Give a Man a Fish
Join us each Tuesday as we feature a short conversation with one of our exceptional faculty or staff members so that you can get to know a little bit about them.
Meet Middle School and High School World Languages Teacher Jing Shen
Jing joined EC in 2014 and is our middle school and high school world languages teacher and a department chair. Jing is originally from a small city called Ganzhou in Southern China. She earned her Bachelor of Arts in mathematics education for grades 9-12 from North Carolina State University. She is also certified to teach Chinese to grades K-12. Before joining EC, she taught Mandarin classes for Wake County public schools in North Carolina.
Q: What would students be surprised to find out about you?
I am afraid of anything that moves without legs, such as snakes and slugs. Caterpillars with spikes are the worst.
Q: What is your “trapped on a desert island” book or movie?
Any movie that has Tom Hanks in it would be my “trapped on a desert island” movie; “Cast Away” would be a perfect fit.
Q: If you could take another EC teacher’s class, even for one day, which class would you enroll in?
I would like to sit in Mr. Brown’s classroom for a day. Since I have a mathematics education degree, I don’t really need to learn math, but I’d like to sit in and listen to his funny stories!
While I’m helping students not just in...subject learning, I also want them to have the necessary skills to go further and higher in their future.
Q: What is your philosophy on teaching and education?
Every student learns in different ways. Anybody can be anybody’s teacher. I may be a teacher for a specific subject area, but I also learn from others, including my students. There is an old Chinese saying: “Give a man a fish, you feed him for a day; teach a man to fish, you feed him for a lifetime.” While I’m helping students not only in middle school and high school subject learning, I also want them to have the necessary skills to go further and higher in their future.
Q: What is the greatest success you've had with teaching?
I have a few teacher moments that stand out to me:
- A former who shared with me she had chosen Chinese as her minor in college.
- A seventh grade student who messaged me on Teams that she had beat my best score on Quizlet study games
- A student who worked hard and was able to improve his grade
- I visited China with EC students and parents, and after the trip was over, we all wanted to have a trip reunion party.
The list could go on. I don’t think I could settle on the greatest success for now since my teaching will go on.
Q: Explain your experience with a particular teaching strategy or technology.
I started to use GoFormative for quizzes and tests during remote learning. When we first started remote learning, I experienced problems with my audio, stylus pen or speaker, and I was frustrated in the beginning since I could not give a traditional paper quiz or test to my students with everything digital. It took me a while to navigate and create quizzes or tests the way I want, but eventually I was able to with GoFormative.
Q: If I walked into your classroom on a typical afternoon, what would I see going on?
During remote learning in one of my typical Chinese classes, everyone will be on Teams. I don’t lecture more than 30 minutes each class. Classes include speaking, writing, reading, it all depends on the lessons. You may hear me lecturing, I put all my lesson notes on PPTs. It depends on the lesson, but I may lecture or we could watch a short video together, learn a new song, practice writing Chinese characters or students could record or video themselves speaking Chinese. At the end of class, I usually dismiss students by having them type a sentence or short phrase that relates to the daily lesson. Then students finish their asynchronous work until the class time is over and can ask for my help through Team Chat.
If you have questions for Jing, you can reach her at jshen@eastsidecatholic.org.