Daniel Lande is a beloved teacher at Sentinel High School. He is a business department teacher that specializes in computer science. Beyond his work in the computer science program he is a coach for the Missoula Robotics Team (MRT). His work in both these areas has made him a favorite teacher for a lot of students in the program.
Along with his work in school he plays the french horn professionally for the Missoula Symphony Orchestra and the Helena Symphony Orchestra. He also plays in The Missoula Community Band and The Missoula Big Band.
Lande is the only Computer Science/Information Technology teacher at Sentinel. He teaches Computer Science Essentials, Computer Science Principles, Computer Science A, Computer Science Capstone, Computer Science Foundations, Digital Media and Gaming Tech, Network Engineering, Cybersecurity, and Engineering Design and Development.
Computer Science Essentials, Computer Science Principles, Computer Science A, and Cybersecurity are through a nationwide STEM program, Project Lead The Way (PLTW). Lande is a PLTW master teacher. The master teacher certification is difficult to achieve and requires many years of training. Due to Lande’s experience level with the program he teaches classes to non master teachers to help them become successful master teachers.
Among the classes he teaches, one stands out to him. Computer Science A is his favorite class to teach because it focuses on software engineering, which is his background from college to his first job after college.
His least favorite class to teach is Computer Science Principles. This has been his least favorite class to teach for the last three years. Computer Science Principles doesn’t have the same motivation as the rest of his classes to get their work done and that usually means they don’t get their work done on time or at all.
Lande thinks that the COVID-19 pandemic might have something to do with the lack of motivation he is seeing. He said “COVID school was so easy that [students] only did … a couple hours of work every day and got used to just not doing anything.”
He can be disappointed in the motivation that he sees because his classes are elective. He thinks if a student doesn’t want to learn in his class that they just shouldn’t take it because an F goes on a transcript. A prerequisite for Computer Science A is Computer Science Principles.
Lande says that his least favorite part of being a teacher is grading. Grading is repetitive and boring he says. His favorite part of being a teacher is lecturing. He likes to lecture because he gets to talk about the stuff he is passionate about. Most of his classes are not lecture based therefore he does not get to lecture a whole lot. When he was a teacher at the University of Montana he lectured every class period and he misses that life a lot.
Lande says that he is a fair and kind teacher. He is always accepting of all students no matter what background they have.
Lande has a unique grading policy for all of his classes. His students can turn in assignments for full credit all the way until he puts it in the grade book. Once it is in the grade book students can turn it in for a max of 50%. After the chapter or unit that the assignment was contained in is over it can no longer be turned in for credit. He still encourages students to do the assignments so that they can learn the material but does not require it. Lande uses his computer science knowledge to help out on The Missoula Robotics Team.
Lande is the assistant coach for The Missoula Robotics Team and loves what he does with students. The Missoula Robotics Team a FIRST® Robotics Competition team and competes across the nation against and with other teams. He says that it is “The hardest fun you’ll ever have.” and “[A] competition of the mind.”
Lande has been teaching at Sentinel for nine years and has learned a lot. He started as a math teacher. At some point in his career he started teaching computer science. Computer science slowly became his main subject. He now teaches one engineering class. Lande is also the coach of the Sentinel Cyberpatriot team and the advisor for The Sentinel High School Computer Science Club.
Cyberpatriot is a computer competition from the Air Force Association. It challenges students in a variety of ways, having them secure a computer system. During computer science club students compete against other teams from different schools also in the Cyberpatriot program. Also in computer science club, students compete in The American Computer Science League, and Advent of Code.
Lande has had a lot of odd jobs in his life. He was a drywaller, painter, a graduate teaching assistant, a graduate research assistant, a graduate assistant of technology, and the Vice President and Co-Founder of Orbital Shift. Orbital Shift is employee scheduling software and online employee time clock.
Lande said that his job as a drywaller and painter was terrible and the job really messed up his back. He is not cut out for physical labor, that’s why he’s a teacher. Lande also raced motocross for five years. He raced until he fractured his back in a racing accident. After that incident he went into retirement.
