New part time teacher, Mr. Reigstad, occupies the Roger Bacon chemistry department for the current school year.

Reigstad is settling in to a routine after teaching at Cotter for a quarter, but he still had some strong first impressions to share.

“My favorite thing about Cotter is the staff and students. The staff are extremely helpful and the students try their best to learn. Teaching international students is a great opportunity. Private school students overall try harder because they pay for it, opposed to public school, and I like that we’re able to talk about God in our classes.”

One challenge of starting a new position at Cotter has been not knowing where anything is. When he first started, he spent most of his time looking around the classrooms to find things he needed. Most of what he did find needed a good cleaning.

“I spent a lot of time preparing, and that was kind of frustrating, but Sally Frisby has helped me a lot.”

Prior to coming to Cotter, Twin Cities native Reigstad was an assistant math teacher, tutor, and worked in service learning for underprivileged Latino youth in South Minneapolis. This is his first teaching job, he teaches two sections of chemistry for the junior students.

As a big fan of the Big Bang Theory, Reigstad likes to reward his students with clips from the show. Bazinga.

No stranger to higher education, Reigstad has attended several colleges and universities, including the following: Normandale Community College, Winona State, Rochester Tech, Southwest Tech, and St. Mary’s University next fall.

He will be pursuing his masters degree at St. Mary’s next year.

“Then hopefully I will be back!” Reigstad said, “I love teaching at Cotter Schools, it feels natural.”

At home, Reigstad enjoys many activities to fill his time. He spends a large amount of time working on endurance athletics (cycling, running, etc.), competing in cross country, and used to train for 5K races. When not participating in athletics, Reigstad likes to practice woodworking, fishing, making homemade items, going to the farmer’s market, and growing trees, plants and vegetation at home.

“My ultimate goal is to just be awesome, and discover new things.”