Q
What is your background? Where do you come from?

ABoth my parents were born in China and they immigrated here back in the 80s. They went to school on the East Coast, and that is where I was born. We moved to Washington back when I was maybe four, and I’ve been living here ever since. I went to school at Newport High, and then went to Cal Berkeley for my undergraduate degree and the University of Washington for my Masters, in teaching

Q
How long have you been teaching?

AThis is my first year teaching, I just graduated this summer and this is my first time officially teaching in front of a class.

Q
Why did you go into teaching?

A I had a teacher in college, my first English teacher, who gave us stuff that I thought was completely and utterly crazy…. Then I went to talk to him one day about it, outside of class, and he said, “But it does mean stuff, you have to look deeper”. And that was the first time someone told me I could be wrong. I could go further than what I thought. That changed me. A teacher did that for me, and I would like to be that same kind of teacher for other people.
Q
What is the weirdest thing you’ve seen subbing?

AI was subbing at an elementary school; it was a second or third grade class. My kids were talking, and I was trying to get their attention, but it just wasn’t working. I found it really funny, because the kids were just being themselves. While I was trying to get their attention, one of them walked up to me, and said “You smile a lot. Why do you smile so much?” And I told her that it’s good to smile. We should smile more.