Tonisha Strand

I teach 7th and 8th grade science at Chester Community Charter School, where I've been for 4 years. I have a total of 6 honors classes with over 200-300 students. As a lead teacher, I supervise other teachers, making sure they have everything done like grades and lesson plans, and I organize different events for the school, field trips, and schedule meetings. I also run the after-school program for grades K through 8th grade. When I left college, I was into the management field, but I started doing building sub work maybe twice a week, and I started to like the environment. I like to teach, I like being around the kids, helping them with their academic growth. It's something I got really good at, and I stuck with it, and after that I just kept leveling it up each time. The Director of Science, Danae Thomas, definitely helped shape the teacher I am today. One of my most rewarding professional achievements is seeing my students grow in their scores when they take the PSSAs. For the last 2 years, I've been mentoring teachers, and I've recently signed up for student mentoring for students in college coming to the school.