Meet the New Teachers Beyond Blurry Teams Photos

For those of us on campus, it seems strange that it has been weeks into the school year and the hallways are still so empty. For those of us online, it must be even stranger that school is just a computer. New students and teachers, props to you for making it this far! Let’s get to know a few of our new teachers a little better.

(1) Ms. Dixon

If you take Social Studies 10, IB Psychology or IB1 TOK, congratulations! You’ve officially met someone from Wyoming. According to said person from Wyoming, Ms. Dixon, this is a rare occurrence for most people. You may have seen Ms. Dixon walking between 327 and her actual, unused classroom, 325. Although she doesn’t spend much time in there because her classes are too big for the little corner classroom, Ms. Dixon really likes the green view from the window.

Because Ms. Dixon lives in apartments instead of houses while teaching internationally, she doesn’t feel like it would be right to have a dog like she did 11 years ago with her black Labrador: “The way [my husband and I] grew up and the way we were raised, big dogs like that don’t belong in apartments—they belong outside, in the yard.” Why 11 years? That’s how long Ms. Dixon’s teaching career has been. Before being a teacher, Ms. Dixon worked in non-profit management and marketing. Now, she really likes teaching psychology because of how unfamiliar it is to most students: “when students come to psychology, they don’t know about psychology, so they’re blank slates; I can teach them how I want them to be taught from the beginning.”

(2) Mr. Drury

Physics and Envi teacher Mr. Drury’s teaching career has also been one of 11 years, because he became a teacher at the same time as Ms. Dixon, his wife. Mr. Drury says that in his years of teaching, most people have been surprised to learn that he is in fact married to Ms. Dixon, because they have such different personalities. The pair’s last stop was Shanghai, where they taught for six years.

Mr. Drury says he came to Guangzhou to change things up a little in terms of teaching: in Shanghai, he taught both IB and AP classes, but he now looks forward to focusing on just IB and teaching an additional Environmental Sciences and Societies course. Now that he is in Guangzhou, the thing that Mr. Drury misses the most from Shanghai is the taco place near his house (which was called, ingeniously, Tacos). He also misses the long bike rides by the canal he lived close to, because he thinks the Guangzhou traffic he must brave to bike near Zhujiang is a bit too much of a risk.

If you’ve ever been to Yellowstone National Park, you’ve probably heard of the Old Faithful geyser. If Mr. Drury were a ghost, he says that he would also haunt Old Faithful Lodge: “Its a national park, so it’s a cool place. Spook some tourists… be in the wilderness. Sounds very nice.” Just like Ms. Dixon, Mr. Drury really likes being in nature. If he weren’t a teacher, he’d like to be a fishing guide or a ski instructor.

(3) Ms. Saldarelli

English teacher Ms. Saldarelli is currently teaching from Sugar Land in Texas, USA. She is not as big of a nature fan as Mr. Drury: when she travels, she prefers going to cities over nature. Despite this, she does occasionally enjoy nature, and has had some experience camping in the desert, on the beach, and on a desert beach. Ms. Saldarelli has also been on a trip organized by AISG History and Social Studies teacher Mr. Kennett—what a small world!

When Ms. Saldarelli was “was young and full of life”, she participated in three main sports: volleyball, basketball, and swimming.

For her, the best part of swimming was the burst of energy she gets while swimming.

Recently, Ms. Saldarelli has really enjoyed spending a lot of her time with her one-year old son, Graham. In her words: “I love playing with him, witnessing his wonder at the world, and sharing in his joy when he learns something new.” In her time working from home, Ms. Saldrelli has had the chance to see Graham explore his world, where he recently, excitedly discovered an elephant statue under the table and tried to initiate a conversation. It’s no wonder that if she were not a teacher, Ms. Saldarelli thinks that she would love to spend time with Graham. Of course, being cooped up all day with someone has its consequences… Ms. Saldarelli’s current pet peeve is people chewing with mouths open, no fingers pointed at anyone!

Although Ms. Saldaerelli has been teaching from online and across an ocean, she has been able to enjoy her AISG experience so far. Highlights have been when she’s managed to make some of her students laugh in class. And to those of you who *don’t* laugh, she’s sure that you are laughing on the inside too!

(4) Mr. Huang

Mr. Huang is probably one of the only teachers, both online and offline, who doesn’t seem to spend every day battling technology on the war zone called Microsoft Teams. For Mr. Huang, currently based in Tokyo, Japan, technology has not been a huge source of stress. Instead, online teaching has given him a lot of lessons on patience.

Mr. Huang sees this schedule as really good preparation for the future, when many of our workplaces will probably be online: “I think it’s a very sad situation right now, but somehow I think giving us the opportunity to take this online learning thing seriously.”

As a student is currently studying for a Master of Math degree online, Mr. Huang really believes in the importance of learning and being prepared: “I think this is a very good chance for me to keep remembering the feeling of learning something… [then,] when you’re helping someone learn, maybe you can relate a lot better about about how they’re actually feeling when they are struggling. I think that’s something that really defines me as a teacher.” Surprisingly, despite being a math teacher, Mr. Huang has found it really easy to learn languages and instruments, because they are all things that have patterns in them, just like math. Mr. Huang, we look forward to hearing you at Open Mic Night!

When asked about what place he feels is home, Mr. Huang said it was a difficult choice. Throughout his life, he’s been strongly influenced by many cultures: Taiwanese, Canadian, Burmese, Chinese and Japanese culture. He also speaks (or comes across and can very slowly converse in) a lot of languages:

• English
• Traditional Chinese
• German
• Simplified Chinese
• Burmese
• Japanese (learned in college)
• Korean (learned through Coursera!)

However, Mr. Huang feels that he can make wherever he lives and works feel like home, and is looking forward to Guangzhou becoming his new home.

WELCOME NEW TEACHERS! Ram Nation welcomes you all and can’t wait for everyone to be on campus together.