Walking around at the high school, you are sure to see many new faces. Some of those new faces are new teachers who have joined the MHS community this year. Get familiar with some of these new teachers with the interviews below.

Sydney Flatness

What is your name? What subject do you teach? How many years have you been teaching and where?

My name is Sydney Flatness. I’m an art teacher, and this is my first year teaching. I graduated last May of 2022. [I’m] fresh out of the can.

What or who inspired you to teach?

That was probably my high school art teacher. Guy Lorraine was his name. He created an environment that I felt very challenged in but in a good way. I felt like he gave me an outlet where I could express myself that my other subjects wouldn’t allow me to. Most of the other stuff was like words or what kind of thoughts you have, but in art, I was able to visually express myself which was very appealing to me. I wanted to create that kind of safe space for other students that don’t have a classroom like that, and just give them a fun place to be creative.

What are your favorite topics to teach and why?

I mean ceramics has really grown on me. I was only ever able to take one ceramics class in high school, so coming to Minnetonka and teaching it was the first time I had actually thrown on the wheel before. I didn’t tell any of the students that because I was like “Fake it ‘til you make it,” but it actually taught me something new. I was like “Wow. this is a really cool medium.” So I really like ceramics, but drawing is fun too. I love the upper-level classes just because they give a lot of detail and focus into their work, but I really do love the beginner-levelNew Faces 3: An Ultramarathoner and a Film Photographer stuff where they just get to experience stuff. Hopefully, I can encourage them to take another art class.

Give a fun fact about yourself.

I develop my own film. When I was student teaching at Johnston High School in Iowa, which is where I’m from, for a couple of weeks, I taught a dark room photography class, so I had to learn how to do that, and I was like “Wow, this is really cool”, so I started doing it at home as a hobby. It has been the coolest experience ever. Very scary with chemicals, but, yeah, it’s very cool.

Give a fun fact not about yourself.

Flamingos get their color from the shrimp they eat. That is why they’re pink.

What is your favorite piece of media right now?

As I’ve gotten into subbing, I’ve had a lot of downtime, where I kind of just let my students work, so I have been reading a lot. Sarah J. Maas is probably my favorite author at the moment. She has written A Court of Thorns and Roses, a series, and I’m reading her Crescent City series right now. I’ve gotten half way through it in about a week, so I’ve had a lot of downtime. Yeah, I have really gotten back into reading.

If you could have dinner with anyone, alive or dead, who would it be and why?

Probably, Vincent Van Gogh. I would love to just tell him how appreciated he is in the future, and that his efforts weren’t in vain. Even though, they have discovered that he was probably killed on accident and that it wasn’t suicide, I still would love to tell him how much of an impact he’s had on the artistic world. So yeah, I’d have dinner with Vincent Van Gogh.

What cookie would you be and why?

Gingersnap for obvious reasons, and also I just think they’re really good.

Ben Drexler

What is your name? What subject do you teach? How many years have you been teaching and where?

Ben Drexler. Twelve years of teaching at White Bear Lake High School and Plymouth Middle School. And I’m a math teacher.

What or who inspired you to teach?

My college calculus teacher at NDSU.

What are your favorite topics to teach and why?

I like teaching geometry because it’s very challenging, and it’s an interesting math subject. [As well as] any higher level algebra stuff.

Give a fun fact about yourself.

I’m an ultramarathoner. And the longest race I have run was 103 miles…on the Superior hiking trail, up on the North Shore. That trail runs like 300 miles from the south terminus to the north terminus along the border of Lake Superior, and they have that 100 mile trail race up there in September every year.

Give a fun fact not about yourself.

You need 56 Lebron James to stack up to the height of the tallest tree in the world, which is Hyperion.

What is your favorite piece of media right now?

Of Monsters and Men, an indie rock band from Iceland, just released today this album called The Cabin Sessions. It’s one of their previous albums, but they just recorded it in a cabin in Iceland, and it’s super acoustic-y and really chill.

If you could have dinner with anyone, alive or dead, who would it be and why?

My thirteen year old self, so that I could give myself a bit better advice about preparing for the real world. For what’s coming and for what I should do differently in middle school and high school.

What cookie would you be and why?

I’m going to go with a monster cookie because it has a little bit of all the good stuff in it. It has peanut butter and M&M’s and chocolate and oatmeal in it. It’s got a lot of good stuff. [Although,] my favorite cookie is mint chocolate fudge.