Lin Laoshi's Classroom Wishlist

In The Innocents Abroad, Mark Twain wrote:

Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness, and many of our people need it sorely on these accounts. Broad, wholesome, charitable views of men and things cannot be acquired by vegetating in one little corner of the earth all one's lifetime.

Even if we physically remain in a classroom in St. Paul, learning a new language is a great way to open doors to a new culture while fostering empathy and understanding.

As we learn and wrestle with the Chinese language together, it’ll be our mind’s passport to another part of our world.

As the IB program puts it, “The ability to communicate in a variety of modes in more than one language is essential to the concept of an international education that promotes multilingualism and intercultural understanding.”

In our Chinese world language class we will focus on

• Communication
• Connections
• Creativity
• Culture

In our Chinese immersion science classes, we will focus on

• Change
• Relationships
• Systems
• Scientific and technical innovation
• Globalization and sustainability

Random Autobiography:

Two of my favorite foods are tater tots and cream cheese wontons. My palate disappoints my Taiwanese mother, but I do love her cooking. 

I am SCUBA certified and have visited the Galapagos Islands: I attended a university that was closer to my home than my high school, but I studied abroad twice during my college career: Belize and Ecuador. I majored in biology and education. 

I am a classically trained pianist turned electric bassist: for a few years before I started teaching, I was involved with a faith-based music program that toured mainly around the US and Canada and a bit overseas. With them, I’ve visited Singapore, Honduras, Taiwan and Hong Kong.