Meet Our Teachers
“…
the students in my school back then would
intentionally avoid me.” This is a recollection from
Yang Zhaohui’s very first year of teaching Math in Beijing’s
No.22 Middle School. This was soon after his graduation
from Beijing Normal University in 1994 with a degree in
Mathematics. Mr. Yang remembers how miserable students
learning Math through conventional methods can be. He also
remembers receiving a grade 8 Math textbook from Australia
at that time. This textbook, as thick as six Chinese Math
textbooks, made him feel “like it was holding its arms wide
open, inviting me to the wonderful world of Math,” described
Mr. Yang, quickly adding, “For instance, one Math problem
in the book explained the kinds of nutrients in food and
their relative ratios. From a mathematical standpoint, ratios
such as these can be presented using a simple equation with
seemingly no relevance to the real world. But the book adopted
a highly practical approach, so the students would not only
study math, but also nutritional information. I could easily
visualize how happy students would be sitting in classrooms
with this textbook.” This and similar other instances were
what prompted him to steer his teaching career onto the road
of international education.
Starting at Beijing’s Pakistan Embassy College, Mr. Yang
continued teaching in international schools in Fiji, India,
Dubai and Hong Kong. Through the years he has also become
deeply involved with the International Baccalaureate (IB)
curriculum through planning and designing its 2005 MYP
Math textbook that became very popular among schools,
and also as an IB Diploma Programme (DP) examiner. “I
am responsible for spot checking grading systems used by
international schools around the world to assess their rigor
and compliance with IB standards. Examiners are already
experienced DP teachers themselves, but this position allows
examiners to gain further insights into the strengths and
weaknesses of students from other schools, and apply such
insights to their teaching.” Everything Mr. Yang does or is
involved in is an addition to his skills, self-improvement and
dedication to continue to be an even better Math teacher, but
without losing the fun and joy of learning and teaching Math.
One + One = Fun
Doing an exhaustive list of Math exercises for practice is
no fun. This test-oriented approach, used by many Chinese
public schools, may help some students achieve high scores
in some tests, such as the SAT, but it is not the best way to
cultivate