Brekhus named Havre teacher of the year

Havre High School science teacher Erika Brekhus was named Havre Public Schools certified employee of the year/teacher of the year by the district.

"It's quite an honor to be number one nominated for it and then receiving the award to be recognized by others that you work so closely with on a day-to-day basis, and you see the amazing things that they do on a day-to-day basis, Brekhus said. "It's quite an honor."

At Havre High she teaches Unified Lab Science, Chemistry 1 and Driver's Education, and for Montana Digital Academy she teaches Algebra 2 and Intro to Statistics, she said.  

Brekhus said she is a Havreite; she grew up here and graduated from Havre High in 2004.

"Some of the people that I work with I actually took classes from when I was in high school," she said.

She received her bachelor's degree in chemistry education from Montana State University, she said, adding that she then moved back to Havre where she received an endorsement from Montana State University-Northern on mathematics to be able to teach that subject.

Her first job was teaching in Box Elder in 2009, she said.

She said she started working for Havre Public Schools at Havre Middle School in 2012.

This is her seventh year working at Havre High, but she has taught for a total of 11 years, she added.

She said quite a few people in her life inspired her to be a teacher; one in particular is her father, Kevin Johnson.

He was an automotive instructor at Northern for quite a few years, she said.

"He would bring his tests home to correct and I would always help him correct his tests, and I think that's what first sparked it." Brekhus said. "... I went and sat in a couple of his classes, and I really liked what he did even though I had no idea what he was talking about, so I always knew I wanted to be a teacher from a young age."

When she got into high school, she said, she took her first chemistry class and she loved it - she knew exactly what she wanted to teach.

Carol Pleninger was her chemistry and AP chemistry teacher, and now she gets to work with her, Brekhus said.

In the unprecedented times of the COVID-19 pandemic, she said, she does a lot of hands-on things in her classes with her students.

"Having the hands-on engagement aspect of it I think is really going to keep the kids wanting to come back to see us this year," she said. "It's definitely a different year, and we're definitely going to have some trials and errors as we move through the school year, but we'll find that piece that works really well to keep them on track and successful."

She said her favorite memories of teaching are seeing students graduate and going off to college and coming back and just saying, "Man, you really did prepare me for that class and I'm really grateful for it - that class is so easy because of what we learned."

Another one of her favorite memories is when a student, any time during the school year, tells her they enjoyed what they did and wished they could do it again.

"Seeing that joy and seeing how successful some of them do become, and knowing you had a part of it is really an amazing thing," Brekhus added.