About

Hi, thank you for coming to the “About” page. I am Wen and I used to be a maths teacher in a selective high school in Shanghai.

When I started teaching in 2008, I thought it would always be my passion – I worked in my own high school where I could call “home”, with my previous teachers some of whom literally inspired my pursuit of this profession, and the kids with whom I would like to talk about maths! But, after eight years, things turned out to be a bit different: there is a tradition of maths teachers’ competitions in China. First off, I was asked to attend the regional competition and luckily won the 1^st place; then the citywide and again, the champion; then the nationwide and the 1^st just one more time! No one was more surprised than I was, but here I am, the “model teacher” at my school. My principle and friends were so happy for me, but not myself actually.

I wouldn’t say being the winner is a bad thing since I was the one who had put such great effort into it. But every time I reflected the 40-minute shows in front of the panels, I couldn’t see the relevance with “good teaching”, which to me is more than elaborating a difficult concept, more than skilful presentation, more than a perfect lesson plan after several drafts. I couldn’t give a clear definition then, but a recent post in dy/dan’s blog just resonated with me well. After all the fuss, these became meaningless, or even confusing, disheartening to me.

Anyway, because I was regarded as a future expert teacher, there was no turning back. I became the one in charge of the Year 10 maths curriculum, which is not the most intensive role but still under the shadow of the National Examination. And I struggled a lot with class teaching, assessment preparation, and self-positioning. Being almost worn out, I decided that I could give no more. After resigning, I came to Australia for a masters’ degree in teaching and education.

Now I am a full-time student teacher. Here, a different syllabus, a different language, and a different culture have brought me back to the starting point, (or even further backwards)? I began to learn teaching like the first time. So what have I learnt? I have learnt such cool things like what “inclusive education” and “Universal Design for Learning” are; I have realized how rewarding the professional learning network could be; I have thought about the pros and cons of direct instructions compared with the constructive approaches in secondary school settings; I have been exposed to the various digital solutions schools here could offer their maths students; and I have got the opportunities to teach at schools and compare the outward dynamics and inward philosophy with those in Shanghai.

As you can tell, I just started to blog. And this is the first draft of this “About” page. My initial plan was just to showcase my learning projects and lesson plans here. But after reading other maths teachers’ blogs, I would like to be a thoughtful, reflective and connected maths teacher as they are. So happy that I have found this place, where I hope I could know like-minded bloggers. And I wish I could persist in blogging thought English is my second language.

Thank you so much for reading till now. I don’t know where my future will be but I do hope I could lead a gospel-shaped life, (which is the meaning of my logo), and teach maths in the meantime.

Thank you 🙂

Wen