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Melody Huang, a teacher at the Shanghai World Foreign Language Academy, spent two weeks in mid-September at Harker as part of this year’s teacher exchange with the Chinese sister school. She began her first week at Harker by visiting several lower school English classes, as well as Jared Ramsey’s U.S. history class and Tobias Wade’s world geography class. At the middle school, she taught Mandarin to Xiuyu Gao’s students, and observed classes in English and expository writing.
The following week, Huang visited several classes at the upper school and taught in Shaun Jahshan’s Mandarin classes. She also observed several English classes and witnessed the fun of the upper school’s Spirit Week celebrations, including the raucous Homecoming Rally.
“I absolutely love the people here. I felt very welcomed since the first day I came,” Huang recalled. “Everyone wears a smile when I meet them in the hallway. And I remember there were couple of times people just came up to me and asked if I needed any help.”
During one weekend outing, Huang traveled to the Los Angeles area, where she visited beaches, museums and art galleries. She also toured the Bay Area, making sojourns to spots around San Jose (particularly its many confectioneries) and enjoying a day in San Francisco.
Upon arrival back home, Huang said she hopes to integrate some of what she learned at Harker into her work at SWFLA. “Bringing food and tea to the advisory session is definitely something I’m going to do when I get back!” she exclaimed.