State University called the Arizona STEM Acceleration Project (ASAP). Throughout the year I attended and participated in over a dozen professional development trainings throughout Arizona and San Diego. One of the trainings was the Southwest Teacher Air Camp at Davis-Monthan Air Force Base in Tucson Arizona, where I met Dr. Kim Jacoby Morris and Kate Kogge. After talking their ears off and a couple follow-up calls, along with some good timing, I was invited to attend the 2024 STEM Teacher Leadership Academy in Washington DC.
During the week-long training, I met and became friends with numerous teachers from both Fairfax County and Prince George County schools. I was excited to learn about the differences between Arizona and the DMV school systems. After a few days of shared experiences, a couple of the teachers offered to help me apply for both leadership (which I have a degree in as well) and teaching positions around the DMV area. Although nothing happened before the end of our training, I kept in touch with Melissa Green, an academic coach in Fairfax County, who continued to advocate for me and send me suggestions of open positions. In November, I found a position that drew my interest and after a couple weeks of emails, Zoom interviews, and lots of digital paperwork, I was offered and accepted a position at Westfield High School. Two weeks later I was on a plane to start a new path in my career.
None of this would have occurred without a passion for learning, and the continued drive to seek more within the education field. You never know who the right person or the right contact will be, and the world truly is out there if you are just willing to share and grow every day. I can’t begin to thank all of those along the way who have helped me to get to this position.
2. What led you to your current role at Westfield High School? Have you always been in education?
I have been a teacher for the past 22 years in Arizona and now Virginia. Before this, I was a Marine, a police officer, and a small business owner. I grew up playing baseball in high school and college and always thought that I would make it my life path. After a shoulder injury in college, I had to rethink my goals. Following several different career starts, I always felt that something was missing. I was in my early 40’s when I decided to go back to my original passion which was baseball. Since I was beyond playing years, I thought the next best thing was to be a coach. So, I decided to go back to school and become a teacher. When I was in school, math always came easy for me. Most of my undergrad classes were either math or science related so as I finished my master’s in education, I became certified in both areas.
Over the next 20 years, I coached baseball in middle school and gained a passion for teaching math and science. I realized that although it was not my original goal, I really began to enjoy being in the classroom teaching. When the above-mentioned opportunity presented itself, I quickly took advantage of the situation which is how I arrived at Westfield HS. I am currently teaching all levels of high school math in an alternative setting called TSRC (Transition Support Resource Center). The job allows me to work one-on-one with students and I feel like I am making an impact with struggling math students. And although I only arrived in December, I found my way to the head baseball coach and have now furthered my passion by becoming a coach for the high school JV baseball team.
The central theme of my life is my desire to help others to reach their life goals, whether it is learning or playing a sport. I have never taken the easy path and am always looking for an opportunity to grow and share my experiences and knowledge with others. To me there is no greater feeling than to help someone else reach their next life goal.
3. What is your favorite classroom resource that you love to share with your students? What memorable lessons or activities have you been able to carry out using this resource?
When I was teaching science, I loved to integrate both math and technology into my lessons so that the kids understood the practical applications for the things we learn in class. When students can tie a math lesson they have learned or use new technology to apply some of the concepts, they seemed to be much more excited about learning, which made class much more fun for everyone involved. One of my favorite things to do whenever we had a chance was using the Edison robots that I had gotten through a grant. The students were able to use math calculations as well as figuring time and distance to calculate the moves and the movement of the robots. Many of the students would compete to see who could create the most complex and enduring patterns. Some would strive to find bigger challenges to overcome that others hadn’t thought about. But the good thing was that they all enjoyed ability to do something different than their normal day to day work. Although I no longer teach science or have my own set of Edison robots, I know that if I need them that they are available through the ACCESS Lending Library, and I can bring them into my classroom for another round of Robot Wars!!
4. What is your favorite part about your job?
In my new position in Fairfax County, I am able to work with small groups of students and feel that I am finally able to spend time with students who really struggle with concepts, giving them more than a few minutes each of my time. When a student needs my help, I can sit and spend as much time as they need to explain a concept and in just a short time here, I am already finding success with many students. In a typical classroom I spent the largest portion of the class teaching a lesson, and then the remainder dividing my time among the 30 students who all needed my time. In the end, I felt like I didn’t give any one student the time that they probably needed to help them understand the concept they were struggling to understand. Then the next day, I would start all over again teaching a new lesson with much of the class still reeling to understand the lesson from the day before. Although I am teaching far fewer students per day than ever before, I believe that at the end of the year nearly every one of them will walk away with a better understanding of math concepts.
Thank you so much, Steve!
