Ms. Tang is both the homeroom teacher and English teacher of class 7-4. She graduated from university in 2001 and has been an English teacher ever since. She started teaching at Dandelion in late 2013, which makes her considerably newer to the school compared to some of the other teachers. What I have noticed about Ms. Tang is that she treats me very professionally. When I sat down to eat lunch with her, she only talked about the class and the students. She shared many funny anecdotes about our class with me and another teacher that was sitting with us. Ms. Tang frequently comes to talk with me in the office about lesson plans and the students’ progress. She is extremely clear in what she would like me to do and keeps me updated on any changes in scheduling or planning. With her planning, class 7-4 is always on top of things. In preparation for the song and play competitions coming up, she has had the students practice everyday for more than a week now. For the play, she made the students memorize all the words as soon as the scripts were given out. I know that a couple of the other seventh grade classes did not start practicing so early and they did not have a set schedule of rehearsals like my class. Towards the students, Ms. Tang is strict. Many times, she yells at students who cannot correctly answer her questions. However, I have noticed that after she does shout, she always uses a nicer tone afterwards. She does not want to be intentionally unkind to the students with her yelling- she is just trying to keep the class disciplined. She cares a lot about her students. There have been a few instances where a student has felt unwell and she has been extremely caring towards them. When she asks me to come up with activities, she requests that the activities be fun, engaging, and exciting. She is aware that her lectures are very stern, so she tries to incorporate class activities for the students to enjoy. She is not inclined to talk with me about things unrelated to school. At this point, I think she is not comfortable yet with sharing personal information with me. The other seventh grade teachers who have been at Dandelion for several years now, seem to be more comfortable with interacting with us Duke students in a casual content. Ms. Tang seems reluctant to spend casual down time with me, since when I asked her if she and I could go out for a meal sometime, she said that she had a stomachache. However, I am sure that with time she will go out and eat with me. |