新高一教师风采（部分）

加方英语课程教师，英语辩论社指导教师，毕业于美国罗切斯特理工学院并获得语言研究和口译学士学位，同时荣获优等荣誉，于莫兰大学获教师资格证书。

不犯同一个错误。

我喜欢这个座右铭，因为它鼓励发展性思维。错误是最伟大的老师，只要我们不重复过去的错误，我们就知道在学习。失败得越多，成功就越快，所以我们要拥抱学习过程，不要害怕尝试！

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Anna老师教学风格轻松活泼，妙趣横生，深受学生好评。她认为，日常小事通常比那些一生中仅有一次的重要时刻更具影响力。所以，Anna老师以关注灵活性，接受来自同事、领导甚至是学生们的反馈和建议为傲。她始终保持一颗初学者的心态，以确保用的方式来教育学生。

I completed my bachelor’s degree with Cum Laude recognition in Language Study and Interpreting from the Rochester Institute of Technology in 2010, and a teaching certificate from Moreland University in 2023. I have taught all ages from pre-k to high school and have found my home in the high school setting.

“Always make new mistakes.”  I like this motto because it encourages a growth mindset. Our mistakes are our greatest teachers. As long as we are not repeating the mistakes of the past, we know we are learning. The more you fail, the quicker you succeed, so let’s embrace the learning process and not be afraid to try!

I believe this has to do with balancing our receptivity and flexibility with our standards and fairness. I listen and make reasonable accommodations for students when they need it, but I also maintain fairness and high standards in my classroom. I am always clear and transparent with my goals, schedule, and my mistakes. I make a point that even teachers make mistakes, and I try to model the growth mindset of learning from our mistakes that I want my students to embody. I also use humor in a measured way in my classes to drive engagement, from funny memes and pictures in my presentations to acting out difficult words in funny ways. Finally and most importantly, I listen to my students. Everyone wants to be heard, understood, and validated. I try to catch them being good and praise the effort and behaviors I want to see. Praising effort and hard work has been shown in research to be more effective than praising results at encouraging students to internalize the identity of a self-driven learner.

While academic performance is important, being a well-rounded emotionally intelligent human being is just as important in my mind. I believe it is important to cultivate a growth mindset. I notice many of my students, if they are not understanding the assignment instructions, are afraid to ask for clarification or help out of fear or embarrassment. I often use praise in these situations, publicly praising students who ask for clarification. There is never such a thing as a stupid question.

I find students at SCCSC take incredible ownership of their own learning. From the very beginning of school, I’ve had students asking to be English class representatives, students stepping up to take on leadership roles, and every class I teach there are always students proactively tackling their assignments. Furthermore, I am touched to see the many ways that students help each other in my class, from offering translation, helping students find resources and materials on CanGlory, to patiently explaining assignment instructions to each other. I even observed two students of different English levels reading together, the lower-level student reading and the higher-level student listening and offering corrections, feedback, and interpretation of the harder words. This kind of support and care is indicative of a healthy and thriving educational culture at SCCSC.

The teacher’s energy and interest is infectious. I try to find any keyhole of my own personal interest to connect to the material myself, because if I bring my own passion and energy to the classroom, it will most certainly rub off on the students. Additionally, I collect data on the student’s interests and try to relate the material to their interests. I also specifically design or modify assignments to let students connect to the learning material through their own interests. Recently in our poetry unit, I had a student ask if he could write about rap for his poem. As I could tell he had a genuine interest in it, I permitted the request, and what came out of it was a student who worked hard for three periods in a row on a poem, a subject he previously said he had no interest in.

Small everyday events are often more influential than big once-in-a-lifetime moments, for we are built on the atoms of our daily habits. I pride myself on remaining flexible and taking feedback and suggestions on a moment-by-moment basis from my co-teachers, leaders, administration, and also and often more importantly, from my students in the form of formative assessments and direct observation. Just this week as we were reading from our book, I noticed several students kept falling asleep. One of the students in my class suggested I make the sleeping students read. I thought this was a great idea. I praised her and implemented her suggestion, to great effect. Keeping a beginner’s mind ensures that I am open to the best ways to educate our students.