All too often, work is simply something that people endure. For me, teaching is an integral part of who I am. I remember when I was in teacher training and I had the opportunity to do a lesson on the history of jazz; after it was over, I was so excited that my whole body was shaking. Since then, the adrenaline rush has worn off, but my love of teaching has only deepened.
While I was teaching at Harmony School I constantly pushed myself outside of my comfort zone by designing new classes and taking on new projects. I taught classes ranging from Ethics Through the Lens of September 11th to Cultural Arts of East Africa, from music and percussion to graphic design and coding. I took on the roles of International Student Coordinator, Junior and Senior Advisor, and Tech Coordinator.
As MSHS Tech Coordinator at UNIS Hanoi, I’ve continued my passion for authentic, technology-rich, student centered project based learning. I’ve designed projects for classes, service learning, and in collaboration with both students and teachers. One example I love is when I collaborated with Grade 6 teachers on their visit to three temples in Hanoi. Instead of filling out a worksheet, we had the students research the temples on Wikipedia, think about what questions were not being answered, find the answers from local experts, and then edit the Wikipedia article to share their knowledge.
Another example is the work I did in 2017-18 with the HS STEAM team. The students decided to help visually impaired people by building a walking cane with a ultrasonic sensor that caused the cane to vibrate when objects were close. They call it “Supercane”, and are still working on the project on their own time a year later.
I am both a learner and a teacher, and I look forward to continuing both with every new adventure.