Last year, Reid Jiang was brought in as Lisa Beck’s long-term substitute for maternity leave. This year, he’s teaching ninth and tenth grade literature, and with a year of teaching at Liberty under his belt, he has noticed some changes in his teaching.

What are some differences between teaching this year and last year, considering you’re full-time this year?

In terms of what I can do and what we’re talking about, I feel more confident about it because I’ve done it once before. I’ve been able to adjust faster.

Would you say it’s easier compared to last year?

I thought it would be.This year I thought I could roll into it, but it’s been different. It hasn’t been much easier, it’s just been different: different students, different experiences, different problems, different good things.

Now that you have a year of teaching at Liberty under your belt, would you say connections with students are easier to make?

Yeah, for sure. But the freshmen, I was thinking ‘I don’t know you’. The freshmen don’t know me, and as a teacher I have to keep that in mind. I need to teach them and help them with [that in mind]. I think I did good thing in class [last year], and hopefully I can do that again.