Behind the Mask: Lehman

Keith Lehman is everyone’s favorite 26 year old old man. He is notorious as the teacher who wakes up at 3:30 a.m. to begin his work day and goes to sleep around 6 p.m-7 p.m. (though he says that has changed after one of his many realizations during quarantine that “moderation is key,” in his own words). He teaches AP Statistics as well as Algebra I, so students of multiple grade levels get the opportunity to have him as a teacher. He was also the student teacher for Mrs. Thompson our eighth grade year, so many of us have had him as both a student teacher and actual teacher. After only three full years of teaching, Lehman won the Teacher of the Year award last year for the 2019-2020 school year. Lehman is also very involved around North outside of school. He is a Boys Cross Country coach as well as the head Girls Track coach. Whether you know him from a math class, a sport, or from hearing his quirky laugh in the hallways, we all have come to appreciate Mr. Lehman for all the hard work he does to make Fargo North a better place. So we present to you; Mr. Lehman, Behind the Mask.
Lehman is a true northsider. He has always lived on the northside of Fargo for his entire life. He attended Washington Elementary, Ben Franklin Middle School, and, of course, Fargo North High School. During his time in high school, Lehman was involved in student council, JCL, cross country, track, Spartan Ambassadors, orchestra, national honor society, and, “probably some others that I can’t remember.” His senior year, he was the student council president as well as the Homecoming King (though in his own words he said, “I am trying to bury that fact that I was kInG sPaRtA, but yes, I was.”).
The highlight of his childhood was often visiting his grandparents at their farm on the weekends. Because his mom worked night shifts and his dad worked day shifts (hence his odd sleeping schedule), his parents would often have him spend time with his grandparents. This is where Lehman gained a new appreciation for often overlooked average objects. Lehman would spend his weekends flying a kite on the farm and entertaining himself with random objects. This is also where Lehman would gain his appreciation for being outdoors, which has become one of his hobbies today. Another unique thing Mr. Lehman learned how to do during his childhood was playing the piano behind his head (though he isn’t sure he could do it anymore). On the contrary, Lehman’s most traumatic childhood experience involved his older sister. Despite her small stature on the outside, Lehman said she was “incredibly strong” given her size. He distinctly remembers one instance where she shoved him in a hamper, put the hamper in a closet, and sat in front of the closet door trapping him inside.
After high school, Lehman attended NDSU vowing to avoid math courses. Little did he know, flash forward four years in the future, he would be one of his alma mater’s favorite math teachers. He started college by exploring majors that required the least amount of math. He looked at careers like nursing (which he quickly ruled out) and eventually settled on being a health physical education major. Deep down, he knew he had always been interested in teaching and he knew he wanted to stay close to home. Unfortunately, his advisor at NDSU informed him that there is a lack of openings for physical education teachers in the Fargo area. His advisor helped him explore which types of teachers were most in demand in the Fargo area. The Math education was in the most demand in the Fargo area, so Lehman decided to settle with a math minor. As he continued to take math courses in college, he learned that math isn’t quite so bad afterall. With that, he went on to get a double major in math and math education from NDSU. He just achieved his masters from Minot State last spring.
Many students who have never taken a math course with Mr. Lehman fit into the large population of people who believe in the stigma surrounding math being a boring and unfun class. When we asked Lehman why he believes there’s a stigma surrounding math, he believed it was because, “students are taught foundational math skills for most of their childhood lives and it is often hard to apply those foundational math skills to real life situations.” He went on to speak on how many students and people in general get caught up in the mindset of either being a math person or not being a math person.
Over quarantine, Mr. Lehman kept himself busy by learning new hobbies and growing some old ones. Lehman enjoyed spending time outside biking, running, walking, and really anything else he could do. He also began learning how to play the Irish tin whistle. Originally, he wanted to learn how to play the bagpipes. After a bit of research, Lehman realized that they are a bit out of his price range as of now and his elderly neighbors may not be the biggest fans of hearing a new bagpipe player in the building. Irish tin whistles are basically the whistle part of a bagpipe. They look similar to a recorder and sound similar to a flute (sounds like music played at the Celtic Festival in Moorhead circa 2017 St. Patrick’s day weekend). So, for now, his compromise is to become proficient with his Irish tin whistle.
Other hobbies Mr. Lehman enjoys going on hikes at state parks in the summer), taking pictures of his car, and managing his apartment building. He says most of the residents in his apartment are very sweet elderly people and he enjoys that experience, because the residents never fail to surprise him (with both good surprises and some not so good surprises). Lehman does not have too much free time outside of school and coaching. As he told us, “Teaching is a lifestyle.” Even with this, he wouldn’t trade it for the world.
During the summer, Lehman likes to stay sharp in teaching and learning. Before COVID, he was a tutor for the Legacy Children’s Foundation over his summer break. He also tries to do lots of professional development during his breaks. Lehman enjoys participating in summer running to stay on a nice schedule. As he mentioned before, he loves doing anything involving the outdoors including walking, running, biking, and even yard work (so teachers, if your kids won’t help you with summer yard work- maybe Lehman will). Lehman also enjoys using free time during the summer to conduct various statistical studies. Some of his favorites topic studies include the variation of ages of people in his apartment, studying the correlation of teacher collaboration to student success, and people’s perception of being a math person versus not being a math person. His most recent study he conducted was regarding local elections. He biked down every street in District 44 and counted the number of democratic yard signs and republicans yard signs and compared those results to actual results to see if you could predict election results based off of yard signs.
Lehman also gave his stats students the chance at attending a virtual Club Penguin Prom after the cancellation of our actual in person prom. This experience was one that I (Sam here) will most definitely not forget. It was a super fun dance with my virtual penguin friends and was probably a lot more drama free than actual prom would have been. Lehman hopes that we can have an actual prom this year, but he understands things are not necessarily looking good for that, so he plans to host another virtual prom. Rumor has it that Club Penguin will be shutting down next year with the shutting down of adobe flash games, but have no fear, Mr. Lehman is already cooking up some alternative ideas that most definitely will not disappoint.
If you know Lehman, chances are you probably know that he is extremely proud of his car. His 1999 Buick Park Avenue has done him well through all his years of driving it. His car even served as his computer background for a long period of time last school year. As promised, we included some of his many photos of his Buick in this feature. Other things Mr. Lehman takes pride in include his self proclaimed talent of being able to grade papers super fast and being super good at powerpoint animations.
If you’ve made it this far, you should know by now that Mr. Lehman is not just a boring math teacher. This interview uncovered many new secrets that we had not known, even after being in his classes. Who knew our own math teacher is an Irish-whistle-playing homecoming king? We bet you didn’t, so our word of advice is this: get to know your teachers, you may never know what secrets they are hiding 😉