Steven Johnsen-Math

Mr. Johnsen is a new staff member here at Western who teaches study skills and Algebra 1. In his free time he is very passionate about music, and the Blue Ridge Mountains. Johnson loves spending valuable time with his students, and believes in keeping alive the inner child in all of us. 

Q: What led you to this profession?

A: I’ve always said, I like teaching, I like young people, and I play music. I’ve done a lot of different jobs and teaching fits with that. I gave music lessons for many years, and that made me realize that.

Q: Why did you choose Western, as a school?

A: I love the mountains out here. and I wanted to play music. I also wanted to meet more people out in this area.

Q: What kind of music do you play?

A: Blues, r&b.

Q: What college did you go to?

A: I graduated from George Mason, went to Cal State, and went to Penn State.

Q: Did you want to be a teacher growing up?

A: Let me see, God, no. Sorry.  I took a test when I was younger that said, “you’d be really good at teaching or music!”,  entertainment.  I thought the entertainment thing sounded right on, the teaching sounded crazy. That’s a test called ASVAB. You guys can actually take it, it’s very accurate. 

Q:  What are some daily challenges? 

 A: It’s just little things, like don’t screw up kids’ features. Behavior stuff, I think sometimes it’s a big deal. And it’s only a big deal because it’s sort of teaching young people accountability. So sometimes teachers might struggle with that. It’s not necessarily whether it matters to you or not, things like that. There’s a role and then you so that gets to be sort of a drain.