Teaching

A Portrait of the Teacher by a Young Student

A student from my underground literature class wrote an article about her experience with my teaching method.  I had been helping the student develop her writing skills so that she could perform well on the GREs as her dream is to go to graduate school on edge of the prairie in Garrison Keillor Country — a place I had fond memories of from a journey I took in a former life.  What follows is an article she wrote about my class for a Minneapolis/St. Paul based e-zine called China Insight.

In the article, she recalls the first day I introduced myself to the class.  Her perspective can be compared with mine as I had written about it too in the post “Back to School.”

What follows is an excerpt from her article:

Academically, this American teacher is indeed a super Hollywood actor. During our first class, his phone rang, “Oh, Mr. Obama …”he said. As we heard this, all of us kept silent instantly, wanting to know whether we heard him wrong. “Yes, I am now in Xiangnan University, China, and I’ll get to know Chinese students better to give feedback to you…” he continued. This time, we all chuckled and we knew it was just a joke. However, Matt was a conscientious and responsible actor. He continued his performance, regardless of our laughter. “But Mr. Obama, can we talk  next time? Because now I am giving class…”After he hung up, he explained to us seriously that     he was sent by the President to teach Chinese students. This time, he had us rolling in the aisles successfully.

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